The books I'm selling are from an estate, and the reason for using eBay is to target an audience. On occasion I've had sales go to someone who sells books, but the lion's share go to readers who like these authors. When I bundle different authors in a lot it is because I don't have very many of each. Selling fewer than three books seems to be a crap shoot at eBay and you pay much higher fees that way, so I group them by author or subject or kind of author. British women (Christie, James), women sleuths (Paretsky, Muller), western mysteries (Hillerman, Page), family (Kellermans), etc. I'm finding a number of these buyers are in places where getting out to a used bookstore to find the books by favorite authors is a challenge. That's why I think if Kat were to bundle books she buys wholesale, she might not make a lot of money, but she'd have a steady audience of readers who crave this kind of affordable access.

I also think being transparently and absolutely fair is the only way to sell on eBay. When I sell kids clothes, I see how many garments in the category (boys pants, size 10, for example) I can fit in the box. (We shop in a thrift store so my kids have a lot of clothes, all purchased in excellent condition or mended before I sell them. I sell nothing that is in poor shape). If I have 10 pair, that seems to me too many if someone is wanting a few for their son, so I'll put five pair per smallish boxes and list them at the same time. If someone wants both I will absolutely repack them into a larger box so they're not penalized by paying individual shipping on both auctions. This often happens. I usually also try to sell corresponding sized shirts at the same time, and I have had people buy three at once. I sell those by setting up the auction and then paying the 10 cents extra per to start them at a given time. I have them end 15 minutes apart and end on a weeknight evening.

This also applies to books. I've had people buy a couple of different lots and will repack them. Personally, I think this is the best way to interest people in your auctions, is to be upfront about condition, identify flaws, and be reasonable in the shipping. I won't get rich, but I have made steady little transfers from PayPal back into my bank account. And this kind of sale isn't taxed as income.

SRS