Question for booksellers who use FBA
So I've had to return a couple of books to sellers who use FBA. In the past, returns would be through UPS, but now Amazon makes the buyer pay for return shipping if we want to use that method. Instead, we can take the item to Staples for free. The people at Staples throw books into a great big box along with a bunch of other random items. I can't imagine books are being returned in a good condition that way. In fact, they probably arrive back at Amazon as basically trash. How are FBA booksellers dealing with this?
Question for booksellers who use FBA
So I've had to return a couple of books to sellers who use FBA. In the past, returns would be through UPS, but now Amazon makes the buyer pay for return shipping if we want to use that method. Instead, we can take the item to Staples for free. The people at Staples throw books into a great big box along with a bunch of other random items. I can't imagine books are being returned in a good condition that way. In fact, they probably arrive back at Amazon as basically trash. How are FBA booksellers dealing with this?
0 replies
Seller_MyXY4Myx9zVcR
What a choice!
Have the books ripped up from poor handling or pay nearly 10 dollars in UPS fees to have a 10 dollar book returned...
Seller_zPZnffkwPrnzr
Stop returning books and we won't need to worry about this.
Seller_EGAYxdv2MmpO0
Are there FBA book sellers, really? I cannot imagine a world where that works.
Book would need to be sent to warehouse wrapped as if it will be thrown into a random sized box with not enough paper/padding to help--which would mean one book would take the space of two in storage at least.
Curious what books are being sold that turn over fast enough that storage does not absorb what little margin there is? Or are these just the .99 cent book sellers who don't really make any profit and must be part of some money laundering process or Brewster's millions money losing scheme.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
I've never gotten back a book that looked like it had been thrown in a bin at Staples.
But I have gotten back books with extensive highlighting throughout (sold as "Like New"). I've gotten back books with every few pages having a folded corner. I've gotten back books with heavy creasing on a cover that was pristine when I packaged it.
It's all part of the cost of doing business through Amazon.
But as a caring customer, I would suggest that you put the book in at least a small amount of packaging, then hope it gets through unscarred.
Seller_yYmMTCwJZOpvV
Wait people still ship books to fba? thought they died off... But yea not worth it for like 80 percent of books shouldn't go to fba. Fba is pushed so hard for fast flips or high profit so that takes alot of books out. In store our average book price sold is 9 dollars " mostly due to customers coming in and buying from the used section of the store. But we try and stay above 40 on amazon and thats fbm... so fba who knows cant be much meat on the bone in my opinion but everyone can do what they want.
Seller_rPhBMkxOAsL3I
I'm a used bookseller. Several years ago, I stopped buying NEW books (for the grandkids) from Amazon because they were often just tossed into a box loose with other items and often arrived damaged.
I can't imagine selling used books FBA. As others have said, it would be too expensive.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
And sometimes, it's the other way around. Quite common that I can sell a book at a bit of a profit with FBA which has FBM offers that don't have any profit at all. Other times, the FBA price (and getting the BB) far outweighs the additional fees associated with FBA.
There's really no universal answer of which you should use; you have to judge each book. My rule of thumb is that the FBA BB has to be at least $5 more than what I could expect to get FBM, and that's the bare minimum based on really fast selling books. But it's quite common to make $10 more on FBA, even including all costs, than by selling FBM.
But certainly, every change in FBA makes FBM the right call on more and more books.
