# advice on bookselling please



## house06 (Jan 4, 2007)

Hi
I am trying to reduce my own personal library and am also interested in bookselling. I know some of the HT family do so and are successful in this business 

Could you please offer some advice regarding the best sources for getting books to sell and also what are your best means of selling books? I know there are many outlets out there, I am most interested in online selling not so much so, Craigs List etc.


Any information/advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

I have listed books on Amazon with some success. I also sold some on Ebay in the past. The problem I found with Amazon is so many people have the same book. If I put one on for $4.99 all of a sudden twenty people would lower their price to beat mine. I think hard to find or valuable books would be good, but not so much run of the mill books.

Nomad


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## featherbottoms (May 28, 2005)

Nomad, Not sure if it's what you've experienced but many of the major seller on Amazon have auto pricing software. They have the ability to change the price of their books all the time. That's why you see so many for such low prices. Between the POD's and the auto pricing it's hard to find a "real" book and seller anymore.

As to the op question - there's no one way or one place to sell books online. You just have to find what works for you. I know many people who sell on eBay and Amazon and are happy with both the listing and selling process. Others wouldn't touch either of them and sell on places like ABE, Alibris, TomFolio, ChooseBooks and elsewhere (ABE and Choosebooks are now owned by Amazon).

The fees paid to the listing sites also make a difference on where people sell. Most places have a monthly fee plus commission. Some others have additional fees. I sometimes list on a couple places (one in Europe) and I list on those sites because they offer a flat 15% commission fee for what sells.

There are book sites online for selling and then there are forums like this (most of them have a For Sale or Barter area). TomFolio is a membership site, you purchase a share to be able to join. Chrislands helps by giving you a webpage (I don't remember how much it costs to join there). Other sellers put books on craigslist or sell in antique malls and consignment shops. One online bookseller has a yard sale every few months to weed out the unwanted books she accumulates when she buys for resell. Judging by what she sells on the booklist she appears to do ok with foreign DVD's, in addition to her books.

I have no good advice on finding books, partly because it really depends on what type books you want to sell.

All the above is just my opinion though and what I've seen - online only - over the past few years. All that said, I've been selling books online since 1996 and I'm still not sure what's the best way to buy and sell them.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Debora
featherbottoms


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

Half.com is cheaper to sell on than Amazon.

Any book that has "NY Times bestseller!" on the cover is probably worth squat, though. Sadly!


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## blufford (Nov 23, 2004)

Sell them on the HT barter board. List the titles, cond and the price you want. When you ship use media mail for the best rate.


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## house06 (Jan 4, 2007)

thank you for the input. I appreciate it. Does anyone have any advice on where to find books to increase your inventory? Thanks again.


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## RosewoodfarmVA (Oct 5, 2005)

Occasionally we will sell books on HT barter board. We don't do it as a business per-se, though we do make enough on it to pay for books we keep, and a little extra spending money. Wife and I are both avid readers, we have probably a thousand or more books here. We don't shop for books, but like going to several thrift stores around here. We often get books, bring them home and read them, keeping the ones we like, or selling ones we didn't like enough to keep. Some books you want to keep as references, others once you've read them once, you've gotten the gist of it. 

Several places to find books : thrift stores, estate auctions (where you can often get a whole box of books for one price, though some of the books may not be worth buying, it's their way of getting rid of stuff), Goodwill (though it seems their prices are higher these days.). Yard sales, etc. We don't go out of our way to find books though we will stop if we are passing a place that might have some. Selling books has been a good way to clear out our unwanteds, pay for the books we buy etc. If you can buy them for a dollar or 2, sell for 4 or 5, you can make a couple $$. I have found that the time factor comes into play, sometimes people give you the run around, take forever to send the money, complain when the books don't get there the next day. You'll find that you're sooo happy to be done with certain people. On the other hand, you also meet nice people that end up being good friends and you are happy when they want more books. You'll also need a source of boxes, if you are buying boxes from the post office you will not make any profit. You have to realize that in order to make much of any profit and for your time to be worthwhile, you will have to sell a lot of books! That's why I say do it because you like it, not as a way to get a lot of money. Most books are not worth more than $4 or $5. If you have to pay $1 for them, counting in your time finding them, organizing them, posting them, dealing with buyers, boxing them, etc, you will find you're spending a lot of time. Bookselling is only worthwhile for the person who likes books anyway, and if you see a book on the shelf and say to yourself "oohh someone would like that one" you're probably a bookseller at heart. If you want to do it for a profit you're likely to end up with boxes of books you can't get rid of , and you'll find yourself burned out and wont' have any fun with it... I see people with a apparatus (some type of digital book value list that scans the code on the book and tells you what the re-sale value is) and it seems that takes all the fun out of it. I buy books that I know I would be interested in, and others like me would want. If you're doing it for a business, I think it goes to your head (all the people that I see using those contraptions are selfish and pushy to get the books they can sell before you see them and are otherwise crabby individuals). Just my experience, get books you would read, then pass them on...


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## amyd (Mar 21, 2005)

I've had pretty good luck selling on half.com, I use paperbackswap.com quite a bit, that's not selling, but might be a good way to replace some books that aren't selling well with some you want. 

A guy I work with sells here http://www.booknookmexico.com/ . I think he does okay. He picks up at yard sales etc. I think they will buy from non-locals as well, couldn't hurt to contact them.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

I suspect your local library has an area where they sell no longer wanted books for a minimual charge.

Put an ad in the local paper to the effect: "WANTED: (hardback, softback or both). Will pay a nominal fee. XXX-XXXX.

I currently have one book on Amazon. Also have it on eBay. I had to list the book higher on Amazon than on Ebay due to their higher fees, plus they only pay twice a month. Half.com is owned by eBay so a title search on eBay should turn up those on Half.com.

As far as possible, I only list books no one else is selling. However, that is my basic policy on eBay as well. For example, Apparently I am the only one selling a hand-cranked, whole carcass roasting spit capable of larger carcasses.

On my read paperbacks they are first filtered through a sister*, then are donated to the Dickson Medical Center gift shop. They resell them for something like $.50 each to patients.

*Funny but it turns out both of us read the same genre of books. Also our checkbooks have the same rural scenes.


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## house06 (Jan 4, 2007)

Thanks for the input. I did open an account on half.com, we'll see. I have a bag of books that I am going to take to half price books. Wont get very much for them but will clear needed shelf space

I am taking the extra books and donating them to the library for their book sales.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

I don't know if they still do it, but Planned Parenthood in Dayton, OH had an annual HUGE, and I mean HUGE, book sale once a year. Also included music albums. On the last night is it something like whatever you can fit in a shopping cart for $5.00 - although the books have been pretty well picked over by then. What was left, and suitable went into recycling dumpsters to a paper recycler.


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## featherbottoms (May 28, 2005)

I've started to reply to this again several times and keep changing my mind. Knowing what kinds of books you want to sell helps in steering you towards the best places for buying books. I don't know where you are located (Ken mentioned Dayton so maybe he knows) but library sales are a good way to increase stock. I'd advise getting there the first night and paying the entry/membership fee if necessary. Depending on the sale you may want to arrive an hour or so ahead of time and take your own bags/collapsible boxes. And a helper is an excellent thing to have. If you wait and go the last day you are buying the same type books you see at the various thrift stores after all the dealers have been through and picked them over. You may find a gem or two but not very many.

A lot of libraries now sell to large online sellers who come in and take all the books and then give the library a small percentage when they sell. This frees up the library from storing books for 6 months to a year, having to find volunteers to help, managing the crowd and all the other time and effort involved in the sales. At one place their website says 2,000 libraries now participate in this and that they list them on 23 online marketplaces (have you ever noticed how many books in a search look like the same one over and over and over??). This pulls a LOT of books out of the marketplace that would otherwise go to small sellers such as yourself - which in turn makes it harder to find good books.

I also tried the newspaper advertisement. You will get a lot of people with boxes and boxes of romance novels and current fiction and a lot of them will expect you to pay them more than you can afford if you intend them for resale. Or you'll get someone who wants you to clean out their basement/barn, etc., and the books and magazines in there have been wet, have mouse droppings, etc., and are probably better left where they are. Ask me how I know this  (I cleaned out a small barn and ended up with a pickup full of trash books and 2 boxes of old magazines that I ended up having to isolate from my other books because of the smell). OTOH we did go to a sale once and the gentleman had a wonderful finished basement just full of excellent books. I ran out of money way before I ran out of books I wanted to buy.

Nowadays my first choices for acquiring stock would not be large library sales (but this is a personal thing too, I hate the crowds at the large sales), yard sales (rarely), or any of the major thrift stores. I do shop those, but not like I did 10-15, or even 5 years ago. I selectively shop at estate auctions and an occasional yard sale. I also check flea markets when we're close to one.

Right now I am culling my stock of books and have some online, some at a consignment shop here in town and then I have a couple hundred posted here at HT in two separate posts. I figure we will be moving again in a couple of years and I do not want to move this many books again. I'm also redoing my stock and I'm going to sell or donate almost everything I have that I have priced $20 and under, maybe $25. This is going to leave me with just under 1,000 books but they will be books I take a lot more time with in research, descriptions and images.

I'm not very much help but it is what it is.

Debora
featherbottoms


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

The local college has a small room where they shelve books that are free to anyone that wants them. I've seen other libarries do the same. Sad to say, I think most of the books are just taking up space. No one wants them.


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## house06 (Jan 4, 2007)

thanks for the continued input I really appreciate it. Actually I am in KY but have a nephew at school in Dayton. I will check out the local libraries, I have bought several things from our local library and also donated quite a few books for their sales. 

One time I found an entire shelf of National Geographic magazines at .10cents each and bought them to give to our local elementary school. The social studies teachers loved them. I am always on the lookout for good books to donate to our schools and usually find them for .25- 50 cents each. We buy them and then donate them to our daughters' elementary school for the new teachers' bookshelves. 

I think I am going to take the bookselling option very slowly and decide what I want to sell and how much time I want to devote to doing so. I am possibly going back to work fulltime and dont know how much time I will really have to devote to this. 

I do have a question though, any thoughts on how to sell older books? I have some "classic" literary books that date to the late 1880s and early 1900s that I would like to get rid of . I see on Abebooks that booksellers list and sell them but do not know the best way to approach this. Any suggestions?

ALSO if anyone out there has books they would like to get rid of I ran across the website www.booksforAfrica.org. This organization collects books and sends them to schools in Africa. Seems like a really good way to get rid of those outdated textbooks that noone wants but still has some value. Not a moneymaker but they will send a contribution receipt so I guess it could help with the dreaded taxes.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

On sending books to Africa, be aware there is a scam from people proporting to represent some religious foundation who has a project to receive English Language Bibles with large type for the members who cann't otherwise afford them. From what can tell, 99% scam. They sell the books to the highest bidder.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

Hesitant to put this one here, but pornography contines to sell well. In fact, eBay is likely to be among the top sellers (resellers) of it. Don't believe me go to eBay and then do a category search on Everything Else/Adult.

You must a verified member to look or list though.


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

PLEASE, do not give them to Planned Parenthood. Not trying to be controversial here, but please give them to someone who is saving lives rather than destroying them. Your local "Right to Life" folks would also accept them and put them to good use.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Second the "ask the local library". Our local county library has a permanent book sale room. My cousin works the accession dept. and chooses what stays and what goes. She calls when they get some good stuff in. In the past couple of years, have brought in tons of treasure, for keeping and for selling.

They currently have a 'sale' on their books, cds/dvds, mags, and tapes. Half price. For the last month, I've been able to go in and get crates of stuff for free. Lots of chaff, but lots of treasure too. We ship books several times a week. When your overhead is zero (cost of books) it's all profit.


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## clovis (May 13, 2002)

house06 said:


> thank you for the input. I appreciate it. Does anyone have any advice on where to find books to increase your inventory? Thanks again.


Auctions can be awesome sources for books. I see entire, full boxes of books sell for $2 per box.


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## Cash (Apr 24, 2007)

I sold all four boxes of romance novels that my daughter had collected in high school through an ad on Craigslist. The woman who bought them told me she resells them on Ebay and Amazon for a dollar each plus shipping. It's like a moneymaking hobby for her. She said she nets $50-$60 a week just doing it for a few hours a week and thought she could make a lot more if she set her mind to it.


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## house06 (Jan 4, 2007)

Are romance novels still big sellers? That is incredible!!


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## jmtinmi (Feb 25, 2009)

I have had good luck with selling books on ebay if I have more than one of the same topic~~like several Nancy Drew books, a collection of crockpot cookbooks, or even homeschooling books. I also sell out of print books on ebay also. 

All of that being said, I haven't listed in quite a while.


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