In August 2007, I started selling parts of my DVD collection on the Amazon Marketplace. It’s been a generally positive experience, so I thought I’d share some points to consider for anyone else thinking about doing the same in the new year, whether it’s for DVDs or books or anything else that’s been accumulating in their house over the years.

Sell On AmazonUse Delicious Library. If you’re a Mac user, this is a Must Get. Not only does it do a nifty job in helping you catalog your DVD, book, and video game collections, but it also automates the process of selling them on the Amazon Marketplace. Just click on the item you wish to sell, and go to the drop down box at the bottom of the window that leads to “Sell on Amazon.com” (Minor Usability aside: That location for a drop down box is highly inconvenient and a nuisance.)

The key here is that you’ll be selling the right thing. So long as you’re entering items by scanning in their bar codes, you’ll be sure to list the right item. This can be tricky with certain DVDs that have been released in three or four different packagings. If you get the item listed correctly the first time, it will save you expensive refunds later down the line, not to mention your approval ratings.

List it all! Amazon charges you nothing to list an item. They only charge you if it sells. So list everything. Charge high prices you don’t think anyone will pay. You can always go back later and adjust the prices. Items stay listed for 60 days. After that, you get a nice e-mail from Amazon with a link that will help you automatically relist the item for another 60 days for free. This is the big selling point on the Marketplace as opposed to eBay.

Approval Ratings are nice. Keep it highly positive. The Amazon Marketplace is not that different from eBay that way. I always print out the “Label and Packing List” page to include as a receipt in each package. I’ll write a quick thanks and sign that receipt, as well, which one or two of my reviewers have mentioned they liked. That personal touch can be handy on the internet.

Price your item at the proper point. When you list an item, Amazon tells you what the lowest price listed for it is at the moment. Don’t just underbid that number and call it a day. There will be plenty of copies of that same item at that low price point, give or take a buck. But every now and then, there’s one outlier pricer who is trying to undercut the competition for a quick sell. There’s nothing wrong with that, mind you. Be on the look out for it, though. If ten people are selling an item for $10 and one person lists his for $5, undercutting the $5 price point won’t be helping yourself. You might want to undercut the $10 price point, instead. If one price is $5, and everyone else is between $6 and $7, then you’ll probably want to be in the low-$6.00 range.

You do want to be listed on the front page. When a user clicks on “More Buying Choices,” odds are they won’t click past the first page of listings. Don’t price it so high that they never see your listing without scrolling down a bunch of times or, even worse, having to click through to the next page.

Send the item quickly. The rules of the Amazon Marketplace state that you have two days to ship an item. Don’t count Sunday or major holidays in that, but do respect it. You’ll also get positive feedback from users who receive an item quickly. I got one from a user who got his item two days after he ordered it. Timing is everything.

Check your Amazon Marketplace home page daily. Yes, Amazon will send you an e-mail whenever an item sells. However, e-mails get lost along the way. Spam filters block them sometimes. Since you only have two days to ship an item after the purchaser pays for it, that last day or two between checks can be killer.

Don’t send items out right away. Yes, this directly contradicts everything I just said, but it’s within reason. Don’t go past two days before shipping something. But if you can wait that extra day to ship an item (i.e. day TWO instead of day ONE), another item might sell. The last thing you want to do is go to the post office on your lunch break every day. Save yourself some trips and gas money. One thing you’ll learn over time is that someone will always buy something off your Marketplace within hours of your return from the post office. C’est la vie.

Amazon Shipping is a Very Good Thing. This is almost not nice to admit, but I profit off most of the shipping fees. Amazon collects $2.99 for each purchase. A single DVD in a bubble envelope mailer will run between $1.98 and $2.25. I buy envelopes in bulk, off a seller on eBay. They wind up costing me about 15 cents a pop. So I’m making a half a buck or more on each purchase. I tell myself that my DVD prices are lower by that amount and live with myself. If I were selling onesie-twosies, then I wouldn’t make any profit, because I’d be spending money at CVS buying the envelopes for a buck or more each. There’s profit to be made in volume selling.

That said, I did have a recent TV series boxed set that cost $3.15 to ship first class. I could have sent it for cheaper, I guess, but I’ll take the couple dime loss on that part and call it a day. I like getting the product to the user inside of a week, thanks. Media Mail doesn’t do that so nicely.

Refund Amazon Shipping in one and one case only: Multiple orders from the same person at the same time. Combine those orders into one package. Refund the user the difference. It’s not necessary. It’s just good kharma.

You get your money sooner. If you’re an Amazon Associate with links on your blog, you know the pain of waiting two months for Amazon to pay off on your credits there. Amazon Marketplace works within the month. You can take your money in Amazon credit or bank transfer. I use Amazon credits. All the money stays in my hobbies/play time.

Amazon tells you how much you’ll make. When you list an item, the confirmation page tells you exactly how much money you’ll receive. This is huge. It takes all the guess work out of your selling strategies. Amazon charges a flat 99 cent transaction fee for each sale, plus a percentage of the final price.

Amazon Marketplace price breakdown

An example: A $20 DVD with $3 shipping charge will get you $18.19, after Amazon fees, out of which you’ll pay about $2 in shipping. So that $20 sale nets you $16. That’s a big bite, granted, but it’s worth it for the convenience. If I had to go through eBay, I’d probably never list anything. And without Amazon’s hugely trafficked store front, I doubt anyone would see my DVDs for sale.

A $5 DVD with $3 shipping charges lands you $5.44, of which you’ll wind up spending $2 in shipping. So, your net (not including envelope) is $3.44. Now you see why I don’t bother listing anything for less than $5. That’s my line in the sand where the effort becomes too much to be worth selling. Some DVDs are listed for pennies. That’s too much energy for me to spend for the return.

Link to your listings. That’s what blogs are for! Don’t forget to include your Amazon Associates ID for maximum earning potential.

If you have any questions or suggestions, use the comments below! Thanks, and good luck!

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