I recently looked at my bookshelf and realized the amount of books I have collected during the past 18 months. As I am going to relocate to Hong Kong after the MBA, I wanted to purge my collection of those books that I either did not like or would not read again.
My first instinct was ebay, but I then remembered that you can sell used books on Amazon. So I set up my account (5 min) and entered the two books I wanted to sell. One of them (What color is your parachute) was the 2008 edition so I set the price quite low (the 2009 edition is already out.)
Within 20 minutes (!) I received an email that the book had been sold. Back to the amazon webpage and I found a link to a complete order delivery slip. I just needed to print it, cut out the address and stick it on the box I used to send the book. The rest of the order slip I put into the box with the book. Off to the post office and the first sale was complete.
This was (obviously on a small scale) a good example of how amazon is levering its database, reach, supply-chain experience and organisation to establish a second-hand marketplace. And with the powerful voting mechanism in place the risk of abuse is minimized as well.
Very impressive!
Don
