Want list pricing
Every ISBN in your want list will be associated with a bid, either the max price you are willing to pay or a percentage of the ISBN's list price that you set. If your bids are matched to a potential seller, this is the price you will ultimately be charged if that seller sends in the requested ISBN and is approved during receiving and processing. After this your order is shipped to your address including a shipping fee.
Your bids, and how they compare to the bids of other buyers in our marketplace, is a big determinant of how much used textbook volume you’ll be able to source from our program. Read on for more information on how to access our suggested pricing for ISBNs on your want list, and how to use this suggested pricing to maintain a competitive edge in our marketplace.
Setting and adjusting bids
Portal users have two options when it comes to setting bids.
Option 1: Include a bid column (as shown below) that contains the price you are willing to pay (as a set dollar amount) for each ISBN in your want list. If you wish to set an individual bid for just a few ISBNs, simply include those bids in your file and leave the remaining bid fields blank. You will then be prompted to set a percentage of list price for these remaining, unspecified bids.
Option 2: Leave prices out of your want list file and you will be automatically prompted to set your bids as a percentage of list price as shown below. We recommend starting out at 45% of list price.
Suggested bid pricing
Once you start to see orders being placed, we then recommend taking advantage of our suggested bid price functionality to adjust the bids for ISBNs on your want list that haven't generated as many orders as you would like. Here's how to access suggested bid pricing from within your ValoreBooks Marketplace Source account:
- Be sure to pause any existing bids before uploading a new list.
- Log in to your source account and click on "Export want list"
- Look for the "suggested-bid" column in the want list file.
- Adjust your want list bids accordingly. We recommend using our suggested bid price as a guideline for how to adjust the bids of ISBNs on your want list that you'd like to see higher fulfillment on. We determine the suggested bid price largely based on data we collect on what other buyers in our marketplace (and in the global online buyback marketplace as a whole) are willing to pay for that given ISBN at that given moment in time. That doesn't mean that you have to adjust all your bids to the suggested price. It just means that the closer you get to the suggested price, the more bids you are likely to win.
Pricing FAQs
What is a bid?
Your bid is the price that you are willing to pay for a given ISBN. This is the price that you will be ultimately charged if a seller sends in your order. The more competitive your bids are priced, the more likely your bids will be matched to sellers, and the more used textbook volume you are likely to receive. You will never be charged more than your bid.
How do I set my bids?
You will have three options when it comes to setting your bids within the Source portal:
- Set them after you upload your file. Leave prices out of your want list file and you will be automatically prompted to set your bids as a percentage of list price. We recommend starting out at 45% of list price and adjusting from there based on performance.
- Include them in your want list file. Include a column that contains the price that you are willing to pay (as a set dollar amount) for each ISBN in your want list. If you wish to set an individual bid for just a few ISBNs, simply include those bids in your file and leave the remaining fields blank. You will then be prompted to set a percentage of list price for these remaining, unspecified bids.
- Use Source suggested pricing
What is Source suggested bid pricing?
The Valore Marketplace suggested bid price is determined based on how competitive the bids of other buyers are, for that ISBN, in the global online marketplace. What do we mean when we say global online marketplace? Basically, what other buyers online -- in the Valore Marketplace and beyond -- are willing to pay for that given ISBN at that given moment in time.
The closer you are to the suggested bid price, the more likely you are to win orders for that ISBN. That doesn’t mean you won’t get any orders if you are below the suggested bid price. Nor does it mean that you are guaranteed to get orders if you price at the suggested bid price. It is meant to serve as a guideline for how competitive you are compared to other buyers in the marketplace.
Valore Marketplace is an active marketplace and suggested bid prices may fluctuate from day to day, even hour to hour, as new buyers are added, guides are adjusted, and bids are changed. We recommend monitoring suggested bid prices closely and adjusting as often as necessary.
How do I see the suggested bid price?
- Once you've gone live with Source, log into your Source account and click on 'Export want list'
- Look for the suggested-bid column in the want list file
What cut does Valore Marketplace take?
Valore Marketplace will automatically adjust your bids to account for the commission we take. Besides shipping from our warehouse to your warehouse.