Posts Tagged ‘used books’

Will The Kindle Kill The Used Book Business?

Monday, July 13th, 2009

kindleThere’s been a lot of speculation lately about what the future of reading will look like. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard a lot about the Kindle and a lot of peoples various opinions on what impact, if any, it will have on the publishing industry.

For those rock-dwellers out there, the kindle is Amazon’s handheld device for reading e-books and other electronic media. Since the original Kindle came out in late 2007, two new versions, the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, have already been released.

The Kindle isn’t the first attempt to replace paper books with digital counterparts, but it has certainly been the most talked-about and the most successful. Amazon has even developed a “Kindle for iPhone” app.

So should we all be looking for a new line of work? Is the paper book destined to go the way of the dodo? Will the Kindle kill the used book business?

No.

The first video ever broadcast on MTV, way back in 1981, was a song called “Video killed the Radio Star”. Only it didn’t. Turn on your radio and you’ll still find news, music, politics, advice and more up and down the dial. Video may have killed radio serials like The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, but that’s about it.

The same principle holds true for the Kindle. Sure it may absorb part of the reading market, (more…)

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Posted in Selling Books | 5 Comments »

Types of Books to Avoid as an Online Bookseller

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Knowing what kind of books to buy and what kinds to avoid is important. Dead inventory, even if you are culling regularly, is a drain on your time and resources. Even if you use a scanner, knowing where to focus your attention is a way better use of your time than randomly scanning every book that happens to be in front of you. It’s just part of the learning curve of becoming a bookseller.

The mentality of booksellers can get a little warped. Because the vast majority of booksellers are now online booksellers, they base their prices on what current market value of book is. I say this is “warped” because there isn’t recognition of what it is that consumer wants. Competition drives prices way below what customers are willing to pay, and as a result, booksellers end up selling books at prices that, to the consumer, are huge bargains.

Now we could talk all day about market forces and the definition of “value”, but the bottom line is that this devalueing of books means that the majority of online sellers will not want to consider buying those books for resale.
But after whole “blame game” there are books that generally stay away from. They are:

  • Most mass market paperbacks/pocket books (you might do ok if you get them really cheap at a bag sale)
  • Encyclopedias
  • Most American English dictionaries (Webster’s et al)
  • Condensed/Readers Digests
  • Most recent fiction – trade hardcovers
  • Most paperback children’s books
  • Textbooks more than 3-4 yrs old
  • Vast majority of books published from 1940’s-1980’s (even the 90’s to some degree)

(more…)

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Used Books are Green: "It's Like Carpooling for Books"

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

green books Selling used books is, by its very nature, environmentally friendly. Obviously books are made of paper. Every book that is created has an environmental impact both in terms of trees being cut down, and in terms of the fossil fuels burned in manufacturing, shipping, etc. Every time a person buys a used book instead of a new one, it chips away at those impacts.

According to this article on ecology.com, “world consumption of paper has grown four hundred percent in the last 40 years” and “nearly 4 billion trees or 35% of the total trees cut around the world are used in paper industries”. It goes on to quote an EPA report that found that “pulp and paper mills are among the worst polluters to air, water and land of any industry”. Obviously anything we can do to reduce this environmental devastation is a great thing for the planet.

Despite the environmental costs of making books, there is an environmental upshot to the nature of books. Books aren’t perishable or depletable , they never “go bad” and you can use them without “using them up”. In fact, books can be used again and again by as many people as can get their hands on them. As sellers of used books, we are facilitating that process, finding new homes for books.

Whether they knew it or not, used bookstores were green before it was cool. The advent of online sellers like you and me just (more…)

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Make $1000 in 7 Days Selling Books Online

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

How can you possibly make $1000 selling books online in just 7 days?

It’s simple. Just find 100 books that you can sell for $10 each.

Still sounds impossible? Here’s a true story:

Back in 1999, I was still working for a high tech company, but I was already involved in selling online in my free time. Back then, Craigslist wasn’t really as well known, and I used to find a lot of great stuff there to resell on Ebay.

One particular time, I had just acquired 25 books from a craigslist posting, when I got a very interesting email. It was one of your standard spammy-type emails, you know the kind, it said something like ““make x number of dollars by selling the items you’ve purchased from Amazon.” That email was what first led me to (more…)

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Sell Books Blog Guide to Customer Service (part 3 of 3)

Monday, June 15th, 2009

You just wanted to make a few bucks selling used books online. It all seemed so simple and straightforward until you ran into the one thing you didn’t count on: dealing with customers. Now that we’ve talked about difficult customers and scammers, you may be feeling pretty vulnerable. Can a disgruntled customer damage your business by bringing down your seller rating? Can a spurned scammer exact his revenge by destroying your ability to create repeat business?

Calm down, take a deep breath and repeat after me:
“When it comes to selling on Amazon, there is no such thing as repeat business.”

That’s right. Oh sure, it happens occasionally, you’ll get an order from a customer you’ve sold to before. It’s usually by accident as much as anything else. But in practice, repeat business just doesn’t happen. Customers just have too much choice, they have too many options. Think about how the customer finds used books on Amazon. They search for the book they’re looking for and see who’s selling it. They don’t try and look up sellers they’ve used before, attempting to see if that seller happens to be selling anything they might want to buy. I’ve said it before, Amazon goes out of it’s way to try and make you as the seller invisible to the customer, and that’s just fine. Just be realistic. If you want to build repeat business, get your own website. If you’re trying to build a loyal customer base on Amazon, you’re wasting your time and effort.

So what does set you apart as a seller? It’s gotta be your seller rating right?

Wrong.

Hold on, let me back up for a second. The importance of your rating/feedback does vary from marketplace to marketplace, but let’s start by taking a look at Amazon.

There’s a percentage of customers who will look at your feedback and rating. However, in my experience they tend to be fairly lenient. On Amazon, a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars is considered good. It sure sounds good, right? But let’s think about that. 4.5 out of 5 means that a full 10% of your feedback was neutral or negative. 10%! In my opinion that makes you a pretty poor seller. Unless you are seriously messing up, you should have no problem maintaining a “good” Amazon seller rating.

Then there’s a whole other segment of Amazon buyers who don’t care about your rating at all. These are the customers who are just looking for the lowest priced seller and don’t look at anything else. These are the same buyers who purchase books that are clearly listed as “acceptable”, thinking that they are going to get new books. Whether it’s by virtue of ignorance or apathy, they just don’t pay attention to anything but price.

Ebay is another animal altogether. Ebay evolved in a completely different way. Because Ebay’s transactions weren’t and aren’t backed up by a big company the way Amazon’s are. That’s why Ebay developed much more of a community component; it was necessarily built on trust from it’s inception. As a result, its rating system is better at assessing sellers performance. There is also more of a tendency to look at feedback than there is on Amazon. On the other hand, it’s a much worse place to try and sell books these days.

Half.com is more like Amazon. Again you’ll find that buyers here are usually just looking for the lowest price.

Other marketplaces like Alibris and AbeBooks rate you as a seller based solely on your fulfillment percentage. However as you move into dealing in high volume, a lower fulfillment is just part of doing business.

Feedback and ratings are something to be aware of, but don’t lie awake at night worrying about it. If you’re generally doing the right thing, you’ll be just fine.

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Selling Used Books To Bookstores: How, When and Why

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Buying and selling books to bookstores is something I’ve mentioned briefly before. I went over it pretty quickly though, so lets take a little bit of a deeper look into exactly why I do it and how it works.

I am fortunate to live the SF Bay Area. There’s still some bookstores left around here that will pay cash or store credit for books I bring in.

library_015The key to the whole thing is that I know the types of books each store wants. If you know what they are looking for, you have a pretty good idea of what they will buy.

I usually take a in about 10-15 boxes at a time. Depending on the day, I’ll sell up to 25% to 30% of what I bring in. On a bad day I’ll sell maybe only about one box worth of books. Keep in mind that I bought a lot of these books dirt cheap at bag sales, so my average cost per box works out to about $10. Again, depending on the day and the store, I get up to $100-150 in trade-in credit for each box.

I then take that credit and use it to buy other books in the bookstore for “full price”. I put “full price” in quotes because since I’m paying with store credit I’m really getting quite a discount. Once again, I know what I’m looking for, and select books I know I will be able to quickly resell online.

When I do sell the “full price” books I usually make back about 1/2 the value of the store credit I paid for them, around $50-75 per box. All in all, not a bad profit on a $10 investment.

I stress that this is a method that requires a little experience and knowledge, both about what your local bookstores are looking to buy, as well as which books to invest your store credit in. It can be tough, and it’s definitely not for everyone. It’s also a method which unfortunately is not nearly as lucrative as it was even a few years ago. But I do make money this way, and it keeps me in touch with the market and helps keep my eye and mind sharp.

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The Book Buyer’s Dilemma: To Scan or Not to Scan?

Monday, June 8th, 2009

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.

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Where To Find Used Books To Sell Online (2 of 2)

Friday, June 5th, 2009

You need to buy books to sell books. There’s no two ways around it. In Part 1 of this guide I discussed buying books from libraries, bookstores, remainder dealers, and thrift stores. Now let’s look at some of the other resources experienced booksellers use to build and maintain their inventory.

Estate Sales
This is where you will find a lot of the old school Book Scouts practicing their craft. Estate sales are not about “scannable” books. Here you’re looking for real quality, rarer books, older books. Estate sales have become very competitive. There will be expert book buyers with years of experience and keen eyes, as well as not-so-experts playing the numbers game buying up just about anything. Do not be afraid to make a mistake. Even if you end up buying books you can’t get much money for, books that perhaps aren’t as valuable as you might have thought, it isn’t a really a loss. What you’ve actually done is spent a little money to learn a valuable lesson that will benefit you over the long term. Keep in mind that you aren’t only a book buyer, but also student, investing in your own experience and knowledge.

EBay
There are good opportunities on EBay, especially if you specialize in collectable books. You can find people who sell used books by the lot. In fact, I’m one of them. I sell wholesale on eBay all the time. It’s a win-win situation. I get to move inventory without having to find individual customers, and you get a good price on books you can turn around and sell yourself.

Yard Sales
Yard sales are a still a largely untapped resource, and for a good reason: it’s hard. Just finding the ones that actually have books can present something of a challenge. I suggest that if you spend time going to yard sales, do what I do. When I go to yard sales I’m not just there to buy books, I’m also buying ham radio equipment, old electronics, old documents and papers, etc. If there’s anything you have a little expertise in, invest in that too. If you don’t know much about other collectibles, find something that interests you and spend a little time and learn about it. It will make going to yard sales worth your while.

Classified Ads
I can’t speak from experience about using newspaper ads. However, there is a colleague of mine who often goes to different shows in different cities. Before he goes he always takes out an ad in the paper in his destination city saying what days he will be in town. He’s actually done very well over the years using this method.

CraigsList
The main challenge in buying books on Craigslist is that it can be difficult to sort through all the clutter. From time to time you will find that family or household which is really just trying to get rid of a bunch of books they have had sitting around for years. The catch is that you will usually it in the garage sale category rather than the book category. The book listings will generally be booksellers just like you. When you do find that quality listing, you have got to be fast. If you don’t get there in the first couple hours, it will probably be gone.





These are your best bets for steadily increasing and replenishing your inventory. If you’re serious about selling books, you’ll probably need to use some combination of most or all of them. If it all sounds like hard work, that’s because it is. Selling used books is not for everyone. It is increasingly competitive and requires a serious commitment of both time and effort. But if you are willing to put in the work, these resources can be incredibly valuable and put you well on your way to success as a bookseller.

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Where To Find Used Books To Sell Online (1 of 2)

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Before you worry about making money selling used books, you first need to become a savvy book buyer. You need to be constantly building and maintaining your inventory. That means knowing where to look, and putting in the work. Like so many things, book buying is essentially a game. You have to ask yourself whether are willing to put in the time and effort, whether you are willing to play the game in order to make money. Selling books starts with buying books. It’s as simple as that. It can all seem intimidating at first, but there are a variety of resources that most experienced booksellers know and use.

Libraries
Buying books from libraries is harder today than it was in times past. For the most part, buying books from libraries means going to Friends of Library sales. These days, a lot of the “volunteers” who staff these sales will actually be booksellers like yourself. By joining and volunteering they get first crack at buying books that have the best resale potential. Despite all that, it’s still a resource that’s worth your time.

Bookstores
Selling books requires a certain amount of savvy. It might be tempting to look at your local bookstores as competition. However, it’s much wiser to look at them as an opportunity. For example, you gain experience, you will begin to get a sense of what types of books they are looking for. You will discover that you can take books you bought for next to nothing and sell them for store credit. You can then turn around and use that credit to buy quality books at “full price” and improve your inventory at a lower cost. Keep in mind, however, that many bookstores are regular stops for book scouts, and that a growing number of bookstores are becoming online booksellers themselves.

Remainders
Publishers often end up with more copies of books than they can sell through normal channels. These are called remainders. First of all, be aware that while remainder dealers may present themselves as “wholesalers”, they are generally also retailers. They sort through and take a higher value items to sell themselves, leaving the only the lower margin product available at the “wholesale” level. If you are lucky enough to have one of these in your local area, you may be able to get first crack at buying books that they haven’t already cherry-picked for themselves. Whatever is left over after both of these stages are what they offer online as wholesalers. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find quality books this way, it just means it’s more challenging. For more information, check out www.cirobe.com.

Thrift Stores
Thrift stores are still a great source for books. Every time I go there I find gems. You just need to understand that in most communities, you won’t be the only one utilizing them. There will likely be “scanners” who routinely make the thrift store rounds. The key is to get to know the people who work there, to develop a relationship with them. Get to know the store and you’ll begin to get a feel for when they are likely to put out fresh books. Once again, it’s all about putting in the work.

These are just some of the best sources for finding books to sell. In Part 2 I’ll go over estate sales, Ebay, yard sales, newspaper ads and Craigslist.

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Book Selling Terminology

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Selling used books, like any other specialized pursuit, requires the knowledge of a lot of industry specific terms. No idea what a “desiderata” is? Not quite sure what it means to when people say they sell “antiquarian” books? Don’t be intimidated by the jargon and acronyms. The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) has a great list of Book Terminology that they have graciously allowed us to reprint here. Spend a little time familiarizing yourself with this list and you’ll be throwing around terms like “colophon” and “whipstitching” in no time.

Book Terminology

ABA

In the US: American Booksellers Association (for independently owned bookstores with a store front location selling new books).

In the UK: Antiquarian Booksellers Association (the UK equivalent of the ABAA).

ABAA

Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America.

ADVANCE READING COPY

A special pre-publication issue published in wrappers. Issued for publicity purposes. Occasionally there are textual differences between an advance reading copy and a first edition. Usually in pictorial wraps similar to the dust jacket art that is to be used on the first trade edition. Preceded by an advance uncorrected proof copy which is usually in plain colored wrappers.

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLER

A term used loosely to describe a dealer in old, rare, scarce, and collectible books

ASSOCIATION COPY

Books once belonging to the author, signed or annotated by the author, or someone associated with the author of book in some way. Book inscribed by author to famous person, or owned by someone of interest, or someone connected to the book or author.

AUTHORS EDITION

Book authorized by author, usually foreign editions, around the turn of the last century when many titles were pirated or “unauthorized”.

BACKSTRIP

A strip used by binder to reinforce the back of folded sheets in the binding of the spine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A list of works, occasionally in great detail, on a given subject or by a given author.

BIBLIOPHILE

A lover of Books.

BINDING

Material used as a protective cover for a book (e.g.: leather, cloth, buckram, paper, etc.)

BINDING COPY

A book whose text block is complete and serviceable, but the current binding is defective, incomplete, or in need of repair.

BIOPREDATION

An attack to books by living matter, which may include insects or mildew.

BLIND (Stamped or Tooled)

Impressed into paper or binding with no color, leaving an impression only.

BOARDS

The front and back covers of a hardcover book.

BOOK CLUB EDITION

Editions published by book clubs (i.e.: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Fireside Book Club, History Book Club, The Literary Guild, etc).

BOOK JACKET

Separate paper covering for the book. Also referred to as the dust jacket or dustwrapper.

BOOKLET

A small book, often only a few pages long and bound in wrappers.

BOOK PLATE

An ownership label, usually placed inside front cover. Many have become collectible due to the designer or owner; others actually lower the value of books printed in the last 50 years.

BOOKWORM

An organism, sometimes a literal worm, which harms books by feeding on their binding or leaves. Also a term for a person devoted to books.

(more…)

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