Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Joining the Marketplace

Selling in the Amazon.com Marketplace as an individual seller is by far the quickest way to make some cash on Amazon. Considering its fee structure and setup, the Marketplace is a basic selling opportunity that will suit you if you want to sell only a few items. This clear-cut process has no startup costs, which is an ideal way to get your feet wet if you haven't sold on Amazon previously.

After you register in the Marketplace, you can post a new or used item for sale. Your item is then listed alongside the same brand-new product sold on Amazon. Figure 2-1 shows an example of how a used item appears on the same page as the new version of that item.

Figure 2-1: Marketplace items show up on the Amazon product pages.

Customers can choose to buy the new item from Amazon or buy it instead from you. When a customer decides to purchase from you, the customer adds the product to his or her shopping cart and pays for it on Amazon.com (like a normal purchase). Amazon then sends you (the seller) the customers order information and you're responsible for shipping the product. Your Amazon sellers account is credited for the purchase amount, and then you receive a direct deposit from Amazon for the items that sold. (Although total amounts show up in your account immediately, deposits are distributed every 14 days.) That's it!

Amazon doesn't charge you any money to list ...