Sell Used Books And Toys With ASellerTool–First Update In Series

by Melissa on June 22, 2009

Last week I posted that I approached the folks at ASellerTool about a barter proposal that gave me a free monthly membership to use their book and toy scouting software in return for me writing a weekly post about what I’ve found using the ASellerTool.

If you need to get familiar with what the ASellerTool does, please read my post, “Use This Tool To Make Money Selling Books, DVD’s & CD’s.”

I hadn’t toy scouted before, and the toy scouting feature is somewhat new to ASellerTool, so I thought I would try that out by going to my local Tuesday Morning’s retail store. Since the ASellerTool does not list used toy prices-only collectible and new toy prices from Amazon’s database-I wanted to try it out first where new toys are sold, and not my local thrift store where mostly used toys are sold (every once in a while, you may find a new toy sitting on a shelf, but not very often). If I get better at identifying what used toys are worth, I’ll try using the ASellerTool on toys at other venues like Goodwill or other thrift stores, garage sales, etc. Until then, I’ll use the toy feature on new toys from discount centers or at retail stores holding big sales.

PDA With ASellerTool Software

Anyway, before I left my house, I downloaded Amazon’s pricing database onto my PDA, and I had charged my handheld scanner the night before.

I use headphones when using the ASellerTool so that when I scan a book or toy, I don’t annoy everyone else around me with the sound signals that let me know if the item is a good item to purchase for resale or not. My decision is based on the criteria I’ve set with the ASellerTool software loaded on my PDA.

I don’t know about other people using ASellerTool, but I try to be as discrete as possible. I keep the PDA in my purse, and just have the scanner visible in order to scan items. I sometimes feel like I should inform the staff of what I’m doing so they don’t think I’m up to no good!

Handheld Scanner I Use To Find Used Books To Sell On Amazon With ASellerTool

I didn’t have a lot of time to toy scout on this particular day. I also didn’t want to scout for toys that were too low priced which a lot of them are at Tuesday Morning, because I wanted my profit to be large enough to make my trip to the store worth it.

I looked for bigger items and found a bunch of Hooked on Phonics products that were in the toy aisle that were originally $99.99. One was “Hooked On 1st Grade–The Complete 1st Grade Learning System” that I purchased for $29.99, and the other one was “Hooked On Handwriting-Learn To Print” that I purchased for $14.99. They had a few more, but I thought I would start with these two items. Turns out, they are actually considered “books” on Amazon and not toys.

According to Amazon’s database, I could make money on both of these items so I purchased them. When I got home, I went to list both on Amazon under my seller account. However, I decided to list just the “Hooked On 1st Grade” product on Amazon because it looked like the profit margin would be higher on that product if it sells for the price I listed it. I listed it at $95.99. If it sells, I’ll receive $83.24 from Amazon after their commission and the shipping cost they receive from the buyer. I’ll only get $3.99 from the buyer for shipping because this item is considered a book. This item weighs about 5lbs. give or take and comes in a rather large box. I’m guessing it will cost about $9 to ship if I ship it Media Mail. Anyway, I could receive anywhere from $40-$44 in profit for this product if it sells.

The other item, the “Hooked On Handwriting” product, I decided to list on Half.com. Since my profit margin is less and my fees are less on Half.com, I thought I would try listing it there first. I bought it for $14.99 and the item is selling for around $25.00 on Amazon but with a lot of competition.

I listed it for $34.99 on Half.com and was the second cheapest seller to list this item. I’ll probably have to wait for the cheaper item to sell before mine will sell. We’ll see, I may end up putting it on Amazon as well or on eBay where I can promote other things (like this blog) through the use of my About Me page (read my post, “Put Money In Your Pocket With This Strategy-No Website Needed! Part I” if you’re interested in this).

The ASellerTool Book Scouting Tools I Use

I did find other toys at Tuesday Morning that were selling for less than they were on Amazon, and had a good ranking on Amazon meaning that they would probably sell quickly, however, they just weren’t priced high enough to make it worth my while. Now what I could do, would be to purchase these toys, sell them on eBay and drive people to my About Me page where I could try to sell a back end product like a guide about how to sell toys on eBay or what the hottest toys are to sell on eBay-something like that.

In next week’s ASellerTools’s series post, I’ll give you an update to whether or not last week’s items sold, as well as what I found this week scouting with the ASellerTool.

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