by Rae Lynne Morvay

Created on: March 22, 2008   Last Updated: February 02, 2009

When comes to selling used book I speak with a great deal of experience. I have had an on-line book selling business for about 7 years now. People always ask me if it is a good way to make money. I have to be honest and say it is not as good as it used to be and if you are not willing to put your whole heart and effort in to it you will not be able to make it.

That is not to say that you shouldn't try to sell your own books that you don't want any more to make a little extra money, by all means do that. Remember that each on line site you try to sell through will have some kind of fee or commission. Some charge money upfront for listing, some charge a monthly fee, some charge straight commission and some require both. I will give you as much information as I can about the most popular on line book selling sites.

Many on line sites can be quite costly for the casual seller. Especially if they charge a monthly fee plus commission. Amazon will allow you to list items for free, however when the items sell you will be charged a set fee plus a commission.

Depending on how much you list the book for you could end up making very little. For people like me who have a large inventory there is an option of paying $39.99 fee per month. On top of this I pay a 15% commission. But by paying the $39.99 set monthly fee I don't have to pay an additional fee per book. The additional fee per book is .99. I still have to pay the 15% however. So if you think about this if I only sell 40 books per month I am paying .99 for each book that sells, plus 15%. The fee for people who do not pay the $39.99 a month it will cost me that additional .99 per book. As you can see .99 per book plus a commision fee would mean you make very little on each book. But if you pay the subscription fee of $39.99 you will end up paying less of a fee per book for every book you sell over 40 books. So if you sell 80 books per month you will only be paying .50 per book, and so on.

My goal each month is to sell at least 160 books per month, hopefully I will sell more. But I like to think that I am holding my fees down to .25 per book or less. So as you can see unless you have books with a rather high value or a lot of books to sell, it might not be that profitable for you to sell there. Shipping is paid for by the customer, and the shipping money you are given is a set amount, so if you a really heavy book to mail you will end up having to pay money out of your pocket to mail it. Most books fall within the range,

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