Secondhand London: selling not buying

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I'm feeling a bit weighed down by all my stuff at the moment, and I'm thinking I might like to sell a few huge piles of books, CDs, and perhaps DVDs. I could ebay everything, but that'd take a lot of effort. I'd rather just take a couple of huge bags full of stuff into a shop somewhere and have them give me a handful of cash in return.

So, does anyone know any secondhand book or record shops in london that give especially good prices for things? Is Notting Hill my best bet, or are there other similar-but-less-stingy stores in other places? Does anyone do this on a regular basis? Is it actually worth making the effort to ebay (or sell online some other way) things, will I get significantly more money out of that?

(I know that to some extent this depends on what it is I'm selling, but assume it's just random and non-exclusive tat, on the whole).

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

If you don't need to get rid of things immediately, I can't recommend selling on Amazon highly enough, especially CDs and DVDs, because they're lightweight and cheap to ship. I've averaged $17 per sale over the last year, and you're not going to get that selling back to book and record stores.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

Absolutly - you'll get maybe £1-2 selling CDs to a second-hand shop? Amazon is SOO the way to go with selling CDs and DVDs, and I assume books as well.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

Wow, you've pretty much convinced me already then. Ace, thanks! Heh, that was a short thread. :)

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

yeh i third Amazon marketplace.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

Warning -- books can be a much harder and slower slog of it. I listed 200 books six months ago, and only sell one about every two weeks.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

i keep meaning to do this too, except that i haven't even got round to ripping the cds yet. selling cds or books to shops is definitely not the way forward, anyway, they'll give you pennies.

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

I don't rip or burn until I get the "Sold, Ship Now" email. The day I sold 9 CDs and had my paying job to deal with was pretty busy.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

The great thing with selling on Ebay is every once in a while something unexpectedly goes for a WTF amount of money. Some things won't sell at all though, so what I usually do is attempt to sell everything on Ebay and then take the non-sellers to a shop where they'll give me peanuts for them and if they don't take them they go to a charity shop.

Notting Hill/Soho/etc Exchanges pay the lowest prices I've ever encountered, btw.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

The hard bit is going to be setting my prices, I guess...it's not too bad if you're just competing with other used items that are already on there, but how much should I charge for my spare, mint condition copy of this, for example? I'll bet I've got loads of obscure cds that are in the same category...

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

If you can't get comparable prices from Froogle or Addall, obv. start high or higher and see if the marketplace was desperately waiting for your item. One Amazon seller's rule of thumb is to start an unknown quantity at $1000 and reduce the price by a fixed percentage each week that it doesn't sell. (I was thinking it was 10%, but that sounds too high. Whatever the percentage is, after one year it left his item at about $10 — if it still hasn't sold by then, he donates it to a library and takes the tax break.)

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

The great thing with selling on Ebay is every once in a while something unexpectedly goes for a WTF amount of money.

Very true. Earlier this year I managed to pay for the holiday we were just departing for, with one CD sale. I expected it to go high, but not the WTF!!! highness.

With albums, basically, start them low with a 'fair' price for post and packing, and if you make £1 at least, then you should break even overall.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

We've had some good luck selling books on Amazon recently - I think because the holidays are coming up. eBay is not so good for selling day-to-day bestsellers, unless you have something "collectible".

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

Sheesh, selling stuff on amazon is going really well! I've been up and running for maybe 5 days now, I've sold 20 cds and made £135. Got another 121 items already uploaded and waiting to sell through, plus a pretty huge chunk of my collection which I still haven't put up there yet. And that's before I even start on DVDs and videogames. Raa! So yeah, thanks again for the tip off guys.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

Are you undercutting the lowest prices on items?

This is a good time of year for sales. The day after Thanksgiving I went from a couple of sales per week to one or two per day. Today I've had four CDs sell. Last week I sold a cheap paperback about a Mafia hitman for a hundred bucks.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

I'm mostly undercutting, yeah. Only pricing higher if the lower priced stock that's already there sounds to be in significantly worse condition than mine. The nice ones are the obscure mid 90s techno and hip hop bits and pieces I've got, which nobody else seems to have any more, so I'm getting to set stupidly high prices. But...sold a fairly scratched (ironically) copy of DJ Shadow + Cut Chemist's Brainfreeze today for £20, within about 5 hours of listing it, and immediately worried that I should've been asking for twice as much.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

I've made $300-$400 more over the last year than I would have if I'd undercut low prices. I'm not militant about it like some 3P sellers are, but I'm just sayin'.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

What's 3P?

I'm gradually getting more confident about pricing higher, it's true. But at the same time, getting cash quickly is a bit of a priority at the moment, so I guess I'm pulling in both directions. Still, I've spent the last 5 years working in retail analysis, so hopefully my gut instincts about when to price high and when to flog off cheap are fairly well honed.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

3P = 3rd party (ie, A'zon Marketplace sellers). Another bit of jargon: "Selling on the River."

hahaha, I had absolutely no retail analysis experience, I'm just greedy.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

Are you undercutting the lowest prices on items?

U&K, Jim. Check your seller account regularly - daily, if possible - and make sure your price is 50p lower than the lowest price of a product in similar condition.

Mind, you, it seems most people never even look at the "condition" section of the listing, or the description - they just buy the cheapest one, and *then* leave negative feedback without checking their facts or emailing the seller, resulting in the seller having his account closed forever, no returns. NOT THAT I'M FUCKING BITTER OR ANYTHING.

So, uh, beware of that.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 5 December 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

i *must* get on with this. maybe this afternoon, if i can write my research proposal this morning. there are several hundred cds next door just waiting for me to list them...

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 10:16 (twenty years ago)

hey, maybe someone could be really lovely and list my CDs for me, and then i could poast them all as usual?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 5 December 2005 10:33 (twenty years ago)

woo, 50 items up so far! this is easy, i should have done it ages ago... what's the best way to ship cheaply - is there an obvious place to bulk-buy padded envelopes?

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

Are you in the US? I used to buy #0 size padded mailers at Sam's in boxes of 25 for about 15 cents per, but I'm trying to cut the Wal-Mart corp. out of my life, so I need a new source.

Don't undercut!

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

I got cd sized jiffy bags from rymans in packs of 5, £1.70ish per pack, I think. I can probably find them cheaper if I bother to walk more than 5 minutes from my flat though. And as far as I can tell, as long as you write "small packet" in the top corner, postage for pretty much all cds (maybe excluding doubles) is 42p.

most people never even look at the "condition" section of the listing, or the description - they just buy the cheapest one, and *then* leave negative feedback

Hmm, this is a bit of a worry. I'm rubbish at looking after cds, so most of my stuff is in medium-shoddy condition - they're all in the "disc scuffed but plays fine" category, which I've been honest about (and which is also why I tend to price low), but yeah, if people then start complaining about condition, that'll be annoying.

Toby, we should swap zshop addresses (assuming you went for the pro-seller subscription) and see whether there's any swaps we want to do!

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and rymans were doing 5 5-packs for the price of 4 too.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

Toby, we should swap zshop addresses (assuming you went for the pro-seller subscription) and see whether there's any swaps we want to do!

hmm, i didn't even look at this - what are the advantages? i imagine it's not too late for me to change...

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

ah, right, i see - it's going to depend on whether or not i'm going to sell 30 items/month. does having a zshop give you any kind of advantage?

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:47 (twenty years ago)

if people then start complaining about condition, that'll be annoying.

annoying ain't the half of it. until it actually happened to me, i had no idea that Amazon actually SHUT YOU DOWN if your feedback goes below a certain (undefined) level...

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

I was going to sell some new books I've got, but pro sellers are offering the same one for 1p. How do they manage this? And ... I don't have a hope of selling mine, do I?

― Mädchen (Madchen), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

Pro Merchant perks: Access to bulk uploading of inventory, not having to relist items every 90 days, ability to download an Excel file of all "Buyer Waiting" items, a few other perks. The downside of not having to relist items every 90 days is that I sort of lose touch with where my item is priced in relation to the pack. I switched to Pro Merchant in June when my work schedule got too busy to recheck prices and relist 1000 items of inventory, and I've stayed with it even though I don't sell quite enough merch for it to pay for itself. I'm a slave to convenience.

There's no way to compete with penny sellers. They've got it down to a fine art, and make their money dealing in volume (hundreds of books per day), finding nearly-free stock, and keeping their shipping costs under the Amazon shipping allowance.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

Amazon is telling me that something I'm trying to sell is "restricted" (it's a sat nav jobby my parents have asked me to sell - anyone here want a top of the range gizmo email me off board!). That's not fair.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

FuXors did this to me too! Having successfully allowed me to sell a mobile phone for over 200 quid, they then decided that selling an mp3 player for £150 just wasn't on. Man, I hate Amazon right now.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

And as far as I can tell, as long as you write "small packet" in the top corner, postage for pretty much all cds (maybe excluding doubles) is 42p.

is that 1st class? is it acceptable to send things 2nd class? The page I found says "All sellers are required to offer standard delivery", which seems a little ambiguous to me.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

does having a zshop give you any kind of advantage?

Doesn't seem to, really. I went for pro-merchant just because they had a special offer on, and new signups before the end of november got half price subscription (ie about £14 a month) for the first 3 months.

is that 1st class?

Er, not sure, I think so.

is it acceptable to send things 2nd class?

Well, they insist on airmail for overseas orders, but yeah, they're vague about domestic stuff. So dunno.

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

damn, i really should have been quicker! oh well.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

i've had my fist sale! admittedly only a cd single that i didn't recognise for £1, but still, it's a start...

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

post your usernames here and we'll all have a flick through them...

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 5 December 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

annoyingly i don't think you can flick through mine, as i'm not a power seller...

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 5 December 2005 16:25 (twenty years ago)

My stuff's all here. At least it is in theory. Although I'd have to fiddle around a bit to make it easily browsable...it seems zshop items don't automatically categorise themselves, annoyingly. I think the best way to see what's there is just to click "see all zshop listings" then go through them. Also, it seems to take a few hours between an item appearing in the marketplace, and being listed in my zshop.

Writing buyers' addresses on envelopes is tedious, but at least it's fun to try and guess what the new owners of various cds are like in real life (eg I sold Your Arsenal to somebody called Tr1st4n S4mu3l 0v1ngt0n, haha).

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 5 December 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

So that Drummond book is actually worth £105? I often see people list things on Amazon for like £450 for a book that someone else is listing for £9.77 - what's that all about?

(and I'll sell you that Ice Hockey Hair single for £8, readers)

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 5 December 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

For Pro Merchants, www.amazon.com/shops/(name)
For non-Pro Merchants, www.amazon.com/seller/(name)

That's for the US site. I assume you could replace .com with .co.uk as needed.

It's fun to make sales to famous people. I know the addresses of a 1970s SF writer and a New Yorker staff writer! I should put the addresses to use by stalking them or something.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Monday, 5 December 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

How much are the fees on Amazon (UK) and how does it compare to ebay?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 5 December 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

86p standard plus 17.25%. But then, if you're canny with posting, you can make a whole lot back.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Monday, 5 December 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Hey Jim, or anyone else - I mentioned above that I couldn't sell this restricted item - the sat nav gizmo - on Amazon, and I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me out and sell it on my behalf, assuming you have whatever privileges are necessary. If so, would you email me off board - I'm happy to give you a cut or buy you a pint or three if you like!

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 12 December 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

57 items sold in my first week, and i'm over £100 up! nice.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 12 December 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

doing this again - we have 500 items up now! take a look!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/shops/tobygee

the thing that's made a huge difference (at least to our enjoyment) is using isight + barcode scanning.

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 8 February 2007 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

If you sell a book or cd for a penny how much do you end up with?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 8 February 2007 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

Depends how much commission Penny's prepared to pay you.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

any suggestions of places to sell the 200 or so CDs i've failed to sell anywhere else, or is it simply not worth my while? quite a lot of it is dodgy indie singles from a decade ago - any idea what MVE pay for that kind of thing?

― toby, Thursday, 7 June 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago)

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