I bought one this week.

The vast majority, although in very good condition, are paperbacks weighing over 250g and too big for Large Letter, which would cost £1.85 to post second-class plus 12p for a bag, which leaves a profit of less than 20p each, making it not worthwhile.

I have been able to list 163 of them, quite a few of which are duplicates, and all except two of which are penny books, mostly with hundreds up against them on the page.

About 40 are damaged and can only be discarded.

This might work for sellers with very big operations, low-paid staff and special postage deals. It's no use for small-scale individual sellers.

I am considering whether to take the several hundred oversize ones to a car boot sale, or draw a line under the experience and give them away.

It's not necessarily as negative as it sounds. There's a market near me which doubles as a boot sale on Sundays, and you get provided with a covered stall in the town centre rather than having to set up your own table in a field.

So ... IF ... if ... I can knock out hundreds of the big ones there instead of on here, at say 50p each; and sell most of the smaller ones on here at 1p, which would roughly double my investment (and they are already going quite fast); then it won't work out too badly.

But ultimately it's no substitute for scouting around for academic books and suchlike that sell for over £10.

(Are you saying people will pay upwards of £3 for big fat bestsellers on eBay?).

I do alright on there, it is only a hobby really if i was doing it to. make a living I would have a lot  books more listed.

definitely busier then on here though!