I’ve been asked a few times how I go about deciding whether to list a book on Amazon, as an eBay auction, or put it in my eBay store. What follows are some general guidelines that I use when making a decision regarding where I will place a book I’ve just purchased.

For the purpose of this post, I’ll be talking only about single books and not those I might buy to sell as a lot. I’ll also be talking only about non-fiction because 99% of the books I buy fall into that category. Additionally, as a general rule, I’m willing to spend $1.00 or less for any book that appears to have the potential of selling for $20.00 or more, unless there’s a valid reason not to.

The process actually begins before I actually buy a book and by the time I’ve paid for the book I often already have a pretty good idea of where I’m going to place it, although that may change by the time I list it.

If I’m at a venue where the competition for books is heavy, such as a FOL or AAUW book sale, I don’t use ScoutPal. I buy based upon the $1.00/20.00 rule mentioned above. In a slower paced environment such as a thrift shop, if a book I’m interested in has an ISBN it gets checked via ScoutPal. If the lowest used price is $20.00 or more, I buy the book. If there is no ISBN, I apply the $1.00/20.00 rule. At this point, based upon the subject of the book, and whether it has an ISBN or not, I pretty much know where it will end up, but each book will be re-assessed before listing it.

Before listing each book I first look at the subject of the book, how large it’s interest base probably is, and . Those with about very focused topics and those with small base of potential buyers, will normally end up on Amazon if I can list them there, or if not, then in my eBay store. Usually, if a one of these books gets listed on Amazon, I will double list it in the eBay store also at a price a little lower than what I set for it on Amazon.

An example of one of these books would be one I currently have listed on Amazon and in my eBay store titled 100 years of histochemistry in Germany. Very focused subject matter and probably not many people interested in owning a copy. When I bought the book there were none listed on Amazon, Biblio, Albris, Addall, Bookfinder, or eBay. If I put it up at auction on eBay it probably wouldn’t sell, or if it did, it would be for a small amount. I chose to list it on Amazon for $249.99 and in my eBay store for the same price with a best offer option. Since I paid $0.25 for the book, I’m happy to let it sit for a year or two before it sells.

If the book’s subject is more general, and I feel it would have a larger audience, I check to see what the lowest price and it’s popularity rating is on Amazon. I then use eBay’s Marketplace research tool to see if it’s sold, and for what amount, on eBay in the last three months. If I find I can reasonably expect to get within $10 to $15 of the Amazon price on eBay, I will list on eBay as an auction. If there’s a larger disparity between expected prices, it goes on Amazon.

An example of this would be a book titled Searchings by Barbara Bordnick. I purchased two of them at a thrift shop for $1.00 each. ScoutPal had told me there were two on Amazon with the lowest one priced at $75.00. When I checked eBay, one had been listed on eBay in the last three months, and sold for a little over $15.oo. This was a coffee table sized book of mostly photographs of flowers and gardens, and I had a hard time believing one would pay anywhere near $75 on eBay. I put them both on Amazon at $67.99 thinking, at $1 each, they could sit there for some time if need be. Both sold within a week.

Other times, the opposite is true. A book that can be bought for pennies on Amazon will regularly sell for $20 or more on eBay. In that case it gets listed as an auction on eBay.

In most cases, if the book is older and doesn’t have an ISBN, it gets listed on eBay. In this case, I usually list it as an auction first simply because I’d rather turn it quick and reinvest the money in something else. If it doesn’t sell at auction, I’ll put it in the store at a price I’m comfortable selling it for. This price is usually at least $10 or $20 higher than my auction starting price was.

I buy quite a few current textbooks and I always list these on Amazon.

There are always some books that it turns out aren’t worth listing on either venue. This is particularly true in the case of those from a book sale where using ScoutPal would slow me down too much, and I was just buying on instinct and gut feeling. With these, I box them up, put them in the garage until Arlene has her next garage sale and they go into the sale priced at $1 a book.

Anything left after her sale is boxed up again, and when I have two or three boxes, I take them with me when I go on a buying trip. I find a thrift shop in a small town I’m driving through and donate them there. that way, hopefully, I won’t be tempted to buy them again locally, and they don’t clog of the shelves of the local thrift shops or book sales.

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