Q&A: How can I sell books on eBay?

QUESTION: I want to open an eBay Store to sell books at fixed prices. How can I add book cover photos and descriptions to my listings? I’ve tried TurboLister, but it’s so difficult. What about paid listers like Andale?

ANSWER: eBay has made some improvements to its Stores. Your books are visible in regular search results now, so eBay Stores are becoming an option for booksellers who want their own store without building a site from scratch.

You can enter ISBNs for most books while you’re listing on eBay’s Web form. This will add the book’s cover image and synopsis to your listing. Here’s eBay’s video tutorial on listing through their Web interface.

Unfortunately, eBay’s free TurboLister software is a nightmare. I recently downloaded it again and found the same bugs it had two years ago (preventing sellers from listing with certain payment/shipping terms.) eBay’s neglect of TurboLister is just nutty. They offer it to encourage more listing, but if it doesn’t work, it defeats the purpose.

You can enter ISBNs using TurboLister also, provided you’re able to work around its many bugs.

I’ve never used Andale, but my hunch is their service works fine. They’ve been in business several years, so users must be getting their money’s worth. I’ve listed the most popular eBay seller tools at the bottom of this post.

eBay Stores offer a bit more flexibility than marketplaces such as Amazon. You can sell with auctions or at fixed prices. You can experiment with different words in your listings, allowing a bit of flair and salesmanship. And your Store inventory is automatically exported to Shopping.com and Froogle, giving your books some added exposure on the Web.

I agree with your strategy on selling most books at fixed prices. It is possible to get a higher price at auction for a truly unusual book — perhaps one out of 10,000 books you’ll sell.

One cautionary note: eBay will launch a new fixed-price marketplace in a few weeks. Express will compete for Amazon’s used-book business, and could prompt a phaseout of eBay’s Half.com site. Before going whole-hog on an eBay store, I’d wait until the dust settles from the Express debut. You might decide Express is a better option than Stores — or you may want to cross-list there.

Here are some of the most popular listing services for eBay sellers. A few are free, and some offer a trial period.
Andale
Zoovy
AuctionWagon
Auction Zealot
Auctiva
eBay Sellers Assistant
GarageSale
inkFrog
SpoonFeeder

Related posts:

1. Is it still possible to sell books on eBay at a profit?
2. Q&A: What software should I use for selling books on eBay?