Why book selling in Amazon cost only $0.01

[novetan]

I intend to purchase a book from Amazon. Besides the new and used book, I realised there are many of the same title cost $0.01 (beside shipping) at reasonable condition. What gives?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...?ie=UTF8&condition=used&sr=1-1&qid=1421124988

 

[maflynn]

They'll make a modest profit on shipping and make what they hope is a quick sale.

 

[Tomorrow]

Sellers on eBay sometimes do this - they pay the site a percentage of what the item sells for, but not the shipping. So someone trying to circumvent paying eBay a significant portion of the sale simply charges $0.01 for the item and, say, $25 shipping (when the item costs much less than that to ship). eBay gets a "portion" of the $0.01, but not the $25.

 

[novetan]

Sellers on eBay sometimes do this - they pay the site a percentage of what the item sells for, but not the shipping. So someone trying to circumvent paying eBay a significant portion of the sale simply charges $0.01 for the item and, say, $25 shipping (when the item costs much less than that to ship). eBay gets a "portion" of the $0.01, but not the $25.

In this case, shipping cost is $3.99. Any idea how much the seller earn? I'm curious as to how on earth the pricing is so low and expect to earn something decent?

 

[adk]

Sellers on eBay sometimes do this - they pay the site a percentage of what the item sells for, but not the shipping. So someone trying to circumvent paying eBay a significant portion of the sale simply charges $0.01 for the item and, say, $25 shipping (when the item costs much less than that to ship). eBay gets a "portion" of the $0.01, but not the $25.

That doesn't happen anymore. Ebay charges commissions on shipping now.

 

[happyfrappy]

If someone deals in used books/DVDs/CDs/etc they usually have some kind of volume shipping agreement which allows them to pay flat-rate($1-2 media mail padded envelopes) so their profit margin of flea market/yard sale purchases remain decent. In my experience be extremely careful as some sellers over-state the quality of used items, Amazon doesn't have much protection vs eBay as the seller isn't required to provide images of the item appearance of quality/edition. (some used sellers even try off-loading older editions of books or textboks without noting it)

During the dotcom boom era Half.com was a popular place to buy new overstocks/used items, places like Overstock killed the "surplus" market and British used music/movie/games company called "Zoverstocks" leveraged a Funcoland/GameStop presence of pushing used prices painfully cheap(profit via shipping).

 

[shawnpuerto]

As a seasoned amazon merchant, the 1 cent people are only making a few pennies. But they offer the books because they make thousands of transactions a day, and that can equal a decent amount of profit. It's by no means the BEST way to make money, but they do what they can.

I usually don't sell anything that has a value of less than $5 (shipping not included). I maybe sell two or three things a day, but it's worth it for me.

 

[novetan]

Tks guys for explaining.