I pull over 100 poorly ranked books from a dumpster and list for sale on Amazon FBA. Six months later, here are the sales results.
The Library Trash Experiment
The secret’s out: I love reselling books I find in dumpsters.
Several months ago, I did a post on rescuing over 100 books from the university library dumpster. This library was (and still is) in the midst of a massive book purge (sadly, to make way for more computers), and I am perhaps the largest (and only) beneficiary.
I.e. they throw their books in the trash, I retrieve them, and then I sell them on Amazon.
Recap: My dumpster diving book heist from last summer
Before I go over the results of this experiment, here’s a recap of that haul:
- Total number of books: 112 books
- Total transport and listing time: 4 hours
- Average Amazon Sales Rank (BSR): Approx. 4 million
- Total listing price: $5,900
Now, nearly all the Amazon FBA “experts” out there would tell you to never ship in a book ranked 4 million. Most of them will tell you not to mess with anything ranked worse than 1 million. My experiment with this shipment offers a different lesson.
Results of my dumpster diving experiment: 7 months later
- Total books from this shipment sold: 32
- Total selling price: $1,278.85
- Price of most valuable book sold: $499.99
- Approximate net profit: $767
What this teaches us about selling books with bad Amazon sales rank
A couple lessons here:
1. Poorly ranked books sell with FBA
One, almost exactly one-third of these books – with an average Amazon Sales Rank of 4 million – sold in 7 months. I think most Amazon sellers would be in disbelief over this. The common perception is that a book ranked 4 million on Amazon will “never sell.”
This haul contained the most obscure, esoteric books imaginable. And I’ve been averaging over one sale a week.
2. The Amazon payouts doesn’t lie
Take a look at that Amazon payout figure: $767. That’s for 4 hours work. If you’re doing the math, that’s almost $200 an hour.
Someone should forward this post to the “FBA experts” who tell you not to bother with books that have an Amazon Sales Rank (BSR) worse than 1 million.
The takeaway
No book is too obscure to sell FBA. The importance of Amazon sales rank is greatly overstated. If the book has “on paper” Amazon-value that allows for huge profit margins, no Amazon sales rank should be poor enough to matter.
Most books (that are non-fiction, and do not have a later edition available) will sell on Amazon eventually.
-Peter Valley
R. Savage says
Hi
If I can ask?
What are you doing with long term storage fee books if they don’t sell in a year.
Peter Valley says
I don’t have more than 100 or so items at any time that I have multiples of, so this hasn’t been a huge consideration for me personally. When it is an issue, I just do that math and if I decide I’m going to lose money, I place a removal order.
Murray says
Peter-Have you gotten feedback indication Amazon is loosening up in rejecting certain books-ASINs? Thanks. Murray
Alan says
How do you list books so fast. I cant imagine being able to list 112 booka in that short of time.
Squid says
Being that this post is almost two years old now, being that it was featured in a current email blast, I would love to hear an update on the numbers…
Tony says
Ditto what Squid says. I just read this in an email yesterday. What was the title that sold for $499.99? How you priced it and how/why it sold is a story in itself. Thanks Peter
Peter Valley says
I’m deciding what my next article should be, and maybe I’ll make this the subject?
Dermo says
Very interesting. I find the numbers puzzling, though… If you’re a one-man band and you pulled the books from a trash bin, how did you manage to waste $511 and only end up with $767 net profit? Sorry if this question is too personal but I find it mind-boggling.
Peter Valley says
That’s called “Amazon commissions.”