1. This is possible to do internationally, but you'll have to enlist a prep center to receive and ship your books for you. A very popular prep center for international book flippers is Little Owl (I believe they charge around $2-$3 per book? Not sure because I haven't used them).
2. It's true that most regular textbooks will only be selling in August / January and stacking books until those months is a viable strategy, but there are plenty of textbooks / non-fiction books that have enough sales velocity for you to flip year round - they just require more effort to find.
Many thanks for your reply. I actually got started and got myself a Keeper license.
During my research I've found some books which I think have potential - let's take ISBN: 0412606100 for example...
I think its good because:
1. During peak season, the sales rank could dip below 200,000,
2. Relatively high price (More than $40 for used)
3. Based on Keeper data I can get it used for under $30 (During peak season, Used can sell for $70)
One thing I'm stuck on is how to price it. All of the price data I've found on Amazon is for non-prime shipping. If I were to offer Prime, how much of a premium can I add on to it?
1. Not a fan of this book because looking at the graph, it only sells around 20-30 times in a single year. You want to go for books that are constantly selling because otherwise you could be holding on to inventory for months, it's better to flip a book for 50% ROI 3 times in a month than waiting 2 months to get a single 150% ROI flip.
2. It is a little disappointing that Keepa doesn't track data for used FBA items, but usually you just want to be the lowest FBA price so you can sell your stuff quickly. This can vary by book, but a good rule of thumb is that you can expect to price somewhere between the current Used price for non-FBA and the current New price non-FBA. Again, it's better to look at the current prices for each individual book but usually you want to sell the book for double the price you purchased it at.
thanks for writing these! Per your recommendation I got Jarek Lewis's course, watched it, started searching for books. Getting Seller Account and Prep Center set up now.
One question: A lot of these books don't seem to sell much outside of busy season, where they sell at like 3x of current prices. Jarek recommends ignoring these, but doesn't really go into why. Maybe because there'd be risk of not getting them sold? It seems like a good deal outside of that risk
EDIT: Nvm, you kinda answered this another comment
Unless the sales rank is really good I would only do one copy at a time, non fiction books don't sell as fast and there's a good chance that other people will find the same book you do and try to sell it.
Hey Mahi - Thanks for putting this together! I am about to take the plunge and get started. Few things I wanted to get validation for:
A) Is this the full list of items that I need to have to start selling?
- Amazon Professional Seller Account
- Amazon Buyer Account
- eBay Account
- Keepa
- Boxes
- Printer / Tape
- Winners Tracker
- ROI / Profit Trackker
B) Account Management: To make sure I stay organized, do I need to two Amazon accounts (buyer + seller) or just one? I recall Jarek saying that you can banned if you buy a cheap book from Prime and then try to resell FBA.
- Should I create an account that is separate from the Amazon account my family uses (thinking yes if Amazon allows)?
Hey Mahi! I attempted this side hustle and my biggest issue was books not selling...I know they have to be popular at least during busy season, priced to sell etc, but I feel like I keep getting undercut massively by the time my book ends up getting listed since you have to wait a while. Any words of advice there? Is it better to just price down to sell it so you dont have that money just sitting and not moving?
I had a lot of trouble with this as well in the beginning, it mainly comes down to the books you're buying and who else is trying to sell them. There will always be people running repricers on their books because they have a much larger inventory and when that happens you either need to be patient and let them sell out or race them to the bottom (not ideal).
So there are really 3 solutions to this problem:
1. Be patient and let the repricers sell out (not ideal if you're starting out and have low capital)
2. Do better research and find books that are always selling, and make sure that you can buy it at a low enough price. If you buy too high, you can't compete with repricers. If the book doesn't sell often, you're going to be stuck with it for a while (and also get boned by repricers).
3. Take note of who else is selling the book you're looking at. If you see a seller with multiple copies at a low price, that's a red flag. They're trying to dump their inventory ASAP and you're not likely to make a lot of profit.
Hi Mahi,
Just skimmed through really quickly. Super interesting, thanks for posting.
QQ:
1. When I purchase books, do they have to be delivered to my home? I guess this wont work if I don't live in the US?
2. Seems like the demand for textbooks will only be increase when the school semester starts. Will this business be viable year round?
1. This is possible to do internationally, but you'll have to enlist a prep center to receive and ship your books for you. A very popular prep center for international book flippers is Little Owl (I believe they charge around $2-$3 per book? Not sure because I haven't used them).
2. It's true that most regular textbooks will only be selling in August / January and stacking books until those months is a viable strategy, but there are plenty of textbooks / non-fiction books that have enough sales velocity for you to flip year round - they just require more effort to find.
Hey Mahi,
Many thanks for your reply. I actually got started and got myself a Keeper license.
During my research I've found some books which I think have potential - let's take ISBN: 0412606100 for example...
I think its good because:
1. During peak season, the sales rank could dip below 200,000,
2. Relatively high price (More than $40 for used)
3. Based on Keeper data I can get it used for under $30 (During peak season, Used can sell for $70)
One thing I'm stuck on is how to price it. All of the price data I've found on Amazon is for non-prime shipping. If I were to offer Prime, how much of a premium can I add on to it?
1. Not a fan of this book because looking at the graph, it only sells around 20-30 times in a single year. You want to go for books that are constantly selling because otherwise you could be holding on to inventory for months, it's better to flip a book for 50% ROI 3 times in a month than waiting 2 months to get a single 150% ROI flip.
2. It is a little disappointing that Keepa doesn't track data for used FBA items, but usually you just want to be the lowest FBA price so you can sell your stuff quickly. This can vary by book, but a good rule of thumb is that you can expect to price somewhere between the current Used price for non-FBA and the current New price non-FBA. Again, it's better to look at the current prices for each individual book but usually you want to sell the book for double the price you purchased it at.
Hi mate,
Subscribed to your stack and bought Jarek's book flipping course. Great stuff!
I am, however, in the UK.
I'm assuming everything you write about would still apply here as the market is still pretty big.
Do you know of this being successful in the UK? And are there any things that I should be aware of that may not be obvious to me at this stage??
Thanks Mahi
Hi Mahi,
thanks for writing these! Per your recommendation I got Jarek Lewis's course, watched it, started searching for books. Getting Seller Account and Prep Center set up now.
One question: A lot of these books don't seem to sell much outside of busy season, where they sell at like 3x of current prices. Jarek recommends ignoring these, but doesn't really go into why. Maybe because there'd be risk of not getting them sold? It seems like a good deal outside of that risk
EDIT: Nvm, you kinda answered this another comment
Hi Mahi,
When you buy a particular book to flip, how do you decide how many copies you want to buy? Is there a min amount Amazon expects to be sent for FBA?
Unless the sales rank is really good I would only do one copy at a time, non fiction books don't sell as fast and there's a good chance that other people will find the same book you do and try to sell it.
Hey Mahi - Thanks for putting this together! I am about to take the plunge and get started. Few things I wanted to get validation for:
A) Is this the full list of items that I need to have to start selling?
- Amazon Professional Seller Account
- Amazon Buyer Account
- eBay Account
- Keepa
- Boxes
- Printer / Tape
- Winners Tracker
- ROI / Profit Trackker
B) Account Management: To make sure I stay organized, do I need to two Amazon accounts (buyer + seller) or just one? I recall Jarek saying that you can banned if you buy a cheap book from Prime and then try to resell FBA.
- Should I create an account that is separate from the Amazon account my family uses (thinking yes if Amazon allows)?
TIA
Hey Mahi! I attempted this side hustle and my biggest issue was books not selling...I know they have to be popular at least during busy season, priced to sell etc, but I feel like I keep getting undercut massively by the time my book ends up getting listed since you have to wait a while. Any words of advice there? Is it better to just price down to sell it so you dont have that money just sitting and not moving?
I had a lot of trouble with this as well in the beginning, it mainly comes down to the books you're buying and who else is trying to sell them. There will always be people running repricers on their books because they have a much larger inventory and when that happens you either need to be patient and let them sell out or race them to the bottom (not ideal).
So there are really 3 solutions to this problem:
1. Be patient and let the repricers sell out (not ideal if you're starting out and have low capital)
2. Do better research and find books that are always selling, and make sure that you can buy it at a low enough price. If you buy too high, you can't compete with repricers. If the book doesn't sell often, you're going to be stuck with it for a while (and also get boned by repricers).
3. Take note of who else is selling the book you're looking at. If you see a seller with multiple copies at a low price, that's a red flag. They're trying to dump their inventory ASAP and you're not likely to make a lot of profit.