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What gets me, is that frequently when the item price+shipping are added together the $.01 used books cost more than the new ones. Often by 30-50%. There were ar
by StillBored 10y ago
What gets me, is that frequently when the item price+shipping are added together the $.01 used books cost more than the new ones. Often by 30-50%. There were articles a few years ago about how people were making more from amazon's handling charges because the US post shipping rates on books were so inexpensive that they would have been listing the books for free if it was possible. That was even before amazon seemingly caught on and increased the shipping charges even more.
- paulmd 10y agoI had the opposite experience. During college I used to sell a lot of textbooks on Half.com, and shipping costs would almost always eat into the item price. Out of the standard media-mail $3.99 hardcover shipping price, Half.com gives the seller $3.04. For combined shipping, each additional item costs $2.49 and Half.com gives the seller $1.40. Out of the expedited $5.99 price, Half.com gives the seller $5.24. For combined shipping, each additional item costs $4.49 and Half.com gives the seller $3.49. Good luck shipping a textbook for $3, even by media mail. I would hand-wrap each book using some bubble-wrap and kraft paper (a clean paper grocery bag) to save costs on packaging, but shipping alone costs more than the reimbursements. Some of my textbooks are essentially worthless since if I sold for the going price ($0.99) I would actually lose money.