#144 Update, 21 June 2010

Special Announcements

A Review of ValueMyStuffNow At a recent estate sale I acquired a copy of what I would be comfortable calling a rare book - in fact, an online search at WorldCat returned no results, and a Google search turned up only one copy, this in a library in the Tuscany region of Italy. When this sort of thing happens, I usually do one of two things. Either I conduct a deeper search, looking for past auction records - American Book Prices Current is a good resource for this - or contact an auction house that I think might have an interest in it. Many booksellers, however, don't have access to ABPC - unless your local library has it, it doesn't come cheap - and contacting auction houses every time you want to know what something is worth isn't a good idea unless you are pretty sure you have something of interest going in and are willing to commit to consigning it.

#144 Update, 14 June 2010

Special Announcements

Selling on eBay Using the Best Offer Feature to Your Advantage Part II A question for you. The last time you got dinged with a neg, what was your response? Did it start with a thought, something like, "This is outrageously unfair!" And then near immediately did the thought manifest in your body as anger, perhaps a hot flash in your solar plexus? And then, did you ever do one of the following in the blinding moments or hours after: fire back with a neg of your own (on venues where it was still possible leave one), heatedly compose an angry email and send it off to the buyer or perhaps customer support, and/or come to a forum and vent?

#144 Update, 31 May 2010

Update Announcements

Selling on eBay Using the Best Offer Feature to Your Advantage Part I I recall a discussion on the eBay booksellers forum not too long ago where the topic using the Best Offer feature came up. Somebody wrote (I'm paraphrasing), in what to many others surely felt like a fatal blow, "If you do this, you'll essentially guarantee that you'll almost never get your asking price." Having used Best Offers for several years now, I can attest to the truth of this. For every Store sale I get on eBay that's at my asking price, there are perhaps 20 or 25 Best Offer sales, some of them at 50% to 60% of my asking price. Are you wincing? So far, you might be thinking, this Best Offer jazz isn't looking so good.

144 24 May 2010

From the Editor

Bookselling in the 21st Century Part XVI: Visualizing What You Need to Do to Make Bookselling Work: $50 Books Okay, somewhere between the $25 book and the $50, the game changes. Every bookseller will sell at least the occasional $50 and up book, especially if there's a focus on textbooks, but how many average $50 per sale? One in ten? One in a hundred? I'd guess that it's closer to the latter. And what's the most likely response if you suggest to a struggling bookseller that raising his or her ASP to $50 (for starters) is the key to successfully operating and growing a bookselling business? Something along these lines, I'd bet: I'd be happy to raise my ASP, but I can't find enough $50 books to do it.

144 24 May 2010

From the Editor

Bookselling in the 21st Century Part XVI: Visualizing What You Need to Do to Make Bookselling Work: $50 Books Okay, somewhere between the $25 book and the $50, the game changes. Every bookseller will sell at least the occasional $50 and up book, especially if there's a focus on textbooks, but how many average $50 per sale? One in ten? One in a hundred? I'd guess that it's closer to the latter. And what's the most likely response if you suggest to a struggling bookseller that raising his or her ASP to $50 (for starters) is the key to successfully operating and growing a bookselling business? Something along these lines, I'd bet: I'd be happy to raise my ASP, but I can't find enough $50 books to do it.