- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Yesterday, I went to a church rummage sale. As I was scouring the place looking for overlooked treasures, I saw a gentleman with his PDA / barcode scanner in the book section. As I was doing my own visual scanning of the clothing, shoes, toys, jackets, electronics, books, and sporting goods sections (which took about 25 minutes), I noticed the man was still scanning. He literally went and scanned EVERY SINGLE BOOK that had a barcode. There were several hundred books and he was still scanning as I was paying for my purchases.
At that point, I had an epiphany. I will never be that type of scavenger. I cannot think of a more boring task than repetitively scanning all the books at a sale. Maybe you can make more money doing that than being a purveyor of used junk, but personally I’d rather work in an office doing data entry. It takes no skill, nor creativity, nor any specialized knowledge. Just time and effort. I take joy in learning new items to look for to sell on eBay. I’m not sure what joy you can get from scanning hundreds of barcodes.
I do sell on Amazon and I will scan a few books, but I first use my actual eyes to read the titles, look at the covers, and pick those that look the most obscure and potentially profitable. The brute force method holds little appeal to me. Anyway, that was random but I thought I’d post it anyway. Does anyone agree or disagree?
-
Was it an old man ? IF so maybe he’s retired and doesn’t mind spending all the time scanning books.
I still sell lots of books on amazon, but its mostly textbooks, religious books, and obscure books (like dungeons and dragons gaming books). Also, since amazon has raised fees I believe for selling thru FBA you need to sell at a min price of $7.50 to break even. (if you have a pro account it would be $6.50) with fees that high you can’t really sell mass market paperbacks and turn a profit.
I think the book scanners are usually people who just entered the amazon selling market and watched some video(s) on youtoobe to get started. They will learn soon enough that scanning rows and rows of books is not going to make them any money or they will give up completely.
(I have also seen music CD scanners) -
I think it can be really challenging to sell different items. There is a lot of work that goes into selling in the first place, but when you have a variety of items it increases the effort and time needed to sell and make a profit. It is recommended that when you sell you have a niche. For some, the niche is very specific which allows them to find the most efficient method(a scanner) to sell that niche. For others, the niche is a little broader and may require more research, tools, time, and effort. For some, their niche is selling a broad spectrum. I think it is really based on the person, their interests, and their comfort level.
On another note, with the continued push toward e reading, there may be some books whose value climbs because they may become harder and harder to find in hardcopy or may be historical in nature with only a few copies out there which can bring big money. Unfortunately, with the advancement of technology and e readers, soft and hardcover books have and continue to loose value everyday which is why we have seen chain bookstores close.
-
I really love this “amazon epiphany”. You clearly state the feeling we had as we were in the middle of our FBA experiment. Walking around Walmart and scanning the clearance section was the most boring thing we’ve done as scavengers.
I understand that some people love to sell in a niche because of the limits and deep knowledge they accumulate. They can really know the prices for items. When you go to a place to buy, you can just focus on one area so its not so overwhelming.
But we love the variety because it keeps us from burning out. It feels more creative to wander around everything for sale finding items that look interesting. Its exciting to learn about new items. The brute force method of scanning everything just isnt for us.
-
-
The guy was in poor health (very overweight) and was probably in his late 50s. He had a PDA with the scanner attachment on top, which made me think he wasn’t just a total newb to Amazon. He looked so thoroughly bored by the process that I’m sure he’s been in the game a while.
Looked like he had pulled maybe 5 or 6 books to purchase.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.