Payment holds on new accounts are for 21 days.
I would not consider a book to be "new" unless it's absolutely pristine and has never had the spine "cracked". By that definition most books sitting on a store shelf for 6 months wouldn't be considered new.
I also have lots of books but I've not yet started to sell them, from the research I did I doubt I would use anything other than "like new" and even that only for books in pristine condition.
Of course it depends on the type of books, 99% of what I have it hardcover non-fiction, I suspect buyers of these books are a lot pickier than buyers of paperback fiction.
@jt-libra wrote:A few weeks ago, I decided to open a third selling account, just for books. Over the years, I have always given boxes of books to Goodwill, Children's Hospital, etc., but there were a few dozen that I thought I might be able to sell. While I know a lot "about" books, "selling" books is a whole new ballgame.
I did a lot of research online to learn about the edition of the book, the condition, the value and so on. Because I am so green, I found that with taking the pictures and including all the appropriate information, it was taking me a whole evening to list two books. I finally got 10 books listed, 6 of which have now ended. I stopped devoting time to that account over the last month due to family illness and Christmas.
One basic thing I am not clear about is when a book is "new" or "like new". If a book has been sitting on a shelf for several years but has never even been opened, is it considered "new"? What if it has some yellowing on the top edge from dust, is it then "like new". It doesn't really follow the specifications for "like new" as outlined by eBay:
Like New
A book that looks new but has been read. Cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket (if applicable) is included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections.
I inherited some books from a person who was more of a collector than a reader, so I know these books were never even opened, as are some of mine.
Once I gain some expertise, my goal is to focus on one or two genres of book .... spirituality, religion.
It's quite possible that this account will not be successful, and that's alright. But let's say I stopped listing, or closed the account, and I had made 3 or 4 sales. These payments would have been held back since I had not reached the minimum number of sales required, so how would I be able to retrieve this money. eBay can't hold it forever. I've never seen this question posted before.
I have a lot of questions about the sale of books, but these are the two primary ones right now.
Thanks for any input you have.
Thanks for reminding me about the 21 day hold. What I was thinking about was that being reduced if you sell a certain dollar value and have a specific number of feedback.
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/pay/payment_hold.html#avoid
New seller status ends once you've met all the following criteria:
It's been more than 90 days since your first successful sale.
You've completed more than 25 US sales transactions.
You have more than US$250 in total sales.
Local auction up here in The Capital Of The Borscht Belt, Dauphin, month or so ago. Local history books went for pricey sums. I gotta start watching for those.
Cumos55:
As we chat, I found a local auction coming up on Jan 16, with locally themed cookbooks. Several pieces of Swarovski. Those will go for too much.
Cookbooks for Ukrainian, Dauphin. Ethelbert, Gilbert Plains, etc.
What do you think?
I don't specifically sell books (although I have listed a few now and then), but I was a book collector -- and reader (yes, one of those, LOL) -- for decades, and I agree with 'femmefan' and 'cumos', that it's much better to under-sell and over-deliver than to risk creating expectations in buyers' minds that they feel haven't been met.
So I think you're far safer with "Like New". Another factor to consider with books is that I think they are more likely to sustain some sort of damage in transit, however minimal, than is the case with many items. That is, unless you're prepared to send them in boxes cradled with yards of bubble wrap.
By the way, have you solved the problem of shipping cost? I stopped selling hardcover books because the individual value didn't justify the cost of shipping, and there was no way I could offer free shipping with the heavy hardcover books I wanted to sell. It's a shame, because I think there are still interested collectors out there. As Canada Post rates climb though, unless (like 'cumos') you can carve out a specialized niche market with rare and unusual books, shipping books will continue to be a tough problem.
There is another consideration around books. The advent of e-readers and digital books has been hard on the book publishing and book selling industry. I recall hearing an interview with the CEO of Chapters who said that their business is now nearing 50% digital products -- and that was at least a year ago.
As mature collectors hit retirement age and onward, I think there will be a lot of private collections becoming available, yet younger generations may not be interested in having paper books. It's tempting not to be hauling around (or displaying or storing) large, heavy physical objects when you could put an entire library into a digital device or two. I've also noticed that Google is now developing a library of digital books -- some of which are even free! The entire world of the written page is changing in a way it hasn't for 500 years since the invention of the printing press.
Still, these are just general musings. In terms of selling a few dozen books on eBay, I think if you have books that will appeal to a particular reader segment (as you've mentioned), if you keep condition expectations in check, and you can work around the shipping issues, you should be able to at least make a little money on them.
Best of luck to you! Let us know how it goes.
P.S. I had to laugh at the story of "wallpaper books". This used to be -- until it was found out -- a favourite tactic of interior designers, i.e. to decorate a room with nicely-matched and prettily coloured spines, while at the same time making their clients feel erudite. Clearly the Bay designer in question didn't get the memo with the "tackiness alert". 
@rose-dee wrote:I don't specifically sell books (although I have listed a few now and then), but I was a book collector -- and reader (yes, one of those, LOL) -- for decades, and I agree with 'femmefan' and 'cumos', that it's much better to under-sell and over-deliver than to risk creating expectations in buyers' minds that they feel haven't been met.
So I think you're far safer with "Like New". Another factor to consider with books is that I think they are more likely to sustain some sort of damage in transit, however minimal, than is the case with many items. That is, unless you're prepared to send them in boxes cradled with yards of bubble wrap.
By the way, have you solved the problem of shipping cost? I stopped selling hardcover books because the individual value didn't justify the cost of shipping, and there was no way I could offer free shipping with the heavy hardcover books I wanted to sell. It's a shame, because I think there are still interested collectors out there. As Canada Post rates climb though, unless (like 'cumos') you can carve out a specialized niche market with rare and unusual books, shipping books will continue to be a tough problem.
There is another consideration around books. The advent of e-readers and digital books has been hard on the book publishing and book selling industry. I recall hearing an interview with the CEO of Chapters who said that their business is now nearing 50% digital products -- and that was at least a year ago.
As mature collectors hit retirement age and onward, I think there will be a lot of private collections becoming available, yet younger generations may not be interested in having paper books. It's tempting not to be hauling around (or displaying or storing) large, heavy physical objects when you could put an entire library into a digital device or two. I've also noticed that Google is now developing a library of digital books -- some of which are even free! The entire world of the written page is changing in a way it hasn't for 500 years since the invention of the printing press.
Still, these are just general musings. In terms of selling a few dozen books on eBay, I think if you have books that will appeal to a particular reader segment (as you've mentioned), if you keep condition expectations in check, and you can work around the shipping issues, you should be able to at least make a little money on them.
Best of luck to you! Let us know how it goes.
P.S. I had to laugh at the story of "wallpaper books". This used to be -- until it was found out -- a favourite tactic of interior designers, i.e. to decorate a room with nicely-matched and prettily coloured spines, while at the same time making their clients feel erudite. Clearly the Bay designer in question didn't get the memo with the "tackiness alert".
rose-dee, you make some very good points. With respect to the shipping costs, I considered this several years ago when I contemplated selling books, but felt they were too prohibitive and still are, in many cases. So my intent was to list a few so-so books at first, with a reasonable shipping cost, which may or may not draw attention, but it was more for practice. And I didn`t expect, nor did I get, any sales, but I did get quite a few views. I haven`t relisted the ones which have ended because I really need to devote more time than I have right now. (As an aside, a few weeks ago, I posted that my brother suffered a massive stroke shortly after arriving in Thailand where he spends the winters. He`s still in Intensive Care in their hospital and there has been little improvement. This has been worrisome, as you can imagine, and it`s a bad time to begin a new venture).
My goal is to focus on the spiritual, meditative, religious genre of books and I have spotted a couple of likely sources. I`m hoping that I will be able to find enough interesting books that would warrant a higher shipping cost.
I agree that the number of actual hands-on book readers is declining. As a matter of interest, though, when I opened my media account four years ago, I thought I would have difficulty selling Blu-rays, DVD`s and CD`s in this day and age, since they are available digitally at every turn .... and there are thousands of sellers of these items. Surprisingly, sales continue to grow and have now far surpassed my health and beauty account. This past year, my sales are triple that of my cosmetics and skin care and the last two months have been fabulous. Among many lesser-priced sales, I sold three DVD`s, single disc, older TV movies, for $75 - $90 US.
I guess you could say I doubled my potential customer base, now consisting of men and women, and, over time, I`ve learned what people are looking for. While I have a few new releases, I`m always looking for the older, out of print DVD`s and CD`s, the hard to find ones, and the imported ones. I know of a seller in Quebec who sells only new release TV series and movies, ships within Canada only, and sells several thousand items a year. So there still is a market. For how much longer, we can only guess.
By the way, how many centimeters did you get in the last storm?
