booksellers - inflation in books to source?

[keziak]

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.

[jewelbiz]

+ 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!”

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.

[lux.ra_14]

Too 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.

[ginapeet]

im 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!

[keziak]

With 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]

That'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.