What's going on on eBay??

[katelynschoumaker]

For my self-published authors: have any of you noticed or been told that your book is being sold on eBay? I just found out that mine (published exclusively through Amazon on August 8) is being sold from the UK and Australia on eBay through a company/business called the Nile. It retails on Amazon for $17.99 USD, and they're reselling it for $30+ USD. My sales report also don't show that anyone from the UK or Australia has purchased my book.

I know pirates are always out there reselling authors' works, but is that what's happening here? I'm assuming they're waiting for sales before purchasing the book from Amazon and sending it out to their buyers since I haven't seen any UK or Australian sales yet. Has anyone else experienced this, and is there any way to get a handle on it? I don't want people to pay double the original cost and I definitely don't want someone else profiting off of up-charging my book by over 50%. That feels so unfair to any potential readers who might find my book through eBay. Any advice? Thanks!

 

[Finchbearer]

Ebay is the Wild West…

Your book is also available to purchase through Waterstones in the UK - you’ve must have made your book widely available.

 

[katelynschoumaker]

Ebay is the Wild West…

Your book is also available to purchase through Waterstones in the UK - you’ve must have made your book widely available.

I did - I have expanded distribution. I'm glad I have ED so my book can be sold across multiple marketplaces, but my concern is how these people got their hands on the book in the first place. It looks like they're hoping to drop ship - buy the book from Amazon when a customer buys it from their eBay page, then ship it directly to the buyer from Amazon. That goes against eBay's policies especially since one of these sellers is putting the book up for sale for $45!!! My other concern is that they're taking the ebook and reprinting the book for sale. I'm not sure what can be done about that.

 

[Finchbearer]

Report them as fraudulent is all I can think, if you have an Ebay account. Welcome to the world of plagiarism! It’s a constant never ending battle.

 

[pmmg]

I think contact amazon. If they are scammers, they are scamming Amazon too, and amazon may have better way of looking into it.

 

[ThinkerX]

This got me curious enough to check...

At least three of my books are on eBay, priced in Australian dollars. Oh well, at least they're the revised editions...

I considered selling my books on eBay a few times, but it seemed like too much of a hassle.

Time for Skip, pmmg, AE Lowan, and other folks here to check eBay...

 

[Finchbearer]

It’s not just Ebay, it’s rife everywhere, people either trying to undersell or oversell a plagiarised product. What they will do is just add on the cost of them distributing it ‘like a bookstore’ might do, so unfortunately it might be something that they make say $15 - $20 profit on. Amazon have some products for crazy money, I suppose in the hopes that some gullible sap will buy it.

 

[pmmg]

I am on there too via a company named 'the nile store'.

Near as I can tell, they are somewhat legit, just a middleman. Since the prices are so high, I would not want someone to buy from them, but I am not sure its a crime what they are doing. If they sell one of my books, they may have to get it from amazon, and so, I should get the same royalty.

I would expect they have everyone's books. I think the joke is on them, cause its not like people are beating down my door to buy things at the actual list price.

I suppose I would like to attach a note to say, hey, this is a lot cheaper if you get it from amazon, but I dont see how.

In part, I have to think this is somewhat on the consumer. If they dont know that's too much for a book, what am I to do? Sometimes you get punished for not looking in the obvious places.

 

[pmmg]

Just doing some more research on the UK and AU markets, if I was to buy my book on Amazon AU, the price listed there is not far off from what 'the nile' is offering it at. Same for another one that seems to be making a similar offer. I think these places, while maybe sleazy, are legit. They are likely just going to buy from Amazon if a sale happens, mark it up $3 or $4, and pretend they did a good thing. I am not sure this is enough to get alarmed at.

Cost of my book on Amazon AU: 36.86 for the paperback.
On Nile: 43.75

Cost of book in the US: $12.99

Going through the conversion rate, the diff in AU $ between amazon AU and the Nile is like $3.00 US.

I am sure they would like me to take off enough that they would buy my book in bulk to make a little more, but....that is probably still on me.

And, of course, I am not sure why the prices is not the equivalent of $12.99 us. I am/was trusting Amazon to get the exchange price right. I may have to go manually adjust things.

 

[pmmg]

So talking to Amazon about the price difference between what it shows in my KDP bookshelf and the amazon.au price, it does seem it has some to do with the location I am in. Such that, if I make myself appear to be from New Zealand, the price drops $21.00 Au, which much more closely matches what Amazon thinks the exchange rate should be.

I think this may be a lot of nothing. Just other resellers trying to get in the middle, and not pirates.

I would expect pirate to post my book for free on a pirate site, or put it on amazon as their own and hope I did not notice.

 

[Prince of Spires]

It's not illegal or fraudulent, and there's nothing you can do about it.

It's legal to sell second-hand books. You as the author can't do anything about that. In fact, there are even whole stores that sell nothing but second hand books.

If you sell something second hand, then you can determine the price of said item. Now, most second hand books sell for less than their original purchase price. Usually something like 10% of it or so. However, if there's a rare version, then people are willing to pay more. If I would have a first edition, first print run copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, or of the Bible, then you could be sure I would ask a lot more than 10% of the recommended retail price. And that is allowed, and the author doesn't get anything for that at all. Never has been the case, never will be.

Which brings us to ebay. I can sell second hand books on ebay. There is nothing illegal about that. In fact, I have some books on my bookshelf (of which I have 2 copies for reasons) that I'm thinking of selling second hand. To sell something second hand, I first need to have bought it. So as long as I bought it, then I can sell it.

In this case, this person has set up a shop selling second hand books. They are probably marked as "new," which is perfectly fine, since this person has probably never read the book in question, and thus for the purpose of its quality it will look as new. When someone buys the secondhand book on ebay, then they will buy the book on Amazon (or whichever other site they use) and buy the book from there, and then sell it to the ebay buyer.

As mentioned, this is perfectly legal. They will have purchased a book (for which you get royalties), and then they will sell that book second hand.

The exception here is ebooks. There can be country specific rules about reselling ebooks (for instance, it's not allowed in the Netherlands). After all, an ebook never decays, so it could be resold as many times as you want without loss of quality to the reader.