Buying Book Collections 101 by Timothy Doyle 25 October 2010

begins that buying of What, ask have the shown

Today's article a series focuses on collections books for resale. you may does that to do with picture of brown hat above? Fans

of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince will recognize that this actually represents a snake that has swallowed an elephant:

Many

booksellers

contemplating their first house call to view and perhaps buy a large collection of books may feel a certain sympathy with the snake prior to eating the elephant. You may not know where to start, and you may be unsure of your ability to handle something that size. But like the Little Prince, who was not fooled by the outward appearance of things, seeing inside the why and how of buying a collection will help make it much less mysterious and intimidating.

But first some general comments and disclaimers.

The topic of buying inventory can get very complicated, very quickly. No one method, or set of methods, will work for all booksellers. This is why many people who post online about this or that method will often conclude with "YMMV" - which stands for "Your Mileage May Vary." The approach to take with this article, and with all the how-to articles and forum posts you read, is to find what works for you. What methods fit with your business model? If your average inventory is under 100 books and housed in the closet of your efficiency apartment, then maybe you aren't interested in how to purchase collections of thousands or even hundreds of books. Then again, maybe you will find certain principles that can be generalized to benefit your particular situation. In other words, this is not a step-by-step set of instructions. Think of it as an exploration of a variety of ideas that have worked for me and for others and that may have applications for you.