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Holy Moly (Read 1860 times)
usedbookstack
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Holy Moly
on: Mar 4th, 2010, 5:54pm
 

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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... Roll Eyes! -Ken
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BookLadies
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #1 on: Mar 4th, 2010, 6:35pm
 

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It's definitely slower than I think it should be, no matter what we do to increase sales, it's just not at the levels it should be.  We've been struggling with this since about September of last year.
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Stacks_o_Books
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #2 on: Mar 5th, 2010, 3:20pm
 

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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.
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plaidpineapple
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #3 on: Mar 5th, 2010, 3:30pm
 

Llet me never be put to confusion Psalm 71:1

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Our volume is still good but our profit stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!   Everything keeps going up in price:  fees, packing materials, inventory...
 
And with the news that Alibris is lowering the minimum pricing to $.99 I suspect we will have to drop them.  They do not reimburse us with enough postage to make it possible to sell that low there.  Since we concentrate on the lower priced books I have to really watch the bottom line.
 
It's depressing around here!
Back to top Kim Schmutzler
Plaid Pineapple Books

Child of God, Wife, Mother of 5, Bookstore Owner, and Animal Lover (in that order)
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povertyhillbooks
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #4 on: Mar 5th, 2010, 10:38pm
 

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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.   Angry  
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!   cry
 
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dharmarick
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #5 on: Mar 6th, 2010, 2:10am
 

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Well, now I know it's not just me. It's for darn sure a tougher way to make a living than it was six or seven years ago.
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sofaslugsbooks
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #6 on: Mar 7th, 2010, 2:55am
 

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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
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povertyhillbooks
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #7 on: Mar 7th, 2010, 3:31am
 

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Quote:
Amazon has fallen behind Barnes and Noble (1), Abebooks (2), and Alibris (3)

 
That's pretty interesting Sofa, right now Abe is neck and neck with Alibris/BN for me which is strange.  Both are at 18%... Abe is double what they usually are, not sure what's up there unless there's some coupon thing happening.  Amazon is still in the lead (as usual) here.  It seems about half of my Abe orders are from overseas... no one wants our devalued U.S. dollars but they like our cheap books I guess.
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Gip Plaster
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #8 on: Mar 7th, 2010, 2:04pm
 

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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
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groovybookman
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #9 on: Mar 8th, 2010, 4:49am
 

That's one Groovy Book Man!

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January 2010 was our best month ever... February not so much but hey, No february is. That being said February 2010 was up over 2009.  Cool
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pzabooks
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #10 on: Mar 9th, 2010, 11:56am
 

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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
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Gip Plaster
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #11 on: Mar 9th, 2010, 1:16pm
 

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Ron, I think you're absolutely right about venue issue we never hear about. That can certainly account for part of the recent slow sales.
 
Also, people on the Amazon boards have insisted for years that Amazon cycles certain listings on and off, perhaps so that everyone eventually gets sales or to keep the market from looking too overcrowded. I don't have any evidence at all of this, but I have listed high-quality inventory that sells very quickly -- after a few days. I've also had sudden spurts of sales that don't coincide with any particular selling season, so cycling is at least possible.  
 
Somehow, this seems different from either of those, however. I've been trending down for awhile with the usual spurts being less profitable than usual. I'm not sure how to account for that.
 
I know this much: In March of last year, everything was fine. By March of this year, I'm not doing nearly as well as I once was.
 
Gip
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jshure
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #12 on: Mar 10th, 2010, 4:26am
 

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I finally retrieved my posting rights  Smiley 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
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booksnbooks
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #13 on: Mar 12th, 2010, 1:16pm
 

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My sales are extremely slow, my book has been rejected by 25 agents and my dog has a weird eye infection.  If only some small wonderful thing could happen, like winning the $2,000 a week for life lottery.   Cool
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Gip Plaster
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Re: Holy Moly
Reply #14 on: Mar 13th, 2010, 4:04pm
 

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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
Back to top There's so much more to a simple, meaningful life than just one thing.

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