Sell Books for Cash
Part-Time or Full-Time

I'm often asked if it's possible to sell books for cash part-time on the Internet.

Well, lets see…

So far this month I've only gone out book scouting six times, buying used inventory for about four hours on each trip. As a result, I've listed 196 books for a total of $3,150.45 which gives me an average listing price of $16.07.

By the way, my average sales rank is 746,065.

Okay, six outings times four hours each is 24 hours which also equals $131.27 per hour of effort in a cheap used book store or two that I frequent. Does that sound like a living wage to you?

Now hold your horses! That may sound like easy ways of making money but that hourly figure isn't what it seems. That's only the amount of used book value listed and not sold.

As you know from Internet Bookselling Made Easy! I can only expect to see about 1/3 of those books sell within the next 30 days. That's called the new listing sales rate.

Now lets take the math another step. Multiply 196 books times 33% equals almost 65 books. Sixty-five books times $16.07 equals $1,044 in gross sales. Here's the formula:

As a final step, I can figure on a 50% net profit margin on gross sales, so out of the $1,044 I'll see $522 over the next 30 days. The remaining two thirds will trickle in at a rate of 3% - 5% per month over the coming months and years as residual sales.

By-the-way, residual sales are a great way to generate a passive income stream.

What's my hourly rate now? About $21.77 per hour -- but that's still a respectable amount annualized at $45,282 per year from book scouting. Well above the poverty rate, and it beats the pants off unemployment benefits.

The above example just goes to show you that when you sell books for cash it's NOT a get-rich-quick scheme, but you can definitely earn a living as well as make lots of money quick if you're willing to invest the necessary time in your business to become successful.

I don't believe anything can beat online selling if you know what you're doing. However, you'll have to work more than 24 hours to earn a living.

Good hunting.
Joe