Amazon FBA Is anyone else doing it?

[dogteam]

Further to how bad the rip-off is in Canada....just mailed a book today. Sold a book that I bought for $2, for $35. Not too bad, right? Well...
Amazon charges the buyer $6.49 for shipping, and adds that to my "profit"....then charges me their fee...$6.98. Er....OK.
Cheapest Postage in Canada for a book that weight...$17.00. So $15.51 out of the deal. Minus time spent and gas to the post office, and packaging.
Once again, I'm going to have dump the lower end books I have listed, and raise the prices on the rest.
Sold an out of print paperback last month for $140, have to look for more stuff like that.
You boys in the US have it very good with your postal rates.

 

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[jerseyben]

Further to how bad the rip-off is in Canada....just mailed a book today. Sold a book that I bought for $2, for $35. Not too bad, right? Well...
Amazon charges the buyer $6.49 for shipping, and adds that to my "profit"....then charges me their fee...$6.98. Er....OK.
Cheapest Postage in Canada for a book that weight...$17.00. So $15.51 out of the deal. Minus time spent and gas to the post office, and packaging.
Once again, I'm going to have dump the lower end books I have listed, and raise the prices on the rest.
Sold an out of print paperback last month for $140, have to look for more stuff like that.
You boys in the US have it very good with your postal rates.

Are you talking about shipping a book from Canada to the US?

 

[dogteam]

Are you talking about shipping a book from Canada to the US?

Nope, that's within Canada.
I'd have to mortgage the house to ship to the US. Maddening, because I know the same book would only cost a few bucks to ship from the US to Canada, using exactly the same resources....

 

[Eagle101]

Holy crap that sucks!!! We have a media mail shipping option in which the most you usually pay for a heavy book is around $3.50 or so. I know they have the FBA option in Canada. Would that work out better to let them ship your books? I'm just asking because it cost me around .23 cents per pound to ship my items to Amazon and then they do the shipping after it sells...

 

[dogteam]

Holy crap that sucks!!! We have a media mail shipping option in which the most you usually pay for a heavy book is around $3.50 or so. I know they have the FBA option in Canada. Would that work out better to let them ship your books? I'm just asking because it cost me around .23 cents per pound to ship my items to Amazon and then they do the shipping after it sells...

I guess I should check into it. My stuff is pretty slow moving, I just figured the monthly fees for storage would kill me....but I haven't really looked into it very closely. How you you ship your stuff?

 

[Eagle101]

I just got my monthly storage fee. $17.24 for 1375+ books, games, toys and puzzles. It comes out to a little more than a penny a month per item. It's a non factor...

 

[dogteam]

I just got my monthly storage fee. $17.24 for 1375+ books, games, toys and puzzles. It comes out to a little more than a penny a month per item. It's a non factor...

Wow, I guess not, at that level! I'll have to take a closer look! Mind if I ask your Amazon store name so I can see what kind of stuff you put up?
What are the tax implications? Amazon Canada is very limited compared to the US, it's primarily books ...

 

[Eagle101]

It's Eagle101

 

[RW]

I am becoming sold on the idea of FBA and getting the ball rolling. Got my assumed name squared today and also bought the dot.com just in case... Been needing to get a Tax ID for my antiquing side business for years so that will take care of it for both. Still not sure if I will need a business bank account and plan on using Amazon Visa for everything related to keep things simple. I looked for apps that allow you to scan products and check the FBA prices while on the hunt. Didn't seem to work but I assume you have to have an FBA account to activate the apps? Excited to get it going but what happens to your merchandise if you decide to quit the program? They send it back? Forfeit? Thanks again for the info and lighting the fire.

 

[Eagle101]

I bought a pda scanner when I started for $200 and signed up for scoutpal I barely used it because it was a pain in the butt. I only use the amazon flow app and it's free. No scanning bar codes etc. Just scan the front cover. Make sure when you scan the book don't just trust the price that comes up. If it comes up at say $50 click on the other buying options because it could be 1 person selling it for $50 and 250 people selling it for .01 with 3.99 shipping. I ran into that problem a lot when I started. It takes some trial and error to start out.

As far as not wanting to do it anymore. You can have Amazon destroy your products(at no cost) or ship them back to you...

 

[Eagle101]

The amazon flow app you don't need an fba account. But most of the other apps and scanners you need an fba account. I know the profit bandit app you don't need an account.

 

[RW]

Thanks EagleSPACE101 haha! I finally found you on Amazon, they don't make it easy to locate a seller. As far as the $50 or 1 penny plus shipping goes, I plan to use the FBA prices for the determination of buying anything. Well I am out the door to hit some garage sales before heading in to work at the antique mall today. Plenty of opportunities to keep my eyes peeled today. Thanks again for all of the tips!

 

[silverwing]

I've been doing it a little for the past six months or so. Started out with $50 worth of merch and just this week I am sending in $600 worth. I mostly use the Amazon seller app for scanning things, although I am trying other scanner apps to see if there's one I like enough to pay for. I currently just use my phone and it's camera, but I think it's time I start looking into a Bluetooth barcode scanner to speed things up.

 

[Paleo_joe]

Thank you everyone for the great information!!

 

[Eagle101]

No problem. If anyone else has any hints or tricks about fba please post them. I'm always looking to open up to anything new or make things easier.

 

[treasurekidd]

I just started my own Amazon book store, and am still in the process of building an initial inventory and getting it all listed. So far I've been able to pick up quite a few good books, and almost all of them free. I'm looking mainly for non-fiction stuff - biographies, self help, how to, photography, textbooks, medical, small business, finance and investing, religion, politics, etc, etc. Staying away from fiction for now.

I'm not going the FBA route yet, but am looking at it for down the road. Thanks for the Amazon Flow app tip, I was using Pick2Shop, but wanted another app to compare it to.

Question - how long did it take you to start getting orders? Thanks again!

 

[Eagle101]

Let's say you ship out your inventory on Monday. It usually arrives and gets scanned in by Wednesday. Then it all depends on what your selling but I always end up selling immediately.

 

[JustinNH]

Yeah, I'm new but both shipments Ihave sent in (and same goes for each warehouse receipt) I've had sales within an hour or so. Depends on the sales rank, of course, but it can be super quick

 

[treasurekidd]

Well, I got my first order today, so it's off to the races. Selling used books looks to be a low margin game, so I'm going to have to build volume for it to be worth it for me. I told myself I'd be patient and give it at least a year though, so we'll have plenty of time to see if it takes off or not.

Thanks again for the tips, and good selling!

 

[RW]

Just checking in... Got my DBA, Tax ID, Business Account and waiting on internationally chargeable credit card any day so I can sign up with FBA. Have a little inventory but still not sure how to qualify for categories or how many I can have so holding back...