Amazon FBA Bookselling Tools and Resources for Complete Newbies

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If you are new to Amazon FBA Bookselling, check out my introductory guide to Amazon FBA Bookselling for beginners before reading on.

Starting a side (or full-time) hustle selling used books on Amazon using FBA is actually very easy. It’s also cheap, simple and it can be set up within a few weeks. Anybody can start and make a decent, steady and, dare I say it, easy stream of income.

But getting started can be overwhelming.

In this post, I go through all the useful tools and resources that you will need in order to accelerate your bookselling hustle.

The recommendations that I’m going to make are going to help you to successfully start selling used books on Amazon using FBA. I am using (or have used) every recommendation on this page and some are crucial to running our FBA bookselling business.

Sourcing

If you’re going to be sourcing books to resell at a profit, you will need some tools and software fit for the task. Especially as most books are worthless.

Bluetooth barcode scanner

The barcode scanner that we use and prefer is the KDC 200i. I wouldn’t recommend buying a new a one though, it costs a fortune. Instead, I would advise buying a refurbished one, which costs about £80 (or $100). I’ve had my refurbished scanner for almost a year and haven’t had any serious issues yet.

The KDC 200i is small enough to be attached to your phone. I use velcro tape to attach it to the back of my phone so that I can look up books with one hand.

A barcode scanner along with an Amazon database pricing application is the most valuable tools that you need. Combined these two tools will allow you to look up the resale values of books instantaneously.

All you have to do is open your database pricing application, pair your scanner to your phone, push the button on your scanner and the application will return the resale of the book you just scanned. This is possible because a barcode scanner can read any barcode instantly and a database pricing application does not require an internet connection.

Check out my other articles on barcode scanners before investing in one.

Database pricing application

As for Amazon database pricing applications, I use NeatoScan. A paid application that costs $50 a month (about £40). If you are in the UK, this is the only option on the market, unfortunately. But if a cheaper one comes to market, I would switch without hesitation as I do think it is expensive.

If you are in the USA, however, cheaper alternatives are available including:

  • FBAScan
  • ScoutIQ
  • ProfitBandit
  • Scoutify

Both a database pricing and the Amazon Seller application show information such as price and sales rank, but at a specific moment in time. There will be times, however, when you will need to analyse some books in more depth. Instead, you will need to assess historical data to make better buying choices.

Web browser extensions such as Keepa or CamalCamalCamal provide historical price, sales rank and number of offers for a particular product. These extensions are free. You can access such data for books on a database pricing application with a click of a button. But if you’re using the Amazon Seller application when sourcing, you’ll need to open and use a web browser. In either case, however, you will need an internet connection.

In summary 

These tools are essential for speed and finding a lot more profitable books. In other words, they will take your book sourcing game to the next level. Even a barcode scanner used with the Amazon Seller App will increase your speed of scanning and productivity.

If, however, you have a small starting capital, I would recommend using just the Amazon Seller App. It’s free, easy to use and the only app that shows all up-to-date FBA offers.

Listing

The listing aspect of Amazon FBA Bookselling goes hand in hand with sourcing. The more you source, the more you will have to list.

If you find, say 50 books a week, you can list them manually either using the Amazon Seller app on your phone or Seller Central. But if you’re sourcing more, listing them manually is slow and tedious.

So how can you list lots of books more efficiently?

To list books in bulk fast, I use a third-party software called ScanLister. It costs $19 per month or $299 for a lifetime license. In addition to ScanLister, you will also need a barcode scanner to scan books to ScanLister so that then you can upload to your Amazon account.

Other resources on ScanLister.

In summary

If you source a small number of books weekly, you don’t need a third-party listing software. The Amazon Seller application or Seller Central is enough. But if you plan on listing at least 50 books a week, I would highly recommend Scanlister. Why? Because it lets you list as well as print labels for hundreds of books with a few clicks of a button.

You can also use Scanlister for retail and online arbitrage, and wholesale hustles. You won’t need to pay for other listing or label printing software.

Shipping

After listing books to your Amazon account, you need to label and package them securely. This way they will arrive at Amazon FBA safely, ready to be stored, picked, packed and shipped.

Labelling

We use ScanLister with a DYMO LabelWriter 450 thermal printer to print labels. They are essential to my business and I use them almost every day. It’s also the type of printer that Amazon recommends because thermal printed labels are not easily smudged. You could also use a laser printer.

I prefer the DYMO LabelWriter 450 because it’s affordable, easy to use and durable. It only costs £45 (or $60) and doesn’t use ink. You only need to buy labels, the cost of which is negligible as they’re very cheap. I use 57 x 32 mm labels which come in rolls of 1,000. A pack 10 costs £29. That’s £0.003 per label.

Setting the DYMO LabelWriter 450 up is easy. You just need to download the driver, connect it to a computer and you’re ready to go. Its only downside is that it’s not wireless. Other than that, it’s an effective and easy-to-use printer that you should consider investing in. That’s if you don’t already have one.

It will last you for a while, too. I’ve had mine for almost a year now and I haven’t had many issues, except a few jams, of course.

Packaging

Another part of shipping to Amazon is packaging, which is the easiest but most boring part of selling used books on Amazon. Nevertheless, it has to be done.

Your shipments are handled by many people during their journies to Amazon FBA. They will therefore get rattled and knocked about, for sure. For this reason, I use double walled cardboard boxes and tape their seams and edges with heavy duty brown tape.

Take the right precautions, package properly and make your own luck.

These strong, rigid boxes will provide the extra protection that you need, especially when they are taped sufficiently. They don’t cost much, too. You can get a pack of 15 cardboard boxes for £15. That’s £1 per box, or £0.029 per book (assuming 35 books per box).

More often than not, you will have empty space when packaging. I normally use bubble wrap to fill void space, but you can also use kraft paper, too. A roll of bubble wrap costs about £20 and is enough for at least 36 boxes. Which, assuming 35 books per box, falls to £0.016 per book.

You will also need a shipping scale to measure the weight of your shipments.

Summary

The labelling and packaging tools we use help us to ship books efficiently to Amazon FBA at very little cost. The only real cost involved is the cost of the equipment themselves. Other than that, the cost of labelling and packaging books are very cheap — around £0.10 per book.

Check out my other articles on the tools of the trade

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