In talking about buying used books, and explaining why it is that I’m sharing information about selling books, I’ve already mentioned “scanners” and “scanner people” a couple of times, which to some of you out there may beg the question “Just what the heck is a ‘scanner’ anyway?”
To understand scanners, you first have to understand lookup services. There are a number of services out there, ScoutPal, ASellerTool, MediaScouter, etc. who (for a fee of course) give you access to the current listing price of books. Amazon lookup is pretty much the standard, but some are starting to expand into other marketplaces as well. In addition, some companies that offer Inventory Sales Management throw in lookup service for free.
No matter who’s providing it, lookup services work in one of two ways: they either let you request and receive prices in real time, or they provide a download of all the latest prices at once. Of the two, the download variety is the more efficient, letting you look up more prices in a shorter amount of time, especially if you are using a scanner.
A scanner is basically a barcode scanning device attached to a handheld computer of some kind, usually a cell phone, smart phone or PDA. It cross-references the book’s barcode against the lookup service’s data and displays the price of the book. Say you are a brand new bookseller and you walk into a thrift store that is selling used harlequin romance novels. Even if you’re completely unfamiliar with the books, you can pull out your scanner, scan the barcode and instantly know what price you can get for each book.
Scanners have become quite controversial lately. They have become something a necessity for new booksellers, or booksellers who haven’t developed an eye for what books they will be able to sell for a profit. There’s nothing wrong with this, in and of itself. The problem comes when enthusiastic sellers, armed with scanners show up to library sales or other events, grab books by the armload or suitcase-full take them off to a corner and scan them all, leaving their discards all over the place. Unfortunately this has become all too common, and there has been a recent backlash against scanners, with some library sales considering strong restrictions on scanners or banning them altogether.
I am fairly neutral on the issue. As far as I am concerned scanners are a tool which can be used in a responsible way just as easily as it can be used in a disruptive and inconsiderate way.
I myself have used scanners in the past. I used ScoutPal and BookHero, mostly because they were some of the first services on the scene. I’ve used a couple since then too. I don’t use scanners at all any more, however. I find that there’s really just no benefit in it for me. I have been in the game long enough to have developed a tool faster and more powerful than any scanner: my eyes. I can look at a book and have a good idea of whether I’ll be able to make money on it, and how much.
To scan or not to scan, that is the question. If you’re new to the business of selling used books, by all means, go ahead and use a scanner (and I would recommend using a download service). It may be a great help to you. But if you’re serious about making this a career, I cannot stress how important it is to invest the time and energy into developing your knowledge of books and cultivating the ability to recognize their value.
So 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 “.