Strange Amazon Pricing.

[Jim Ford]

[meach]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

I've noticed this myself. Have bought a few and received them ok and never heard from them again so I don't think there's any cause to worry. Can't see what they get out of it though.

[Internaut]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

Odd. In terms of Amazon themselves, they probably view it as in their interest to run a vibrant marketplace over their infrastructure. There may not be much money involved (I'm guessing the 2.80 covers the seller's cost) but it keeps you coming back to Amazon, and that matters a great deal, to Amazon.

As for the seller, unless they're selling many thousands of books (unlikely), surely leaving it on a park bench for the next person to read is less effort than driving down to the nearest USPO?

[Wee man]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

Ah but think of all the inteest sparked by posts like this to get people to go and look on Amazon?

[LMGruchy]

[gphemy]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

I think the money is made on the difference between the postage charge (minus Amazon's cut) and the postage actually paid, but at 1p that aint much.

Partly as you say - but the bit you missed is that by pricing at 1p, you get to the top of the list, with the greatest chance of getting the difference in postage. In other words 50% of not much is better than 100% of nothing.

Piers

[StephenL]

[sapper]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

Odd. In terms of Amazon themselves, they probably view it as in their interest to run a vibrant marketplace over their infrastructure. There may not be much money involved (I'm guessing the 2.80 covers the seller's cost) but it keeps you coming back to Amazon, and that matters a great deal, to Amazon.

As for the seller, unless they're selling many thousands of books (unlikely), surely leaving it on a park bench for the next person to read is less effort than driving down to the nearest USPO?

[DerekW]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

If you look at the pricing structure for selling on Amazon


[ame="http://services.amazon.co.uk/services/sell-on-amazon/pricing/#politics"]http://services.amazon.co.uk/services/sell-on-amazon/pricing/#politics[/ame]

you can see that the cut Amazon takes is about 25% for low cost items and about 10% for mid price items. So trying to get a fair return on a low price item is difficult. If you are selling remaindered or surplus books which are one step away from being pulped the value of the book is just their pulp value less the cost of storage so if you can make a profit on the posting and packing then you have won.

[Steve Lane]

[maccabeej]

Re: Strange Amazon Pricing.

I have occasionly bought through ABEBooks, which works similarly to Amazon on second hand books. Good value, I think you will find that the sellers buy in bulk and take what they can get for poor quality, unwanted etc and make their money on the more valuable stuff.
Jim