A tidbit for all ya'll booklovers

[wri-8727]

I was perusing the shelves at the Salvation Army lately, straightening as I went, when I noticed a 20 something male in the vicinity.

Hmmm, usually only see gray heads in the book area anymore. I continued perusing and straightening when to my shock round the corner came another 20 something but female this time.

She saw me and said, oh, excuse me, and started to turn her cart around but I said, no, that's alright, being a bit in shock, and moved out of the way.

When I went to checkout I looked across the store and saw they were both still browsing and then I heard a women behind me comment to another something about something in her classroom.

Odd I thought and turned to glance over my shoulder and received a very approving look.

The icing on the cake though was then the young man come up lugging a stack of hardcovers.

I thought to myself, yes, that should impress her.

[cumos55]

The younger generation is most likely... Code Readers....

Their Hand-held device reads the ISBN... and they get information  from a known website  that tells them the probability of the book selling and at what price......

The device can also read the title of a book.....

I have seen...one young man ..... another young man ..... two pairs of young men..... one pair of young women.. and one senior husband and wife team

for a total of ten people.... at thrift stores, and at major charity sales

Fortunately they do not buy  what I will buy.... My book  reader is  that device between my ears!

[wri-8727]

cumos55 sez: My book  reader is  that device between my ears!

Your nose? ( ^ ;

[wri-8727]

Ah yes, remember labor-saving devices?

Try our new-fangled automatic washing-machine. Why you never even get your hands wet. No more back-breaking scrubbing and wringing by hand. Sit back and enjoy some Bon Bons instead.

Now that may sound ridiculous but really not so much if you think about it.

So now it seems we have savvy-saving devices.

Why strain your brain when you can Scan it with our new Code-scanner 5000?

No thank you very much, I prefer using my nose instead.

Have a great day cumos55

[bugler1998]

I have shared an estate sale bookshelf with scanner people several times.  It is rare that the scanner finds a good item that I would have passed over, but it happens.

Trouble is the scanner people take quite a bit more time than I do, and I suspect  they can not totally skip a bookcase with junk, perhaps being able to skip over all paperbacks (and I may not want to skip over all paperbacks.

Having said that, if the scanner people pay attentention to the books that ping, they can learn to use their eyes sooner rather than late.

[cumos55]

My book  reader is  that device between my ears!

It is called a brain....  coded with many years of experience..

And then after many years of searching for book....  the search become a visual search...

There is a local book seller that can walk up to a table.... pick the books he wants.....  A visual pick...  because he knows the good books based on their look....  Many years of experience

My first look on a collection for books for sale is visual... Some of the books I want have a unique visual appearance....and then My second look is read the titles.... quickly

[cumos55]

The code readers... read the bar code.... the ISBN number.... and they get a price and probability of a sale.... using their hand held "computer".

They can read the title of a book if there is no bar code.

I once asked a code reader to tell me the price of a book without a bar code. 

Code reader's price was about $10..

and then I told him I have sold this book at $75.... And that is why they rely on the bar code.

My happiness is that the code readers do not like the  category of books that I sell.....

[cumos55]

There was once a book seller that was more than happy to do a search after the code readers had completed their search.

That was when she found the best... and most valuable books.   

[sigmapsidelta]

During my time running a charity bookshop we gave a 'new' thing over here a try. Its called 'Ziffit' and is a branch of 'World of Books'. You use an app on a smartphone to scan the barcode (or you can input the isbn manually), then it tells you whether or not 'Ziffit' want it. If they do they give a price.

From trying this on various things I would advise that such a thing offering £3 or more for one item should be taken as guidance to check it up elsewhere. It almost certainly sells for 10 times their offer or more.

The rule I had in the charity shop was '25% of the price of an equivalent copy offered online' - that is what we priced books at in the shop. Sounds like a bargain? You wouldn't think so from the constant complaints of how expensive they were. I just wanted to make sure that everyone left with a bargain - better chance they'd come back and buy again.  So for most of the 'ziffited' stuff their price was acceptable - it put money in the till fairly quickly. But some items were just too damned good for them, and their prices.

The main reason we used it is because the shop was always inundated with donations, and the only other option was selling them to 'World of Books' at £5 per 100kg.

.

[dreambooks]

I thought that code readers are dinosaurs now. Everywhere, every people have access to internet. All book sales and thrift stores are scanned by themselves, and they do sell online,  or have other professionals sell for them. So I have seen scanners less and less.

[wri-8727]

I like to scout at the wholesale Goodwill store. I call it 'the bin store'. It has 4'×10' table / bins on wheels lined up in rows of 4, two deep and $1.29 for a paperback. When they first wheel them out the scan guys have at it and are more or less done in 15 minutes, then I come in. I'm very thorough and not afraid to 'get my hands dirty'. So, as far as the scanner goes, to me, it would be in the way. I have a hard enough time hanging on to my glasses. I never take my phone out in the store other then to check if someone at home wants a book or not. My skill is more in spotting trends, I see lots of books donated after a parent dies and I try to gather groups. I'll fill a basket then sort it out, usually returning 80 to 90 per cent to the tables. I try to stick to paper bound since I'm limited on storage space and usually paper bound get overlooked by the store online sales employees and Pedro and his scanning crew anyway. Actually I prefer books without bar-codes. Something I also pick up that is usually over looked is India paper bibles. Oxford University used to publish some lovely bibles. I suppose this isn't really a viable business model but it's what I do and anyway Pedro and his crew like watching me between table rotations, (they're there everyday day all day).

[taylor_memorial]

Pedro is still at it? First heard about him about 12 years ago on these pages.

Sorting day at the FOL--now on hold went kind of like this:

Any large collection would be run by me for online sales. I'd look them up online if it was an unfamiliar genre. If it was familiar, the barrel was loaded into my car.

I find I do well with commodity books in lots. Just recently I tried a choice out from a collection of Nancy Drew books we got in. Blue tweed, low numbers, in jackets. I've got 2 left. Sold them at $5 for the first, $3.50 for each additional title with "free" shipping.  Took a week to dump 21. And this is the slow season.

I dunno if I'll go back to scouting if the FOL closes for good, or what. I doubt I'll do the scanner thing since look up with a photo is viable. These days Amazon isn't where it's at, really, and the data bases all use Amazon as arbiter of value and desirability.

[wri-8727]

I haven't personally asked Pedro what he does with the hundreds of books he pulls out of the Goodwill every day, but, I have always assumed he may have been doing business with Powell's. Lovely guy, I was especially touched to see his wife bring him lunch one day. Honest work.

[taylor_memorial]

Probably: if he's been at it this long, he's got a solid client list.

I live in the Midwest, but I was in Powell's once.
Then I went to a library sale about 60 miles south--we were on the way to see the seals in Lincoln (?). I was shocked at the selection, to be honest.

A ton of readers for a state with a relatively small population!

[leathernlace]

I have been following this thread and hope you don't mind me joining in.
I live in the mountains in southern Oregon. We call it rural, you would probably call it remote. In the little town nearest me the FOL, which consists of 4 older ladies (strike that, LOL, they are my age) has a book sale once a week, for 2 hours. Payment is by donation. Their sign says; "find something you like, give us some money". There are 2 rooms of incredible, like new, mostly commodity, books. I can easily fill a bag, or three, each week while giving them a fair price.
In the next, and even smaller, town the sale is every day that they are open. All excellent quality but not the quantity. HC are 6 for $1.00! PB are 12 for $1.00!
I have never been to Powell's but would like to go someday just to say I have been there.
Margie