posted on March 19, 2006 03:56:56 AM
I have seen ebooks sold online many places now. They seem to be everywhere, and are quite popular. I have seen them on Ebay, many starting at 1cent, or very minimal amounts. How can they make any money doing it that way? Especially not charging S/H either? Does anyone know how they can even cover their listing fees this way? Man...I have been writing my own ebook, or CD {haven't decided which yet} on a particular subject to sell , but I never thought of selling at 1 Penny!
Just something I came across and was curious about, figured you all would probably know what they are doing.
Thanks,
Pattie
posted on March 19, 2006 04:21:35 AM
I do not know how they cover their fees, but most of them have have zero overhead in the product because they are copying many of the books from http://www.gutenberg.org/. Please note that selling book and images from Gutenberg is totally against their user agreement.
As for making money, some of them offer to ship a CD for an additional charge.
posted on March 19, 2006 07:12:54 AM
I think they are feedback scammers. I have checked some dubious sellers that had positive feedback to see what they received the positives for. Many times it was for either buying or selling penny ebooks, not for the higher priced items they were currently selling.
posted on March 19, 2006 08:14:07 AM
Are you sure the books actually *sold* for 1 cent, or were they just started at that amount?
A while back, someone here got an answer from a 1-cent book lister, who said he employs people to pack and ship and has instructed them when they have a slack period to just go online and list books for a penny.
(My thoughts on that are that this employer needs to manage his employees more efficiently.)
______________________________
My latest favorite feedback: This Lady is an asset to eBay. A REAL Gem. I think I'm in Love....
posted on March 19, 2006 08:28:05 AM
if you sell physical CD or books,you can be making money on shipping,but how do they do it with E-books or E-CD??
Unless there is a service charge??
I know one amzn bookseller explains how he can sell book at one penny and still be happy (he is not making money on shipping ),he buys pallets of remainder ,hurts ,overuns etc,the good books have been sold at a good profit and the remaining ones are just 'dogs' and if he can get rid of them,he will not have to pay storage / free up the space for new books he just ordered.
/ lets all stop whining !! /
posted on March 19, 2006 08:50:35 AM
They are feedback builders.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
Never ask what sort if computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him? - Tom Clancy
posted on March 19, 2006 10:41:56 AM
On pre-approved bidders auctions, the prospective bidder has to e-mail the seller for permission to bid. This gives the seller a perfect chance to email back a catalog, advertisement, or a proposal for an off - Ebay transaction for a more expensive item. The seller doesn't have to compile a list of email addresses for spam targets. They come to him.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
posted on March 19, 2006 11:53:17 AM
I get it, list 1000 1 cent ebooks on 10cent listing days. Cost $100. Cancel 850 of the listings so you can stagger the relists over the next 3 months. Monthly, relist 200- 300 that did not sell , all the while building up your SPAM list and your feedback. Wait for XMAS and then sell x-box boxes for $300 each. Take a Jamaican vaction before PayPal hears you've ripped people off. PRiceless!
posted on March 19, 2006 12:56:44 PM
There are mainly being sold as email builders. In some cases, the seller use the buyers to create an "opt-out" mailing list (or just spam in many cases), or to try to get followup sales (selling software, etc).
It doesn't violate ebay rules if you require payment, and don't mention feedback in your listing.
posted on March 19, 2006 01:15:10 PM
I suspect a few of them use it to build email addresses databases correlated with eBay/PayPal IDs. Very valuable to any phishers or spoofers who will later attempt to hijack your eBay/PayPal account. I suspect these sellers are harvesting "known good" account details for resale. They lose on the sale, but make up for it when their associates i.e. anyone who buys their eBay/PayPal IDs mailing list, ransack your accounts.
Either that or they failed Accounting/Economics 101
