100+ books to sell- best way to do it?

[Aworryingtrend]

I have over 100 (prob more like 150!) Mills & Boon books belonging to my Mum to sell on Ebay.

I was wondering whether you thought it best to:

• sell each book singly- though this would be a pain to do!
  
• sell as one big job lot
  
• split into eg 5s or 10s?
  

And also whether to list a realistic P&P charge (which will be a fair amount depending on job lot size) or to increase startign bid but offer free P&P?

Any thoughts welcome,

thanks

[coansha]

I would group into a weight category, so check post office to find weight charges and add on a postage bag cost.
I expect 8 -10 books as you have pointed out single postage would drive you insane.
I always point out P & P is absolute cost only, as some ebayers make money on it which is unfair.

[CelebratedMonkey]

I would check whether they actually sell - there are tons of them about and people tend not to put much value on second-hand books.

Putting them into several lots as others have suggested may well work.

Amazon is another consideration and is easy to use and maintain listings - but people have to pay £2.80 postage per book there and very popular fiction doesn't tend to sell well (though as M&B titles go out of print some of them might be worth something).

Otherwise wait until you fancy doing a boot fair!

[80sbabe]

On Ebay the p&p charges on books are capped depending on what genre the books are.

Fiction books have a maximum of £3.25 and if you sell as a job lot you cannot charge more than £7.75.
It would be worth seeing how many you could send together for that price and perhaps group a few together.
I doubt a single M&B would cost in excess of £3.25 though so you shouldn't lose out.

Certain titles are sought after so maybe do a bit of research first on both Ebay and Amazon to check what they go for.

As celebratedmonkey says car boot sales may be an easier way if you wish to sell them quickly.

Free P&P is often an attractive offer to buyers and many overlook the fact that it is actually "included" rather than free, but you may find this pushes your starting price up quite a bit.

[Aworryingtrend]

Thanks all for the advice. I looked into listing them on Amazon but as each secondhand book has to cost a minimum of £2.80 inc P&P, and brand new ones are £2.69 inc P&P I dont think its a goer. Im tempted by the idea of a car boot, especially now the weather is getting warmer, so I may do that.

Thanks for your advice.

[MaryBS]

Try a local market? I overheard a conversation the other day, where the secondhand bookseller was buying books off a lady at 50p per book. I'm thinking of trying it myself!

[Aworryingtrend]

Mary BS thats a genius idea! I'm goign into our market town on Saturday so I will ask then, thanks!

[EdwardorEricCantDecide]

be careful i just made the postage mistake on ebay, i listed a baby bundle (loads of DS clothes) quite big package weighs 12lbs! ebay limited my postage costs to £4, i think it will cost at least £12 to post (will find out today)

first check the category your listing in then check if theres any limit to postage cost in the category and bundle books accordingly, or you could do local pick up only.

[Tryharder]

I would sell at a carboot - things like mills and boon are quite popular there with the old biddies out for a sunday shop...

Or if you can't be bothered with that, I would list them in one go as a "car boot job lot" with collection only. I have sold loads of books like that and got quite good money for them.