Bulk Lots and Buyer Unawareness of Shipping Costs

The secondhand market is soft these days.  It's hard to sell many kinds of items that easily would have sold 15 years ago.  I take a loss on certain items just to move them.  I'd rather sell the items at a loss and get them into the hands of the right person than donate them to a thrift store and risk them going into a landfill.  Much of what is donated to thrift stores goes in the trash.

Here's an example of something that would have had a high chance of being trashed by a thrift store.

(Click on images in order to see them in higher quality.)

The lot sold for $14.99 with free shipping.  I can't remember what I paid for the subscription to Toy Collector.  After all, it's been three decades.  I did likely pay at least $15 total for the magazines.  It cost $7.32 plus the cost of packing supplies to ship the lot.  Even though I took a loss, I'm pleased that I got the magazines into somebody's hands.  That was my goal.

I use bulk lots to move inventory and sell books that aren't fit to sell individually.  I also use the bulk lots to sell books that are problematic to sell individually.

These books are ones that I pulled out as ones that are too risky to sell individually.

The books aren't bad at all; it's just that each one has some sort of condition problem that a buyer could miss if they don't read the description.  Each book from this lot has a problem like a text block detached from the binding, a piece torn from the edge of a page, a piece missing from the back cover, a few creased pages, or something similar.

I avoid trouble by selling slightly flawed books in bulk lots. I know I have because of the trouble I've already had.  I have a recent case to share. 

Sometimes old tweed Nancy Drew books have water stains to the top edge.  The ink stain can look rather bad at times.  I tend to place those books in bulk lots.  In this recent case, I listed one such book on Etsy, and even worse, I didn't photograph the top edge to show the water stains.  I ended up with an unhappy buyer.

They sent me this photo of the top edge and wrote, "I was aware of writing inside the book, but not the moldy looking page edges at the top!  Ugh."

I replied:

I'm sorry that I overlooked this. It's actually not mold; it's past water splashes that made the top stain ink look bad. I agree though that I should have mentioned this in the description and should have photographed the top edge.

Media mail has gone up so much in price that it's not worth me having you return the book. I will fully refund your purchase price. If you don't want the book because of the top edge water stains, then you can donate it.

I saw no reason to have the buyer return the book.  The book sold for $9.99 plus $4.95 postage.  I had to refund that amount regardless.  Having the buyer return the book meant that I would also be out the return media mail postage plus I would have placed the book in a bulk lot and gotten nothing for it.  There was no way that I would risk selling it again in an individual listing.

I recently decided to send 10% off offers to the people watching my eBay items.  One of the lots was this one.

The prospective buyer contacted me, telling me that they were only interested in Twisted Window since they have the rest.  They wanted to know if I would consider selling it individually.  Normally, I ignore these requests, because I know the buyer wants the book for less than what I can do.  In this case, I felt that I should reply just to be polite since I had sent an offer. 

I considered what my costs would be.  I decided that I could sell that book for $4.99 plus $5.95 postage.  The buyer declined.  They wanted to pay no more than $7.00 total for the book, including postage. 

The one-pound rate for media mail is currently $4.63.  My packaging supplies cost over $1.00.  This means that my cost to mail one book is around $6.00, which is precisely why I now charge $5.95 to mail a book.  A $7.00 total price for a book is way too low.  Not only is the shipping cost at $6.00, I have to pay eBay fees, which would be around $1.00 on a $7.00 transaction.  Also, I didn't get the book for free.  It makes no sense to offer a book on eBay for $7.00 with shipping included.

Buyers want to purchase from sellers who photograph the books so that they can get their desired format.  However, they also want those sellers to ship for the same low prices as Thriftbooks, which has a sweetheart deal with the post office. 

You have to expect to pay more when purchasing from an individual seller.  In return, you get exactly what you want.  If you want the cheap shipping price, then you can buy from Thriftbooks with the understanding that they will send you any format with no regard for what you want. 

Sadly, media mail has become very expensive for people like me.  The cost probably hasn't gone up for Thriftbooks, but the postal service keeps raising the retail rate.  We are paying the postage cost for Thriftbooks.  

Buyers must decide whether accurate photos or low postage is more important.  They can't have it both ways.