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Hi Edith,
I (along with many others!) am currently trying to figure out what I should do with my Half.com inventory. I've decided that it will not be cost effective to sell a lot of my "stuff" on eBay, particularly with the recent fee increases. Most of my inventory was acquired at Friends of the Library book sales and thrift stores. I currently have accounts set up with several used book stores in my area. They offer book buying services for cash or trade credit. In addition to books, many of them take videos, CD's, DVD's, laser discs, and records. I've had some luck reselling, at a profit, items I have "purchased" with trade credit. Do you have any insider tips on the best way to work with used book dealers to obtain the maximum amount of cash or credit?
Regards,
Barb
The answer isn't as easy as it seems. It's a buyer's market at present and at the Greenwich Village Book Fair, two dealers were talking about selling their entire inventory (thousands of books). So books are out there, ready to be bought.
Some things to consider:
- Dealers fall into two real categories when it comes to buying. There are those who buy a lot of stuff, whole inventories, etc. And there are those who buy only what they need or what has a high value (a sleeper). You are better off going to someone who will buy the entire lot first because the "picker" will leave you the chaff and you will be in the same boat as every library sale after the last day - trying to dump books no one else seems to want. You will spend a lot of time and energy trying to market them.
- Dealers will give you pennies on the dollar for a run-of-the-mill book, that is, if they buy it. Know what you want to get from the sale of your books and be realistic. Some people who don't sell online have inflated prices, those prices that were put on the book when buyers still had to scour local shops for what they wanted. Their expectation about what their books are worth is not what an online seller can resell them for. A book's value is truly what somebody wants to pay for it. Sum up your investment and decide how badly you want to be rid of the inventory.
Do a little research and know how many copies of your editions are available and how much the dealer could buy them for retail online. You must negotiate for a price that suits both your needs.
Confidence in your stock will go a long way. Now it will depend on whether the dealer NEEDS your books. Find a seller who has inventory gaps you might be able to fill. One seller I know scours the Internet to see what's not available online and limits his purchases to those topics. If you know you have titles that a bookshop owner may need, sell those and insist that the deal include the whole shebang if you want to liquidate.
- Consider putting them online through a selling venue like Alibris or Abe. If you don't want to acquire a regular bill for inventory, Alibris offers a good entry into the business. They will take a portion of the sale (20% - the same as a typical dealer discount). They do want an upload though of at least 500 books. Inventory management programs are out there to help you list your books for sale online. Homebase is free and Alibris also has a freebie but they want you to use it exclusively with them for the first year. Other programs may do more but there's a charge (see our article this week about Fillz.com).
- Ask the dealers you know what they like to buy. They may have a customer with particular categories of interest, and every book they get goes directly to that collector.
Good luck.
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