Amazing post, thanks for sharing.

I think I'm doing books wrong and I'd really love some advice from anyone. It takes me so much time, I can't figure how others send in hundreds of books a week.

I list all my books on Amazon FBA. I'd try MFN or EBAY but I don't have the space to store anything long term.

I tracked my time on this last batch and it took me 16 hours to process 36 books, not including source time.

My process is like this:

• I enter the books into my spreadsheet (5 hours). For each book:
  • I enter how much it cost me.
  • I do a check to determine condition and record that. I also make notes of anything that will need to be cleaned or written in the condition note.
  • I look the book up on Amazon, find the correct listing and copy the title, ISBN, and ASIN into the sheet.
  • I go through the offers prices and pick a rough number I think I will list at, and enter it in the sheet. I also look up what the fees will be using the calculator.
• Then the books are cleaned (3 hours).
  • Stickers peeled off.
  • Goo Gone for sticker residue.
  • Alcohol wipe for dirt.
  • Final wipe to remove any Goo Gone oil.
• Finally, they are listed on Amazon (5 hours). This part repeats a lot of my first step.
  • I grade the book again. Sometimes, the grade is higher after cleaning. Sometimes, it's lower because I discovered a single page with some highlighting/pen marks.
  • Look up the book offers, settle on a price. I spend too much time here, especially if there are a lot of FBA sellers and their prices are low (<$5). I try to convince myself I can sell the same condition book at $15+. Sometimes, I end up not listing it.
  • Add the product via seller central or InventoryLab.
  • Add to shipment.
• Final prep (2 hours).
  • I shrink wrap everything. I mention it in my listings and I like feeling like the books are protected. I also list several 50+ year old books.
  • FNSKU Labels are printed off and applied, along with suffocation warning labels.
• Box(es) are packed, labelled and picked up by UPS via smart pickup (<1 hour).

If you calculate my pay hourly, it's still really really good. But I'd like to do more than 30 books a week, and I'd like to know how people are sending in so many books each week. I suspect they don't shrink wrap, and they probably don't clean the books. Is it even worth opening the book? Or do people just list every book as "GOOD" and say "may contain writing or highlighting"?

I get an item from photographs to online in 5 minutes or less

This is just amazing to me.