Johnny Cash once sang, “Don’t take your guns to town.” Well, for years and years, I have sold a few books on that 800 pound gorilla of selling stuff. However, from time to time, I have lost money by selling items there. Why? Because shipping is a uniform $3.99 for the customer, but USPS media mail fees start above $4, rising if the item weighs more than a pound or two. Also, big A always assesses a commission. So, old books must be priced high or the seller loses money.
Recently, I sold three books via big A and one via eBay. I got $6 and change in my bank account from eBay, but I got a charge on my credit card for $12 and change from big A, but nothing in my bank account. Will I eventually get a payment from Big A, which began as a sales platform for books? Probably, but in the mean time, I have to pay them. As a business plan, this sucks.
I hated to do it, but I spent a while removing all of my listings from big A. I’ve always wanted to put books into the hands of people who want them, rather than just dumping them on a charity. Because buyers begin there, it seemed to be the place to list them, but that is more work than boxing them up! Giving them away would seem to be a better plan, unless I resist them elsewhere.
Many people begin and end their search for a book with big A, but I urge customers to look at eBay or Pango or other vendors for vintage books. New books might be a different matter, but when it comes to used, big A isn’t a great place for sellers, so buyers will have to pay more. It’s just business.
Sometimes, we forget what we could have had for free. I just talked to a business associate who lost her semester-long research writing due to a computer hard drive issue. Even the Geek Squad couldn’t retrieve her data. And, like many of us, she had access to cloud storage at school, included in her fees. Had she merely saved it a few times along the way, she wouldn’t have to start from scratch. Sad….
