When I first started buying and selling on eBay I noticed a lot of books, eBooks, information products, and other merchandise being sold for less than a dollar.  I have seen a lot of eBooks and regular books being sold for a penny - that's right one cent.  For the longest time I wondered - Why?

After all it cost a minimum of 15 cents to list any item on eBay.  This just did not make sense to me.  I finally figured it out and here is what they are doing:

1. Running a feedback farm.  They don't care about making money initially. All they want to do is build a high feedback rating - hoping it will all be positive.
2. They may be making their profit on the shipping and handling.  Let's take a standard size book - 9" by 6" that weighs between 1 and 2 pounds.  Media mail postage for this book is $2.65 including delivery confirmation.  If the seller does not include delivery confirmation they save 18 cents; postage is $2.37.  It is usually shipped in a padded envelope (if you are lucky) which costs less than .50 purchased in bulk.  So the sellers cost is $3.15 maximum.  Sure they have some other costs so let's say they charge $5.00 or less; they are probably not making much money.  If they are charging more than $5.00 dollars they not only make a few dollars but they circumvent eBay's final value fees.
3. What about an eBook where the S&H is free?  Now the seller is losing money on this item.  Why would they do this?  They have two reasons for doing this: (1) they are collecting your email address in order to sell you other products off eBay; and (2) they are probably selling you a poorly written eBook that is full of links to other products they sell.  These links may not even be for their products.  They are building a large Affiliate Business.  Someone with a legitimate product is paying them a small commission on every lead they provide that results in a sale. 
4. Some are eBooks that give the buyer resale rights.  By buying the eBook you gain resale rights to the eBook including the sales letters, the graphics, etc.  I would be very careful about most of these products.  Chances are the initial success is over.  The market is now saturated because too many other people are trying to sell the same product.  I know this is true because I have bought some of them - and guess what - I never made any money.

There is nothing wrong with Affiliate programs.  Most are related to very good products.  I participate in some of them - but I don't offer anything for sale that is a front for selling you something else. 

My suggestion is to be careful with products that are being sold at prices dramatically below their wholesale value.  In fact, I would go so far as to suggest you avoid any product that is being sold for less than a dollar.

I hope you found this guide to be informative.  If so, please take a moment to give it a favorable rating.

I invite you to visit our About Me Page to read more about me and see our positive feedback.

You might also visit our eBay Store Buck Creek Books to look at all of the items we have for sale.

Thanks for taking the time to read this guide. 

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Note to eBay:  I have a suggestion that would put a stop to most of this questionable selling - don't allow a starting bid price or buy-it-now price to be less than the eBay lisitng fees plus the estimated final value fee if the item sells for the starting bid price.