How Much Money Can You Make Selling Used Books on Amazon?

If you are consistent with the number of units you send each week you can expect to make about twice as much in the second year of this business as the first year and slightly more in the third year as the second.

This is because some books take a long time to sell and it takes time to build up your inventory to the max level. It isn’t passive income because it's hard work to find and send in inventory, however it is residual income because once it is sent in there isn’t a lot needed to manage the sales.

There is a income forecasting tool available that you can use to calculate how much money you can make in this business by entering how many books you plan to list each week and factoring in variables such as shipping cost, average sales price, and inventory turn rate. You won’t know the exact numbers for these variables for yourself as a beginner but you can use industry averages available in the forecasting tool until you have enough data collected from your own activities to customize it.

As an example, based on industry averages you would make $75,000 in your second year by listing 225 books per week (see image above) with $1.50 average inventory cost, $0.40/pound shipping cost, $18 average sales price, and 4% turn rate per week. From that number you still have to subtract monthly subscriptions, packing supplies, gas, equipment purchases, and taxes.

Using the same industry averages you would make over $131,000 in the second year if you list 400 books per week (see image below) which is possible if you work together with a spouse. 

You should be aware that there are fees associated with selling through Amazon FBA. For books you will pay an FBA fee usually between $2-$6, a referral fee which is usually 15% of the sales price of the book, and a closing fee which varies but is usually $1.80. Because of this you will rarely find books under $9 sales price that are profitable enough to sell FBA. On average Amazon takes 50% of your gross sales in fees if you follow this business model. The forecasting tool takes all these fees into account.

The articles within this blog contain all the information you'll need to start and run a successful book selling business. 

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