TS: Selling your CDs.. eBay vs. Amazon -- pros and cons.

Altho Amazon may not be great for selling rare vinyl, I think its pretty good for rare CDs if they are listed. I managed to sell my Loft vol 1 CD for £70 within 5 hours of listing it, and they have a useful feature where people can say the price that they are willing to pay and you can match this - I managed to sell something striaght away for £30 like this.

The interesting thing about selling CDs is seeing which ones have been deleted and are rare - I was surprised that the Mos Def Black Star CD was deleted, for example.

Amazon fees are quite high, but it's so easy to use and I think you probably reach an even bigger market than eBay.

Hang on, that can't be right.

The two times I bought something off of Ebay was a pain and I haven't gone back and that was like 1999.

Put them up on Amazon, I might be looking for what you are selling, as that is where I buy almost all of my music for the past few years.

And while I had some degree of good luck/success selling my vinyl on E-bay a few years ago, Amazon seems like such a better way to go for anything that doesn't appeal to collector scum. The percentage off the top works out to be not all that different from E-bay. The shipping fee will cover shipping and the cost of a padded envelope and (generally) leave a little bit to defray the cost of the seller fees.

was there ever a case where Amazon screwed up and accidentally sold "two" copies of one CD you had for sale -- forcing you to tell the other buyer that you didn't have the CD ordered, forcing you to get less than positive feedback? This is the only scenario I fear... as I've often encountered resellers who just never had the CD I ordered in stock... Maybe there are just a WHOLE LOTTA disorganized flakes who sell CDs on Amazon perhaps?

If "no-one" = me than you are correct. I take it very seriously, and I always leave feedback. I suffered by going with a less than 4.8 reseller one time.. their site is http://www.caiman.com . They are the devil. They'll completely forget your order. Flakes to the max that will refuse to respond to your emails via other than form letters that completely don't answer your questions. Crooks. It was a nightmare dealing with them. Maybe they're fine if you're just ordering one CD, but multiple orders? "OMG, THIS IS TOO MUCH! JUST RESPOND WITH NONSENSICAL FORM LETTERS." Idiots.

I don't see why anyone would give you negative feedback if you just refund them immediately and send an email saying the item was out of stock.

I wouldn't, but just as there are asshole resellers, there are even more asshole buyers. I've seen "1" ratings for things like "got the order right away, but the plastic wrap was slightly torn".

was there ever a case where Amazon screwed up and accidentally sold "two" copies of one CD you had for sale -- forcing you to tell the other buyer that you didn't have the CD ordered, forcing you to get less than positive feedback? This is the only scenario I fear... as I've often encountered resellers who just never had the CD I ordered in stock... Maybe there are just a WHOLE LOTTA disorganized flakes who sell CDs on Amazon perhaps?

Donut, I think the resellers you've encountered were probably dropshippers, who have an agreement with a distributor somewhere (often overseas) but don't actually have the stock in hand, and inevitably sell something that the distributor just ran out of. These are the ones with thousands of feedbacks. There are also sellers who, if they see something come up for sale really cheap, will list it themselves at a higher price, and count on a high rating and # of feedbacks to get the sale. When they get the sale, they turn around and buy it from the cheap source and have it shipped to the original buyer.

I've been selling for about a year now — still have a 5.0 rating. I've gotten plenty of sales where I was nowhere near the cheapest price -- I'm pretty sure kyle is off the mark about nobody paying attention to feedback. The average number of buyers who leave feedback is about 12%.

I am planning on selling off my CDs over the next few months. Is the consensus still that eBay is better for rare items, but Amazon is generally easier to use and less of a hassle, despite the higher commission?

Fees and Pricing
Amazon collects fees only when your item sells. At that time, Amazon collects your sales price and shipping costs from the buyer, deducts a commission of 6 to 15 percent of the sales price, a per-transaction fee of $0.99, and a variable closing fee. The $0.99 per-transaction fee is waived for Pro Merchant Subscribers. 
Variable Closing Fees Charged to Seller:
  	Domestic Standard 	Domestic Expedited 	International Standard
Music 	$0.80 	                $0.80 	                $0.80

Goddammit, sorry about the formatting. But according to this, the Amazon's commission on CDs is now 15% + a "per transaction fee" of $0.99 + a "variable closing fee" of $0.80?

Huh. That closing fee is new. Fuckers.

But yeah, Amazon was dead easy back when I was selling off my collection and the bottom hadn't fallen out of the market yet. Sold about 600 CDs and a few books over a year and a half. You just have to be willing to dedicate large chunks of time to listing your stock, researching comparables, writing descriptions. Describe your stuff accurately, don't fudge it or you'll get bad "this isn't in the shape you advertised" feedback.

Well, I ended up going to half.com. 15% commission fee, but that's it. I'm sure it doesn't get nearly the traffic of Amazon, but making an additional $2 per CD is a big bonus, and I'm willing to be patient.

I listed about 100 items at half.com when I was listing stuff at Amazon, and made two sales in two years.

oh god. How high did you have your prices, compared to others?

$3 to $5 above the lowest price, depending on the item. I never tried to beat the lowest price at either place.

Hmm. Well, at least for the first few I've listed, I've kept my price within a dollar of the lowest price. We'll see how it goes.

I don't see myself going to Amazon, though. Something like Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, for example. There are a dozen people who sell it used at $5, several people have it brand new for $6-7.

At $5, the 15% commission is 75 cents, + $1 transaction fee + 80 cent closing fee is $2.55 that Amazon gets out of my $5. Other cds, like Sonic Youth's Experimental Jet Set (a dozen used under $2), are pretty much implausible to sell there.

But yeah, Amazon was dead easy back when I was selling off my collection and the bottom hadn't fallen out of the market yet.

I haven't sold anything there but a few DVD sets and VHS tapes in nearly 3 years. Sorry dude, you missed the real gravy train unless you have some high-priced collectible shit.

more like selling your SOUL amirite?

Jeeeezus. But yeah, you're right.

Maybe CDs will have a vinyl-esque revival 15 years from now?

insaneclownslaughingatlittleboy.gif

Do you know about this?

Messageboard for Amazon 3rd-party sellers.

I did not! I will check that out. Thanks for the advice, Rock Hardy.

Fair warning, that messageboard is the most depressing thing you will ever read.

Hey Kevin, I ripped-to-HD or burned a copy of every CD I sold, so more like turning dead weight into free money, amirite?

One small plus of selling on Amazon is that you make a small profit from shipping (about 75 cents per item). So, you can still list a CD for next to nothing and make at least some kind of (very meager) money off it.

Yeah, otm. Find a cheap source for #0 (6x9) bubble mailers. I got mine in 25-packs from Sam's Club for about 17¢ each.

yrrite!

17¢ per mailer, not 17¢ per 25-pack

Can someone please make a convincing argument why I shouldn't sell off my Black Keys, Ted Leo and Mclusky albums on eBay this weekend? Because every time I hear a song from any of those on iTunes shuffle nowadays, it just makes me groan and skip to the next track...

Going once... twice...

(I prefer eBay, btw -- start 'em at $5 to $8 BuyItNow prices, then trade in the non-sellers at the local store.)

I started out using both Half and Amazon and eventually gravitated toward just Amazon. The other day I managed to get rid of my Beat Happening boxset for $105!

$3 to $5 above the lowest price, depending on the item. I never tried to beat the lowest price at either place.

― a new Rock Hardy screen name because I can't find the old one (Rock Hardy), Sunday, November 23, 2008 2:23 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

does this work? how long does it take to sell on amazon like this? surely stuff priced like this just never sells?

I have about 20-25 cds on Amazon that still haven't sold after several months, despite being within a dollar of the lowest cost option.

So...a long long time.

I just sold that Cardiacs double album for £40 on Amazon (others were asking £70 but I decided not to be greedy). Might conceivably have got more for it on ebay, but also might have got less without a reserve, and as it only cost me £12 I'll take £28 profit without grumbling.

ebay takes 10% off all music sales it seems. anyone know a way to reduce the FVFs? looking at my bill from them this months, its pissing me off.

i dont like amazon cos of their independent seller-crushing moves, plus they seem to take more of a cut.

amazon seems less hassle ...

much less hassle but the fixed fee is large enough for it to make selling cheap CDs a loss-making enterprise.

e.g. in my email today (I am liquidating my CD collection):

Item: Hot Shots II [Audio CD] The Beta Band
Condition: Used - Very Good
Listing ID: 0706E2I7XBM
SKU: BJ-W3JS-67EP
Quantity: 1
Order Date: 2009-07-20
Buyer's Price: £1.95
Shipping: £1.21
Amazon Fees: £-1.47
Your Earnings: £1.69

Postage will cost me 90p, so i have made a grand total of 80p on that.

Here's a CD that is worth rather more (sold yesterday):

Item: At the Movies (Soundtrack) (Audio CD) Morricone, Ennio
Condition: Used - Very Good
Listing ID: 0710E4NS954
SKU: YR-6U21-Q0KA
Quantity: 1
Order Date: 2009-07-18
Buyer's Price: £8.00
Shipping: £1.21
Amazon Fees: £-2.52
Your Earnings: £6.69

i fished out a couple of the more valuable CDs and put them on ebay, but life is too short to sell a whole CD collection on ebay

discogs

i fished out a couple of the more valuable CDs and put them on ebay

What's your username?

there's a tendency to try and put cds on amazon so you're the cheapest, which just ends up in a spiral of reducing prices.

i have a minimum amount i'll put cds on for, always use recycled packaging and think that, once you've reached a certain price, it's not hugely unreasonable to post second class. i presume many of the bargain priced cds are posted by people from their place of work.

I've only been selling stuff worth at least 10 bucks on Amazon and have made a couple hundred of dollars over the last few months.

http://www.abundatrade.com/

not posting my ebay username, but just got £40 for a tour CD tonight. no idea why i didn't do this before.

asked this on another thread but here seems more appropriate:

What's the cheapest you can sell a CD on Amazon, without losing money, assuming postage for a CD costs £0.90 and you're not able to just throw your packages in your work post?

(UK prices)

£0.90 + the cost of your packaging + £0.01

£2.50 is as low as I would go when I was liquidating. It broke down like this one, which I apparently sold for £2.48:

Buyer's Price: £2.48
Shipping: £1.21
Amazon Fees: £-1.57
Your Earnings: £2.12

And then about £1 on p+p, leaving me with about £1 profit and a bad taste in my mouth because Amazon were taking more than half the money the customer was paying. Remember they take a cut of the shipping too (for a CD this is 28p).

Details here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3149301

i really hate that ebay wont let you charge for postage on CDs anymore. just means even lower profits than before. and its already low.

I just put a few dozen CDs up - some of it brand new well known stuff, some of it random crap I can't imagine anyone wanting, some of it whothefuckknows - starting at £0.99, but w/ a message in the description saying 'yeah, if yr buying this in the UK I'm going to charge you £1 for postage, be a sport and add this on please'. So I guess I just have to wait and see if buyers are going to be chancers or play nicely

with cds its only - perhaps - a loss of a pound, but they dont even let you charge postage for records, which is more of a pain. maybe seeing 'free postage' will make people bid more or about the same im not sure, hopefully.

Yeah doing it w/ LPs is batshit and not at all workable. I'm lucky in that I have more or less unlimited free packaging for CDs but if you have to buy 12" mailers those things cost! I guess for whatever reason £0.99 has become a kind of default starting price for so many things and it's a carrot on a stick to idle eBay browsers, whereas eg £2.49 as a starting price totally isn't

i suppose ebay want buyers to get records sent to them in card-less envelopes.

Has anybody used fulfilment by amazon? I was looking at the page but couldn't work out how much they'd take for selling a CD for example.

Not Amazon or eBay but Music Magpie. Has anyone, UK based, used this 'service'?

Anyone tried this? I've put in a few barcodes of stuff I don't want and I got a valuation of around £10.

I tried the barcodes of some CDs that are never going to sell on Amazon and each one came up as being worth thirty pence at Music Magpie. I didn't get round to sending them off but I suppose if you're having a clear out, it's worth doing. Not sure I would flog anything valuable via them, though.

Amazon have been bothering me for additional information about myself in order to keep selling on .co.uk - apparently they now want to know my passport number or driving licence number or equivalent and may possibly ask for photocopies of recent utility bills and that kind of thing. I found it unnecessarily intrusive and ignored the emails for a while, but I was on the verge of losing the ability to sell there apparently, so I finally had to cave in. Not entirely happy but I did sell a s/h SACD for £30 last night that I originally paid £1 for, so not all is lost!

Go "Discogs" is my advice.

I use discogs too, but if the price on Amazon is right then....

I've currently got a book for sale on Amazon (a book I own; not a book I've written). It is seemingly out of print and looking online seems to be being pitched at the £150-£250 mark. I've no evidence it will sell for this and it may be one of those quirks of the internet that someone puts a product up for sale at a comedy price and it shifts everyone else's belief about how much the book is worth. The lowest price copy on Amazon was £174.99 earlier this week it has been dropping as people compete to be the lowest price seller and has reached £72 or so. This could well be handy for the consumer but I'm struck by how quickly there has been a kind of "race to the bottom", possibly driven by automated price matching.

Feel like I may have mentioned this before, but I have some acquaintances who used that technique occasionally to reduce the price of expensive items they wanted to buy... they would list a totally fictitious beat up copy on Amazon (trying to describe it so off-puttingly that no-one actually bought it from them) at somewhere around the price they wanted to pay for the genuine copy, then let the algorithms bring the price down on the real copy and hope no-one jumps in before them to purchase it.

the https://keepa.com/ chrome extension is good for figuring out what's going on

but yes, basically it's flash crashes etc. due to algorithmic trading. the WSJ had a good piece on it (paywalled, so here's a link via twitter https://t.co/LbaXCmRqEQ)

Weird. Just went on Amazon to sell a copy of Aphex Twin's Syro and was met with this message:

New; Used: Very good conditions You are not approved to list this product, and we are not currently accepting applications.

(It would let me sell a Used - Like New copy).

I can't recall the exact details now, but that happened to me a year or two ago, but it wouldn't let me list CDs or DVDs either new or used. I never looked into it, assuming it was perhaps some kind of cutting out of small-scale sellers in favour of the volume marketplace traders. Their cut was always so ferocious and I was sick of juggling multiple selling platforms simultaneously so I was happy to just let it go and keep up with discogs instead.

If you'd sold a book on Amazon and it had been confirmed as delivered by Royal Mail (UK) ... what would you do if the purchaser came back to you a month after delivery and suggested that it had never arrived? Book around the £20 mark.

That's awkward. I suspect if it came to it then Amazon would be the ultimate arbiter and from what I see it wouldn't be in your favour.

Maybe the best thing to do would be to ask the recipient (or non recipient) to try and make a claim from Royal Mail. Usually it would be you as the sender but if delivery was confirmed I'm not sure you'll get very far.

Also the buyer may have been patient but at the same time a month is quite a long time if it was just in the UK and it would help to feel out where they really stand.

It probably wouldn't hurt to try and make a claim with RM yourself but might be good to see first if the buyer is inclined to try and solve the problem which is evidently not your fault.

I had something similar last year with a discogs sale (I mentioned it at the time on the discogs thread, but don't think I ever posted the conclusion).

I sent an expensive box set to a buyer in France, which was confirmed as delivered in the expected timescale, but the buyer later got in touch to say they had never received it. I raised a claim with Royal Mail, deciding that to do so could do no harm, but of course they got back saying it had indeed been delivered.

The buyer was adamant they never received the parcel, so raised a claim with Paypal, but I was able to respond with the original proof of postage and the confirmation of delivery, so Paypal sided with me, much to my relief.

The buyer must have kept pursuing it and actually managed to get money back from Paypal themselves amazingly. I guess that maybe they were genuine and it really didn't get delivered and they managed to get the French post to admit as such?

I'd say raising the issue with Royal Mail shouldn't do any harm and is straightforward and could be helpful evidence of your efforts to aid the buyer in case they do later make a claim against you through Amazon. Also, make sure to reply to any messages they send you asap, as that would all count in your favour too.

On a different tack, eBay are now ceasing to let sellers use PayPal, so every sale will be heading straight into your bank account. No idea why this is happening, it's measuring up to be confusing as hell but we'll see. Sellers (in the UK at least) have to move over to the new system by the end of May. Bye-bye PayPal (for me anyway)!

yeah we (in Australia) have already moved over to the new system - I thiiink it is essentially so eBay can offer a wider range of payment options at checkout? eg apple pay or whatever.

after the slight inconvenience of setting it up it works fine. only real downside for me is that my paypal balance from selling also acted as my available funds for buying - at least theoretically! I liked the idea of hobby finances being in a separate pot. ah well.

i guess it’s also kind of tidy that they extract their cut on the way through, rather than billing you a month later when you’ve forgotten about it

ebay owned paypal for a while but then didn't own paypal and I assume that some amount of supporting it was going to cost the company more money than doing it themselves.

(UK) Is there anywhere that lists the records/CDs/merch that they want to buy, in an easy lazy-to-use way? I think eil used to? (That is, lists you could easily look through and think "Oh, yeah, I've got that and would sell it for a fiver or whatever".)