The BookThinker Newsletter ISSN 1547-9501 136, 27 July 2009

The BookThinker Newsletter
136 Update
August 17, 2009

Update Announcements

Help Wanted Needed Hiring Help for Your Bookselling Business Bookseller Michael Burnley makes a guest appearance today. He's here to discuss something that doubtless most booksellers, even if they never get around to doing it, at least think about from time to time - hiring help. His detailed overview addresses the important factors you'll need to consider.

Bookselling in the 21st Century Part I: Adapt or Die? Also today, I'm launching a new series of articles on a topic that some of you might be uncomfortable thinking about, let alone reading about - the actual state of the bookselling biz as opposed to what we wish it was. Or what it used to be, for that matter. Part I is a short introduction to the series, and subsequent parts will suggest possible strategies going forward.

The BookThinker Newsletter
136 Special Report 1
August 10, 2009

Special Announcements PicClick Tips Straight from the Developer's Mouth Cut Your Inventory Searches by 90% In this guest article, Ryan Sit shares his secrets on how to visually find eBay items 10x faster using PicClick. Ryan is the founder of PicClick, and created PicClick out of his own frustration with eBay.com's slow and inefficient website.] BookThink's Top 10 on eBay June 2009 Reading tea leaves could be easier than extracting top 10 facts from the new eBay format. Is this listing an auction or fixed price? Dunno unless it has a BIN or shows the number of bids. How long was it listed? Dunno again. If the By the Numbers section in this article seems skimpy, eBay's changes are the reason. But by the time I gathered the July top 10, I'd learned to glean some details from the search results screen that are no longer in the listings themselves. From the Editor     Book Repair for BookThinkers Comb Binding Books When you buy inventory, you don't always get what you expect, and sometimes what you get is significantly inferior to what you expected. Sorry to say, this can even happen when I buy books in person. What looked like a good book in the up-tempo context of a sale can later, on closer inspection, reveal a flaw that was overlooked. If the book was purchased online, no problem. You can simply return it. However, this typically isn't possible if you purchased it at, say, an estate sale. What then? Today's feature article presents a technique for salvaging a book that seemingly had a fatal flaw. QMR Books of the Month What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars It seems that many of us are primarily interested in learning how to win in life, and this phenomenon is perhaps no more apparent than among those who seek their fortune in the stock market. If one investment system doesn't work, instead of investigating why, another system is tried - and on and on, the thinking being that one need only search until the right system is discovered, and all will be well. This is how we learn to win, right? Try, try again?

Recent BookThinker Issues

BookThinker Special Report 3, 6 July 2009

USPS PS Form 2976 Update Now and again, when I get question after question on the same topic over an extended period of time, it makes sense to gather these questions together and clarify things. The topic I'd like to address today is BookThink's Premium Resources - the reports you put down hard-earned money for.

BookThink's Gold Edition Issue #59 How To Buy Inventory on Craigslist Have you ever looked for books on craigslist? Doesn't take long to lose interest, does it? I'm here to tell you how to find the worthwhile listings quickly. Purchase now.

How To Buy BookThink Premium Resources A FAQ Addendum Now and again, when I get question after question on the same topic over an extended period of time, it makes sense to gather these questions together and clarify things. The topic I'd like to address today is BookThink's Premium Resources - the reports you put down hard-earned money for.

Top 10 on eBay May 2009 Notice how many fiction and non-fiction top 10 titles are sold as Best Offer or Buy It Now? The trend continues in May 2009 with 16 - count 'um - selling without the traditional eBay auction experience taking place. Of those 16, 6 sold as Best Offers and 10 sold as BINs. Even in the Antiquarian & Collectible top 10, there were 1 BO and 1 BIN. Maybe it's time to nail down the underlying import for booksellers.

The BookThinker Update
22 June 2009

Update Announcements

Selling on eBay Using Best Offer to Increase Your Revenue It's no secret that most booksellers aren't making a killing this summer. I hear or read something about it every day. Blame it on the economy, the season, ever-increasing competition - whatever. Apart from applying the serious, long-term strategy we so often recommend in our premium newsletters, is there anything that you can do now to increase your revenue? [Read the entire article here.]

 

QMR Book of the Month Update Suppertime for Frieda Fuzzypaw Revisited Some of you may recall a previous QMR feature we ran on Suppertime for Frieda Fuzzypaw, a book that was found near the remains of Caylee Anthony. A video had also been released showing her reading it. Not surprisingly the book has subsequently soared in value. [Read the entire article here.]