Advice on selling Christian bookstore music stock?

[bigideas]

My folks have a Christian bookstore. Up until a few years ago they had a music section, but I guess even Christians download illegally (ha) and they found no reason to keep getting stock. They have all Christian genres and even had a decent rock section - last I checked the only SF59 left was the Compeating EP and some Switchfoot, Bleach and other stuff. My mom asked me to figure out a way to sell it all. I've bought stuff on eBay, but never sold. I don't know if I should try to sell it as one big block, by genre, group by band when they have multiple items, have no reserve price, etc.? Any advice?

[slothflyer]

I've done some selling on ebay.  the last few times though, I had pretty bad experiences.

first of all, international shipping is outrageous, even to Canada, so I wouldn't recommend you sell anywhere outside the states.  Make sure you state that on your item description.  I lost money on the two items I sold to italy and one of them took three months to get there, no kidding.

It would probably be a lot easier to sell items in related lots, but possibly less profitable.  I never sold lots, but I never had more than a dozen items to sell at a time. 

I did notice that if I set a minimum price a few bucks higher and offered free shipping, then the items would sell better, but remember, to specify that you wont sell/ship overseas.

I also recommend that you don't accept any for of payment other than paypal, because it takes way too long to get your money.

good luck

[popvoxmusic]

I think you might have more luck selling on Amazon.  That's been my experience with CD's anyway.

[music___me]

Go with Amazon. It's very quick to list items and describe them. I know because I've been a used bookseller there since 2001 and have sold thousands of books.

[bigideas]

With Amazon you can only list one at a time and that's only if it's listed, right?

I had no idea this had been responded to. I guess I forgot to check Notify.

[music___me]

If you become an Amazon pro-seller for $40 a month, you can upload a whole spreadsheet at once as long as it's in their format.

But, even if you list them one at a time, you get really good at it really quick and can list an item in under a minute.

[bigideas]

$40 would probably cut out profit for my situation.

What does Amazon get out of a sale?

[music___me]

$40 would probably cut out profit for my situation.

What does Amazon get out of a sale?

Sorry, thought you had many items for sale. If you do the pro account, they only take a percentage of the sale, if I recall, it's 15%. If you don't do the pro account, they take 15% plus 99 cents off every sale. But, keep in mind, they pay you to ship the book/CD/DVD and that payment is usually above what it actually costs to ship it.

[bigideas]

$40 would probably cut out profit for my situation.

What does Amazon get out of a sale?

Sorry, thought you had many items for sale. If you do the pro account, they only take a percentage of the sale, if I recall, it's 15%. If you don't do the pro account, they take 15% plus 99 cents off every sale. But, keep in mind, they pay you to ship the book/CD/DVD and that payment is usually above what it actually costs to ship it.

I had 90's music nostalgia a few months ago and I bought several CD's at .99 and then of course I guess 2.99 shipping or something for each. Who sets the shipping price though? It turned out my package was beyond gnarly, the worst package I've ever received. You could hear the CD cases broken parts and see inside the package on both sides. I wrote the seller and he actually just refunded my money. Luckily, the CDs themselves were not damaged.