PDA Scanners for Selling on Amazon – Pros and Cons

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Here’s a transcription of the video:

Hi, this is Nathan holmquist and for this video I am gonna show you the pros and cons of using a PDA scanner for your amazon business. So this is what I use whenever I go to bookstores, thrift stores, library book sales to find the value of an item before I buy it, and generally when you get started, you have the option of using a PDA or a smartphone so I am gonna show some advantages and disadvantages of both. So the first thing I wanna do is show a short demonstration of my PDA in action, then I will get into the pros and cons. So here is the demonstration.

Alright, so you can see it is a pretty fast scanner, and those were actually about 7 or 8 books that I bought at a used bookstore a few days ago in the religious section. And so I will go ahead and tell you some pros and cons of using that type of PDA. So the first pro is that it is really easy to hold as you can see in the picture, everything fits in one hand, there’s a slot on top of the PDA where I can put in the scanner, there’s several different buttons I can choose from to activate the laser, I use the button underneath my thumb there, so it is really easy to hold and activate the laser. So that’s the number 1 advantage. The second one is no internet is needed. All the information is stored on a memory card, so that’s why it was scanning so fast. So if I am ever in a small town, or a basement of a library sale, I do not have to worry about getting a good 3g or 4g internet connection. And the third advantage is a long battery life. Generally I can scan 1 to 2 days without having to recharge it. I do have an extended battery on it, so that’s one reason why, but even with the regular battery it should last all day. Smartphones generally have a short battery life, so that’s something to take into consideration. So those are the 3 advantages, let us get into the disadvantages.

The first one is the cost. A scanner package can cost anywhere from 200 dollars to 1000 dollars. And also there’s a cost for the software as well. I use needle scan, that’s 50 dollars a month, there’s some other software programs out there as well, and the costs are anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars a month. So you have to be pretty committed to spend that kind of money. If you are using a smartphone, most people have a smartphone, so there’s no initial investment there, and a lot of the apps these days, a lot of the amazon apps are free, so there’s no monthly fee for the software. So that’s an advantage for the smartphone, disadvantage for the PDA. The second disadvantage of a PDA is that you have to upload amazon’s prices into the PDA every once in a while. Generally I do it about twice a month. I am probably a minority, but I really do not need the most recent prices when I am out scouting, I just want a general idea of what the book is worth, I do not need to know the exact value. But anyway, that is a disadvantage because you have to upload amazon’s data into the PDA if you want the fresh data. And the third disadvantage is that it is old technology, the PDA I showed you in that video was built in 2004, so it is over 10 years old. So there’s gonna be some hardware issues sometimes, it will break down and I will have to buy another one. I can usually get one on eBay for 60 to 70 dollars so it is not a huge deal, but it is something to keep in mind.

Alright, so in conclusion, the 3 advantages, easy to hold, easy to activate, super-fast as you saw in the demonstration, no internet needed so you can take it anywhere you want, 3 disadvantages, cost, old data, you have to constantly update the PDA so you can get amazon’s current prices in there, and it is old technology, so those PDAs can break down sometimes. So I hope that helps you in some way, for more tips and tricks on FBA, please visit my blog at booktothefuture.com, thank you for watching.