Its slowwwwwwwwwww for me! I have the worst sales I've ever had right now. I thought the second half of October through mid November was bad, but this is far slower than that so far! And I'm still adding inventory...Seems the only stuff moving has an amazon sales rank of less than 50k, regardless of condition. What about you guys? I think my misery might need some company or something... ! -Ken

Yep - it's about as exciting as watching paint dry. And what does seem to sell is the cheap stuff. So I guess that's good - we're clearing space for better inventory - but it's hard to cover expenses this way. We're not buying anything at the moment - I have a backlog of stuff to list - so that helps. There are a couple big sales this month and I'm really on the fence whether to go or not.
 
Not fun.

Things are still steady here too, however probably because I'm constantly adding inventory (approx 200 skus per week).  I'm on track toward the same sales figures as last March, this February was only slightly better than last year.  Plaid is right, I just finished working up figures for tax time and expenditures are really up.  I think it stinks that Amazon is giving out free e-book downloads on certain titles.  Many standard typical "college required reading" books are available for free as a kindle download.    
It certainly devalues the book and what I do for a living.  I guess this is their way to entice students to take the plunge and buy a Kindle.  I think many of the people that use Kindle readers for the NY Times bestsellers and other popular titles are probably the type that would read the book and donate it the next week so not only does the e-reader dry up demand for physical copies of books, it impacts what's available to resell!  
 

It's been slow for me since the second half of February. Usually I get a decent push in March, which also coincides with my first big spring push to list fresh titles.
 
My expenses are up but I'm also ahead of where I was last year. My bottom line is currently sitting where I was last year on April 8th (yes, I'm that anal that I have my stats worked out to the day.)
 
Today has picked up a bit.
 
Most of my venues are down about fifteen percent but Amazon has fallen behind Barnes and Noble (1), Abebooks (2), and Alibris (3) this month so far.  I bet I'll never see my top four in that order ever again!
 
Patience and Persistence, everyone. It'll get better for us.
 
-randy

I didn't get as much of a jump in sales in January as I usually do, but I also had less inventory on hand. A combination of laziness and the tightening of my usually supply lines has made the last several months tough. I did well in August 2009, but I haven't done very well since then.  
 
My overall sales in 2009 were down more than 10 percent from 2008, and things are on track to be even worse this year. My inventory is down because I haven't been able to find as many books, and the quality and price of my inventory items is also down significantly.
 
I always try to keep a positive attitude, but the last couple of months are the first time since I started five or six years ago that I've seriously considered whether my bookselling business is starting to fail. I have no doubt I can turn it around, but the turnaround hasn't happened yet. Since bookselling is my full-time business, this is important to me.
 
Gip

I've had a really good year but I am shocked at how rapidly things can change.  Normal for me is anywhere from 12-18 sales a day.  In March, it suddenly dropped to 1-5 but has slowly risen.   The primary decrease was with Amazon.  This is my full-time business and I am not about to stop because of a few bad days; however,  I do wonder how many times Amazon, Alibris or the others have short-term issues that we are never told about.  
Ron
www.PZABOOKS.com

I finally retrieved my posting rights   Sales really slowed down the last week of February. We had a big fat "0" on Amazon 2 days in a row and I can't even remember the last time that happened. Now today all sales were Amazon. March is usually one of the worst months, so things should pick up from here, right? Especially after tax time.  
 
Julia

I'd be curious if any of you -- especially full-time sellers -- think things are bad enough that you are looking for other work.
 
I'm certainly not pleased with how things are going and I always have my hand in several things, but I don't plan to abandon ship soon... Do any of you?
 
Gip