booksellers - inflation in books to source?
I wonder if it's my area but the cost of books I am attempting to buy for resale has skyrocketed.
It was bad at the first (small) booksale I went to last week so I'm not sanguine about what it will be like all season.
Also people on Facebook Marketplace have largely lost it in terms of pricing. I just viewed an assortment of children's books: $5 each for skinny paperbacks, $10 for hardcover. For...used...children's...books. Trade paperbacks, very expensive. Maybe people are selling for these prices? Because they are low compared to new? I don't know. I can't sell on there to save my life. Of course nobody owes resellers a deal. I get it.
My main thrift store also jacked up prices. They now want $3 for crummy pocket paperbacks, $7 for hardcovers for NOT GOOD BOOKS.
I wish I could say that I get more for my books across the board but nope. It's been pretty much the same for years.
ginapeet
·1 year agoim in midwest and our thrift store prices are ridiculous.like 10 percent off retail!i have better luck at yard sales .ive been selling for 20 years,but this will be my last year.try library booksales but watch out for all the scanner folks.i know my books,idont need to scan.good luck!
lux.ra_14
·1 year agoToo much emphasis in this thread on paying cheap prices to get cheap books that sell for (relatively) cheap prices.
There's nothing wrong with paying more to get more, especially at a time when the market is saturated with ordinary books. To reverse the usual advice, buy high and sell higher. That means ditching thrifts and other bargain sources where you can generally get quantity, but not quality.
keziak
OP1 year agoWith all the pre-picking and competition in my area (not the close-in burbs of DC) finding a consistent stream of high-dollar books is very difficult. I now consider myself an overworked hobbyist. I make enough to give me money to spend as I want without dipping into the family till. But it's very far from lucrative.
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoThat's a good point. We're a physical bookstore in addition to selling on eBay, so we can handle both types, but the cheap items we just put in the store (some expensive ones too, we mix it up, but anything unusual that doesn't have local interest is probably going on eBay). For most eBay sellers, they're going to do best only focusing on items worth more, which also probably means paying more for them in the first place, though obviously with margin so you can make a profit. We pretty much never pay customers/vendors more than 50% of what we think an item will sell for, usually closer to 40%, less if it's less certain it will sell. Otherwise there's rarely a way to make anything off it.
1786davycrockett
·1 year agoMost of what I normally see is dreck -- mostly recent "best sellers," plus the usual dose of whatever current malady is being targeted on the internet and/or TV, in addition to current political and military nonfiction, plus a never-ending deluge of poorly-written novels of every genre.
Fortunately, these old eyes can still do a fast scan of each bookshelf, on the lookout for old logos, overlooked pseudonyms, obscure publishing houses, and anything over 40 years old (or older).
Sometimes the hunt leaves me with an empty creel or game-bag -- but that's okay: I still enjoy the hunt.
And I still know of a few good places, where I can always find a hefty boxful of bargains.
Here's a big hint: If you walk into a store previously unknown to you, check to see if there's someone behind the counter, actively looking up titles from a big stack of books.
If so, turn around and keep hunting elsewhere.
But. . .
If there doesn't seem to be any internet searching going on, you may have hit pay-dirt: Several of my favorite "hunts" are stores where the owners either don't bother looking up book titles, or they don't care. Either way, the pickin's always seem to be good -- and I let the owners know how much I appreciate a good, old-fashioned used book store, where books are more important than profits.
However -- 9 times out of 10, these good stores are not located comfortably near big major metropolitan areas -- so prepare to put in some mileage.
But a good day book-hunting out on the road, far from Thomas Hardy's "madding crowds," is always better than wasting time, staring at stacks of last year's stale "best-sellers."
And it's always a grand feeling, finding that elusive, out-of-print book, and knowing that it was well worth the effort to drive beyond your own personal comfort zone.
It's what separates the real book-hunters from just the book-sellers -- but I fear we may becoming a dying breed.
But not quite just yet.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoHere's a big hint: If you walk into a store previously unknown to you, check to see if there's someone behind the counter, actively looking up titles from a big stack of books.
Every single used book store and thrift store here - there is no such thing as "not knowing what they have" - even the 90-year-old ladies in church thrifts are looking stuff up, some on cell phones. Welcome to the Silicon Swamp.
But book hunters are not going anywhere, no worries - the occupation may rise and fall, but book hunters have been around since the printing press!
fbusoni
·1 year agoHere's a big hint: If you walk into a store previously unknown to you, check to see if there's someone behind the counter, actively looking up titles from a big stack of books.
This. ⬆ï¸
There is a huge warehouse in my area with tens of thousands of mostly antiquarian books for sale.
There is a guy who has worked there for years named Dave. Bookish, thick glasses, right out of central casting.
You can ask him if a certain book is available; he will stand there, think for a few moments, and without fail will take you to the precise location where the volume is shelved.
keziak
OP1 year agoThat's lovely.
keziak
OP1 year agoSame is true here for library sales. Most sell online to some degree or another. Most have volunteers who buy books. That, coupled with the madding crowds, has chased me off library sales for the past few years.
1786davycrockett
·1 year ago@chapeau-noir
Where I live (in Minnesota), there are just a handful of used book stores, antique stores and thrift stores, which don't bother researching the old books which reach their shelves. Most have a general penciled price (depending on the former retail price) -- and the more recent "best-sellers" are priced higher.
But they have obviously not been researched, since I have discovered numerous rare editions of armfuls of books, sharing shelf space with tons of recent dreck -- more goodies for me!
And nearly ALL these stores were a good hour or more from any large metropolitan area. The only exceptions were a couple of "hobby" stores in the metro suburbs, where the owners do not seem to want to be bothered to research their inventory -- their prices are uniform, no matter how OLD the book may be.
There is one thrift store in western Wisconsin which I regularly visit, which simply shelves whatever donations they receive, without doing any research. Every book (except recent "best sellers") is 50 cents each, according to the hand-painted sign on the wall.
Always a good place to find a boxful of new inventory.
Admittedly, most of these sources are gradually drying up: as the owners grow older, the stores go dark, since the children (and grandchildren) just aren't interested.
One of my best friends, who had operated (and bankrupted) several used book stores, died a few years ago, leaving an inventory of well over 250,000 "vintage" paperbacks, magazines, pulps, and hardcovers. One of his children boxed up the inventory, and it is stored (safely, I hope) inside a storage unit, in a rural area, about 1-1/2 hours outside the Twin Cities. Gradually, they are selling off the inventory -- but it will take several lifetimes.
So there are still some "good" prospects around the country for book-hunting safaris -- but it takes patience and ingenuity -- and lots of hours, on the road!
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoThose road trips can lead to other things, too - seeing new sights (for us, other places to hike and bike), meeting people, etc. I used to do road trips for inventory (clothing, electronics and sporting goods). Since I don't do this full time anymore I no longer do so, or just do some hunting when I'm elsewhere anyway. I have a feeling it was the road trip that was the point lol.
jewelbiz
·1 year ago+ I asked my sister if when she + my 2 nieces get here to NYC (after the day before driving 400 miles) to celebrate my 80th birthday can the 3 of them help me on my birthday 🎂 for 2 hours selling my books on the street, Broadway, + she said “yes, it sounds like a lot of fun!â€
So after a trip to Coney Island in Brooklyn and lunch at Nathan’s on that September day we 4 will all come back to NYC Manhattan and spend 2 hours selling my books on the street.
Now once again I have to attempt to choose which books to bring downstairs that day,
my once in a lifetime really big birthday.
keziak
OP1 year agoI don't mean to quibble with you but is driving an hour or more worth ending up with a box of books? Armloads sound better.
My husband the lawyer can't resist giving me a hard time when he finds out I'm driving much of any distance for books - how much am I spending on gas, etc?
When I ended up driving and waiting and all the stress of library sales to get only a box, maybe two, I agreed and gave up. In the old days I would stagger out with 4-5 boxes and the really aggressive [mostly guys and crews] with lots more. Last few times I went some of them still seemed to be getting a lot but who knows what books. I've seen them take books I already scanned and deemed worthless. Kinda another topic though.
iart
·1 year agoHunting for individual books is fun. But it's become a money loser. With the time it takes, gas and cost it isn't worth it for us. In the end, we barely make federal minimum wage.
And you're right, our sales price for books on ebay have been about the same for years. So we can't raise prices.
We look for books we can buy in bulk, at a low price. And there aren't a lot of them around anymore either.
chariot_badges
·1 year agoBack in the day when I was doing books, I used to have two or three churches who did Sunday flea markets in their parking lots a couple of times each spring. I went to the gal in charge and she said, "Any books that are not sold by Sunday afternoon I will sell to you for $100. You haul."
I used to get truck loads of books. Seriously. Now, half of them needed to be taken to the dump (and were), but I got WAY above my hundred bucks.
keziak
OP1 year agoI think when it comes to scenarios like that it matters if dealers got wind of the sales and picked them over. Church sales might be among the most likely to be minimally advertised. I know I miss a bunch every year simply because I don't know when they are. I went to one a few years ago that was pretty good but only because an acquaintance told me about it.
I operate differently from maybe 90% of dealers around here because I collect books to list here in lots (if the price makes sense). Most dealers use phones or scanners to find books to send to Amazon FBA. As mentioned above they don't do much with books that lack barcodes to scan so lingering at sales does make sense assuming you are OK with longtail books.
rippets
·1 year agoI honestly think book people are a special breed. You either love books or you hate books. My spouse simply cannot understand how I can spend hours in a bookstore.
luckythewinner
·1 year agoHow much do you ask for your cheapest book?
keziak
OP1 year agoIf I had those books I'm referring to I would not charge anything because I would donate them somewhere, like Salvation Army. But I know that's not your point. I gamble that a small percentage of all books might sell online for an amount with maybe just a little profit, maybe more. Trying to sell them locally to a fraction of an audience would drive the prices way down due to little demand. But who knows, maybe that thrift store sells 20 year old worn romances all day long for $3.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoI stopped shopping at Value Village when they went to pricing as a percentage of the original cover price.
Although with the vintage paperbacks that I was buying for resale, that meant I was getting books for 50% of the original price of 50c (and at that in Canadian currency), and reselling for $9.99 USD. Then they caught on and set up a Vintage Books section.
However, the bottom seems to have dropped out of the vintage books market in any case, with few 21st century readers interested in 20th century writers.
I even skipped the Times Colonist Book Sale this year.
Not even a curling rink filled with books could tempt me.
chapeau-noir
·1 year ago@reallynicestamps However, the bottom seems to have dropped out of the vintage books market in any case, with few 21st century readers interested in 20th century writers.
Someone else made that observation in another thread, and it's a really good one (maybe it was you?). I mentioned that I had read an article (sorry, can't remember the publication) written by a book reviewer where she was chatting with a bunch of other reviewers and authors, and they realise that few books ever survive a generation, or even a few decades, and that has never changed. The authors or titles might come round again and be popular, but so many are forgotten.
A friend of mine was a well recognized romance writer (and good, I even liked her stuff and I usually like murder mystery and sword-and-sandals/combat style novels) who wrote and published book after book which sold well. I think she quit writing about 20 years ago and said the taste for the type of writing she did had passed and she is out of print now. Almost no one talks about CP Snow anymore, but he was a popular writer in my dad's generation.
At any rate, the author of this article mused about what causes a title to remain in the public's eye, and what causes them (most of them) to just fade away. In the end, many books are ephemeral.
What were we talking about again? LOL.
keziak
OP1 year agoI got a very large collection of vintage paperbacks and magazines. So far I've sold John D. MacDonald but not for big money and one out of three "Manhunt" has a bid. Another guy didn't sell and I'm not sure what to do next. There are sold copies of his books at Fixed Price. Don't know where to put such books if I used Fixed Price.
mantle1951
·1 year agoI gave up on books around 7 years ago when other big sellers were selling a big coffee table book for $5.00 and free shipping, can't compete with that.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoHere am I, with boxes of books I want to get rid of. I live in an area drowning in books because we're considered "A City of Readers" and we are (even though I don't live in Seattle - the entire PNW is filled with avid readers), so books are pretty cheap. I have a couple of thousand to get rid off and have sold maybe half of them - the rest I'll just donate.
@fbusoni That's just disgusting - reminds me of eBay in the olden days, though! The stuff you'd see on here. 🤢
@jewelbiz- I followed your efforts in this and was behind you, but I think you brought out way way too few books to make a successful venture. For something like that (I've been through this), you need literal boxes of books with their spines up so the titles can be read, and pretty cheap prices, with your top books on the table. New York City is intensely literate - I think you'd do great if you did that. If you can get some help hauling the stuff up and down and a friend to help watch that table.
jewelbiz
·1 year agoThank you 🙠for your helpful advice and you gave me something to think about.
My sister and my 2 nieces are driving 400 miles to see me in September on my big birthday (80)
+ said anything I want to do that day to celebrate 🎉 is good with them.
So far we’d agreed to have breakfast at a diner we all love, next drive to Coney Island to sit on the Boardwalk and have lunch there at Nathan’s and then go back later to that same favorite diner in my neighborhood for our dinner…
Perhaps I could get the 3 of them to help me for 2 hours to sell my books on the street on Broadway in front of my building on my birthday 🎂 in the afternoon?
But my sister is funny she might not agree to that new plan. She hates my books and thinks I should throw them immediately in the garbage as she doesn’t want anything whatsoever to do with them!
Oh yes! Book selling is a lot of work.
ethylsgarage
·1 year agoI'm still paying the same I paid two years ago, $0.35/lb. I only buy full pallets and don't buy individual books. You can't make decent money buying individual books for resale unless you are doing something like autographed first editions. To make money reselling, your book cost needs to be less than 30% of your retail price.
keziak
OP1 year agoAbout the pallets, are many of the books worthless?
A friend told me about getting a sweet deal on multiple pallets of good textbooks. But he says that is hardly likely to happen again and he's plugged into those kinds of sources of inventory. BUT he used to be a huge bookseller with a warehouse that was like a nightmare from hoarderville. Now he doesn't sell books at all except those textbooks.
m60driver
·1 year agoI buy books individually. Books are mostly slow sellers with high margins. I usually pay between 25¢ and $2. I comp every book and jump on most books that have no comps. The scanners often don't look at these books. There are also a few topics that I will always comp. I make decent money even after tossing a few books now and again as having no buyers as I have very limited storage space and often need to make room for new titles.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoSourcing at FOLs and thrifts is a technique which has always been somewhat dubious.
The FOLs sell mostly newer books to sellers who are looking for fast turns and therefore are the most competitive to sell online. My FOL strategy was always to arrive late when the tables were less loaded with fast turning low margins books.
Thrifts are problematic because because the people who run them are always looking at how they can keep the profit that resellers are trying to make on the books. In some parts of the country, like New England. Goodwill is run by better business people than most Ebay sellers are.
When I no longer wished to go on "house calls" to buy books from estates and people who were downsizing, I became dependent on in person auctions.
I had relationships with auctioneers for decades, and competed with the same booksellers for many of those years. Many of those auctioneers shut down during the pandemic and never reopened. Some of those that did are now selling on Invaluable or LiveAuctioneers. All of them reduced their nut, limited the amount they auctioned, and sold their real estate.
Not only is it tough to buy, it is tough to find someone to consign to.
I now rely on some antique dealers and booksellers who are effectively picking for me. Taking the merchandise they lack the skills to sell, taking merchandise which is better sold online than in the venues they sell in, and taking some of their dead stock which can do better with better presentation.
Fortunately, I have merchandise that I never listed because there was better stuff to sell. Some of that has aged like a fine wine, or the lack of quality to be had makes them look like that.
Some thoughts on geography. I have a friend, who is an Ebay seller. He was originally from New England where many things including books are plentiful because we had people before there were people in some parts of the country.
We have always gravitated to similar items and used to split large lots rather than compete in buying them. His Ebay store overlaps my inventory. He sells merchandise which is uncommon in Arizona. So uncommon that when he finds it there, it becomes his. It is not even on the radar of his nearby competitors.
So long as there are enough people who read, there will be books. In the wild west days, when few people were literate and books were expensive - there were books. A dime novel might have half a dozen or more owners in a few years. The people who could read, read. BTW the vocabulary in some of those dime novels would be beyond the vocabulary of some entering freshmen at college today.
Please understand that when I talk about books, I try not to include popular fiction, best selling non-fiction and college texts. Never were a part of my merchandise mix, and a believe that kindle, textbook rentals, and online texts own the market. Too hard to fight over the amount of business left.
keziak
OP1 year agoMy theory as to why local libraries have never come back from covid is that during that time when people were stuck home they cleaned out and donated heavily to thrift store. A friend "plugged in" to one of them described huge loads. Now we have fewer books in town, changing demographics to people unlikely to have many books, and estates disappearing as older people with good collections moved or passed away. A used bookstore in town gets plenty of books but every person I've talked to there was from elsewhere, not in town.
fbusoni
·1 year agoI'm in northern Va and my book suppliers have not raised the prices of books for many years. Goodwill, Salvation Army, and the two private thrift shops I visit charge between $1 and $2 for hardcovers and paperbacks alike.
Maybe its regional?
As for FB... what a circus. I saw an opened jar of peanut butter for sale a few weeks ago. "I tried it and did not like the taste." They were asking half of what it cost new.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@fbusoni Just a guess, but I'd figure Northern Virginia has a higher per capita reading population, and, by and large, better quality books, than most areas of the country. So plenty of good quality books at good prices because a plentiful supply probably helps to keep the prices down. When sourcing in the B&M world, location can make a huge difference.
keziak
OP1 year agoThree words for you: Lots....of....dealers. They are everywhere and I can't fault them, I am one too! But the crowds and crews and competition are amok.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@keziak Ah, yes, hadn't really thought about that: more books, but more competition as well.
dbjewelry
·1 year agoA good place to source books is if you have a Amazon liquidation Bargain Bin place near you - place that starts at higher price to start the week and drops the price each day. The one near us ends their week on Friday and the Friday deal is fill a garbage bag for $25...and you can fit quite a few books in a garbage bag. You just need to be on steroids to be able to lift the bag when it is full.
Sometimes they get so overloaded on books they will just sell by the pallet..I have gotten an entire pallet for $200 and it had a decent amount of textbooks that were somewhat recent.
keziak
OP1 year agoA friend I mentioned above does exactly that except for books. I found out t here is a place in town but haven't checked into it, maybe it's time. But given that 80% or more of books are worthless I don't have a lot of optimism about what would be left over.
keziak
OP1 year agoI'm in outer Northern VA as well. Lost Salvation Army, Goodwill has decent prices but is small, checked the hospital auxiliary store, nothing. A friend elsewhere in the region finds a lot more books but occasionally admits she has too many low-price and/or high ranked books [Amazon]. I am sure she finds good stuff but I think she can't resist buying some books despite being non-promising.
yuzuha
·1 year agoOh hey there neighbor... yeah, that's about what I see around here too. For a while one of my local thrifts was doing 10 cents for paperbacks and 25 cents for hardcovers just because they had so many... not sure if they're raised the prices or if they're still that low.
selsa84
·1 year agoIt's getting tough finding good books at a decent price. eBay prices are thru the roof on books that are fair. I use to be able to source books from eBay but now with sellers having to promote items prices are way higher. I have a few online sources where I can find good ones at a much better price than here on eBay.
jewelbiz
·1 year agoAnd I have a different seller book situation.
For the past 40 years I’ve been buying books in my travels as an antique dealer in New York.
Have maybe 10,000 here all on floor to ceiling bookcases some with 3 rows deep in all my rooms.
Most of the books I never saw before in my entire life.
I would say that all the books here by now cost me nothing.
Used to go to sales with my shopping cart sometimes going back and forth making several trips from sale to my apartment.
Had brilliant idea to go out on the street in front of my building to sell my books.
Went downstairs in April in a 2 hour time increment and didn’t sell 1 book.
Was anxious and depressed and upset vowing never again.
It was too painful for me to be trying so hard and not selling even 1 book.
Pix me April on Broadway…Oh my! Maybe I chose the wrong books but all last winter I tried to pick out what I thought people in my own neighborhood would want!
keziak
OP1 year agoHave you thought about finding a bookstore or dealers who would buy it all? I"m sure not for great money but they might give your space back to you.
jewelbiz
·1 year agoThe Strand once came over and offered me 25 cents a book! The man from the Strand then somehow picked out 1 of my books and actually flung it across the room saying that “I don’t know books that he knows books.â€
When he finally left I ran to pick up the book that he threw. I had never noticed it before.
I sold that 1 book for $200. Had that Strand book buyer not flung that 1 book across my living room I never would have ever seen it.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoMade by first book sales to The Strand at age 16. Sold them review copies of recent books I acquired from someone. Paid me 15% of msrp for books they sold at 50% of MSRP.
That made up the contents of the entire front of the store in the early 60's,
I used to get calls to come out and make an offer on books at homes/estates in the Boston area. Being an unknown with no store, I got to come in after the big name stores. Those booksellers did such a good job of bad mouthing the rest of the books, that I could usually get any offer I made accepted.
It was a lot of effort hauling those books away, but there were some great books. Your experience with The Strand was totally in keeping with what The Brattle Bookshop and Goodspeed's were like, though they were too genteel to offer .25 for anything.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agobut there were some great books.
Great books or great sellers?
The writers I still pick up are Douglas Adams, Leo Frankowski, John Wyndham,and John Norman.
Two of those are great writers. Two.... ugh.
But all four sell.
adamcartwright
·1 year ago@jewelbiz
What a great photo. You look so sweet and seem to have some interesting books.
I LOVE NYC and definitely would have bought a book or two from you.
Maybe try again in the Fall?
m60driver
·1 year agoYes, I focus my attention on estate sales where the cost of hardcovers has gone up to $5 per book at some sales. These days I only bother to buy on the 50% off last day sales.
mike_jayroe
·1 year agoI got a bunch of books I am trying to sell. I am not having any luck with them. Before the end of the year I might just donate them to a library, thrift shop or something.
But I took a time out to go all out in cleaning out my brothers place. Got a 10 yard capacity dumpster and am filling it up with all kinds of junk mail, catalogs and other crap he kept over the last 20 years.
Only things I am keeping will be those items I need to satisfy the taxes and such which will be auctioned off by the guy recommended by the probate lawyer.
Anything not sold will be donated locally.
I am sick of seeing all of it and just want to get it out of my sight.
If anybody out there is related to a hoarder, and you will be the one to deal with the estate. Find a way to get them out of the house, and start removing it now. I think it will take at least one week just to get the junk out.
Then a major cleaning with all the mouse droppings, and other hygenic items to take care of. It is just not worth it.
Thanks for letting me vent.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year agoUsed book prices vary a lot from seller to seller.
If you are having trouble sourcing, I would suggest trying to expand your sourcing. My local Goodwill used to be a good source, but they've increased their prices and seem to have reduced their selection, probably because they are putting some books online and probably because of the increased competition armed with scanners. So I barely bother looking there anymore. Tomorrow I'll be traveling a little further to a thrift store where most books are priced very attractively and, in fact, they are running a 25% off sale on books. There's a restaurant we like not far from the thrift, so it should be a fun day away.
Keep hunting.
keziak
OP1 year agoI recently got a tip on a large thrift 45 minutes from here with attractive discounts one day a week. I went there, pretty large selection of books. High prices. But with the discounts it was high, not nosebleed high. Sold one book out of a shopping cart full. I may need to go again. WEnt to another town 45 minutes away to a library ongoing sale shop, decent prices but I was not successful selling what I got.
I hate library sales and stopped going since covid because i got so much on Marketplace. Right now I am still working on some of those collections and don't want to buy tons more. MOre that I'd like to find more books that are fairly likely to be quick sellers. Living the dream.