Archive for the ‘In The News’ Category

Selling Used Textbooks is a Recession-Proof Business

Monday, July 6th, 2009

The business of selling used books can feel pretty risky sometimes, especially for new sellers. After all, you’re forgoing the security of a steady paycheck to go into business for yourself. A lot of people self-employed or small business owners are justifiably nervous, given the current state of the economy.

But according to an article published Friday in Business First of Columbus, at least one small business owner, Phil Smyres of Ohio, is feeling secure despite the recession. The good news? He does what we do. He sells used books.

Specifically, he sells used textbooks, both online and from his two brick-and-mortar locations. Smyres has been selling since 1993, and over all that time in the business, he’s learned that textbooks are a recession-proof business.

The article quotes him as saying “When times are good, there is more money for students to spend, when times are bad, more people go back to school.”

With 15-plus years of experience in the textbook business, he should know.

It makes good sense too, of course. While most readers don’t need books, to college students, textbooks are a necessity. They can’t just choose not to buy textbooks. It’s a captive market. As long as there are colleges, you will be able to make money selling used textbooks.

Smyres has another major observation that bodes well for booksellers. Although he sells both new and used textbooks, he says (more…)

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Amazon Drops Rhode Island Affiliates to Avoid Sales Tax

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

As booksellers, most of us use Amazon as a primary (or at least major) channel for selling our books. I’ve talked before about the issue of Amazon and taxes. Amazon’s polices make very clear their dedication to not collecting sales tax for you.

I’ve also warned you about taking on Amazon. Amazon is an 800 lb gorilla, and pretty much nobody is going to make it do anything it doesn’t want to. Some state lawmakers just learned that the hard way.

In an article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Geoffery A. Fowler reports that Amazon has “ended its business relationships with marketing affiliates in Rhode Island so the online retailer could avoid collecting sales tax in the state.”

Rhode Island, like many other states, is facing a massive budget crisis. One solution that they came up with was to pass a bill requiring any businesses who have online marketing affiliates in the state to collect sales taxes. This isn’t the first state to try this tactic to generate revenue, New York passed a similar law last year.

When North Carolina seemed poised to do the same last week, Amazon cut its ties to all of its North Carolina affiliates. The same thing happened yesterday with Rhode Island affiliates, with Amazon again dropping them before the bill had even been signed into law by the governor.

Now, to be perfectly clear, this doesn’t directly effect us as sellers. Affiliates are businesses who get a (more…)

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The Book Lover’s Moral Dilemma

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Decisions decisionsSo I’ve posted about a couple of book selling related “in the news” type articles, like this one and this one. So far those posts have pretty much been about up-to-the-minute, breaking news from articles published on that day.This post is going to be a little different. While surfing the ‘net, I ran across a New York Times article that ran a few months ago, back in December of 2008. It’s an article by David Streitfeld called “Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It “.

Mr. Streitfeld is a lover of books. Like many other lovers of books, he worries about the fate of authors, publishers and traditional brick-and-mortar booksellers. Many in publishing have been projecting a bleak outlook, pointing to the rise in online bookselling as the cause of the publishing industry’s woes. The issue, as Steitfeld sees it, “is not the absence of casual readers but the changing habits of devoted readers.”

What is a lover of books to do? The choice between supporting the authors, bookstores and publishing industry on the one hand, and buying books online at low prices on the other turns out to be no choice at all, especially in this economy. As Mr. Streitfeld puts it, “In theory, I want to support all of these fine folks. In practice, I decide to save a buck.”

Should book lovers like Mr. Streitfeld be ashamed of their decision? Are they, as online book buyers (not to mention us, as online book sellers), guilty of putting economics before ethics?

The truth is, it’s not a choice between a moral right and a moral wrong. It’s actually a decision between two different kinds of (more…)

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Goodwill To Sell Books Online?

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

goodwillAccording to an article posted today on thedenverchannel.com (the website of ABC’s Denver, Colorado affiliate), Goodwill is currently trying to overhaul their image. This includes stocking more high-end, brand name merchandise, as well as giving the stores themselves makeovers. The idea is to bring Goodwill stores more in line with other retail stores and to distance themselves with the low-end reputation of traditional thrift stores.

The article quotes Rick Berninzoni, the vice president of marketing for Goodwill Denver, as saying that along with the other changes, Goodwill is moving into selling items online, specifically mentioning that Berninzoni “hopes to soon sell books online.”

Goodwill already operates their own online auctions at shopgoodwill.com, where buyers can bid on items in a process similar to Ebay’s. However, this change in focus may mean that Goodwill will be placing an increased emphasis on determining the value of their books, and could result in a lot more of them being listed online, either through their existing auction site, or through some new channel.

I have mentioned the value of thrift stores as a good source for books to sell online. How that fact is affected by these changes at Goodwill remains to be seen.

It is possible that, at least in the case of Goodwill, the books with the greatest resale potential will be cherry-picked for sale online and will no longer be on the shelves of their stores. It is also possible that some of the other large thrift store chains may follow suit.

It’s too early to tell what will come of all this, but it’s definitely something that’s worth keeping your eye on.

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A Library That Operates Its Own Used Bookstore

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

I had just put up a post that dealt with Library Sales when I ran across this article about a library in Waterloo, Iowa that just opened its own bookstore.

The article, written by John Molseed, is from the WCF Courier out of Waterloo/Cedar Falls Iowa. Apparently, in addition to holding regular sales, the Waterloo Friends of Library had sold donated books at a counter inside the library itself. However as donations outpaced what they could handle, they decided to open an entire bookstore which they call the Book Review (re-view, get it?).

It’s an interesting idea, one that allows the library to fundraise year-round instead of relying only on their annual sales. I’ve heard of other libraries who dabble in the year-round used books business before, but never on quite this scale. By all accounts it’s doing very well so far. If it is ultimately a success, this may be something we see more libraries getting involved in. If so, it’s not quite clear what the effect on us as online booksellers would be, but it sure is an intriguing concept.

What do you think? Are we going to be seeing more libraries opening used bookstores? What does that mean for library sales and for finding used books in general?

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