Selling used books
I just started my selling account and am trying to add some used books. I have been approved to sell books but most books I am adding also need brand approval. What does that mean? What documents am I supposed to show if I purchased books from libraries, book sales, friends, ects.
Selling used books
I just started my selling account and am trying to add some used books. I have been approved to sell books but most books I am adding also need brand approval. What does that mean? What documents am I supposed to show if I purchased books from libraries, book sales, friends, ects.
29 replies
Seller_kNAboD6kRgVt7
Amazon may not want any more used book sellers on the site. If you check this forum, you will find many threads about this. No one has ever posted a solution. Personally, I think that rather than just saying "no more sellers" they are going this "get approval" route. Then they avoid any bad comments about it. I'm assuming you are choosing "used" from the drop down menu when listing.
When they ask for the brand approval, they are assuming you want to sell new, which you would need invoices for. The bots do not seem able to comprehend the used book issue.
Occasionally it actually IS the brand, I have about seven publishers that I cannot list here, even if I choose "used." But seeing SO many new sellers run into this, with any publisher they try, I believe in the "conspiracy" theory.
Seller_keSnEDesLFVwv
I'm sorry to say that you have picked a very bad time to try to sell books on Amazon. Even booksellers with 10 or 15 years on Amazon are encountering this drivel.
You basically have two options:
1) Buy new books from the publisher, 10 or more per title, and present the invoice from Amazon. They will probably let you sell then. ( Although I don't guarantee it )
After a few years of this, if you have sufficient volume and good metrics, they may allow you to sell used.
2) Sell your used books someplace else.
Seller_QhExdURDKW5Dg
hey, welcome to selling books. No one knows how to get verification, so just give up and sell or trade the ones that need it somewhere else, everyone else does.
Seller_NDQApF6fwgF6l
If you are just starting out Youtube is your best friend. It took me 6 years to gain all the knowledge I have. I do it full time and make a good living. I hesitate to tell any newbie anything. There are already to many people that do it, and most only last a 1-3 months. You can learn by trial and error, but mostly reading, watching and learning everything and anything you can get your hands on. Good luck.
Seller_uegrw9t4BikOA
Provide Amazon with the invoices for those purchases and see what they say. They will want genuine sources so from friends probably won't work unless that friend has a book store. You may have to apply several times before you get to the flexible robot. Good luck!
Seller_X2kz7PeAVCwqc
A couple of thoughts-- you may know all these things already but just wanted to offer some potentially helpful tips.
1. If you have the seller app on your phone, when you scan a title you will be able to see if you will need brand approval because it will say "requires approval". So if you are at a thrift store or library sale or anywhere where you are trying to find books to buy, this will help you know which books will be listable on Amazon, and might help you avoid buying books that you won't be able to list.
2. If you list the books that you ARE allowed to list, and build a bit of sales history here on Amazon, Amazon MAY back off a bit on the brand approvals so that you will be allowed to sell more titles later on. Cross your fingers on that one. But as other posters have said, even longtime sellers are now running into this brand approval problem (we're in our 15th year), and no one has figured out a way to avoid it completely.
3. If selling books online interests you, don't be discouraged, there are other sites where you can list books, especially if they're older and collectible--including Abe Books which is Amazon owned but has totally different requirements for listing. So think of Amazon as one of several potential options for selling, rather than the only one.
4. Even if you can't list a lot of the newer titles on Amazon, you might still be able to sell older, out-of-print titles that are more valuable (if you can find them!) because those titles are less likely to be gated.
5. I may catch some flak for saying this one--but sometimes there are multiple listings for the same edition on Amazon, because their catalog is a bit of a mess, and you might find that one listing is open for you to list on even if other ones are gated. I would NOT advise doing this for books that have an ISBN, but it is a legitimate option in my opinion for some older titles that predate the ISBN system.
6. The professional selling plan on Amazon saves you $1 per sale and costs $40 per month. So it is easy to see if that plan is a good deal--just wait to buy it until you are selling more than 40 titles per month. If you're under that amount, then there's no real benefit to being a pro seller.
Good luck!
Colorado Book Lovers
Seller_2LQMd7u0WyTlL
Like others have said, Amazon doesn't want new seller accounts that specialize in used media. The decision was made by the higher ups. They don't state it clearly, but they use passive aggressive methods, so people comply that way. All this ironic, not only because Jeff started with used books, but also because the market is being flooded with material like never before, in my experience.
Seller_XSqPquQH4FvW1
It's not just new sellers. I have been selling since zshops, and until recently have been more or less automatically approved except for a very few gated textbooks. Now, no approval at all w/o invoices.
Amazon has obviously been trying to choke off 3rd party sellers lately. But on the other hand, they don't seem to be directing buyers toward used books on ABE, which they own. A while back, they were giving a link on the product page for ABE, but I haven't seen these lately.
Seller_SJRMV3s4mNrFA
It means that Amazon purposely violates the Supreme Court's First Sale Doctrine ruling. Give up trying to sell books OF ANY KIND here.
Seller_FcJ62CpbWSlbK
20 years ago, this was a great venue for used books. One by one, publishers restrict who sells their products. The selling fees are very high for any profit. The shipping has gone up higher than would allow a good profit. The legal way to sell books is to purchase directly form the source, 10 items at a time so that you get an invoice. Then hope you can sell that book. If you can, hope you can sell all 10 before the invoice expires. Best of luck.
