pjglad
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posted on April 27, 2001 07:43:34 AM new
I've been selling books on Half.Com for the past 3 months at a fairly regular pace. Last week I bought about 7 dozen ex-library books at a good price and listed them on Half.Com. Despite the fact that many of those books are in great shape and have interesting titles, none of them have sold so far. Do the buyers on Half.Com tend to avoid ex-library books? If so then I won't buy any more ex-library books.
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Dragonfyree
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posted on April 27, 2001 08:25:48 AM new
I occasionally buy books from half.com and if it's one I want, I don't care if it's a ex-library book. I'd buy more from half.com if you didn't have to pay a separate shipping charge for each book for multiple purchases from the same seller.
Not Dragonfyree anywhere but here.
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birdwatcher-07
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posted on April 27, 2001 08:56:19 AM new
pjglad, it depends on the scarcity of the books. If they are all readily available in non-ex-library form, then buyers will lean toward buying the other copies from other sellers. But if they are relatively scarce titles, and there aren't many copies around, you should be able to sell them fairly quickly.
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pjglad
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posted on April 27, 2001 09:13:25 AM new
I priced all those ex-library books very competitively. In most cases I made it the lowest price for each book available. Some of the books were in excellent shape so I'll see what happens but so far no buys.
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Zazzie
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posted on April 27, 2001 09:34:38 AM new
Your books have been listed for ONE WEEK and you're worried???
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pjglad
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posted on April 27, 2001 10:03:22 AM new
Usually out of 7 dozen books listed, at least one of them would have sold within a week. Ten days ago I listed about 15 books and 6 of them sold within 4 days. I price competively and give them good writeups. But perhaps I haven't given the ex-library books enough time. I was just wondering if there was a prejudice against buying ex-library books.
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Zazzie
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posted on April 27, 2001 10:32:44 AM new
I would say that unless it is a very desirable/ collectible title or the only one listed most buyers will go for the non ex-library than for the ex-library.
A 'competitive' price does not alway get the sale
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mballai
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posted on April 27, 2001 11:52:49 AM new
I had one ex-library sell so far on half. The issue is usually based on whether the reader is buying for themself, how much they care to spend, and whether appearances matter to them. Most people shop half for a clean secondhand book at a good price, nothing more. An ex-library can serve this purpose for many. I would knock off about 20% to a common ex-library book.
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pjglad
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posted on April 27, 2001 01:28:18 PM new
Hey! I just checked and one of those ex-Library books sold for $4.99. One reason might be that the next lowest one listed was about $15 so I guess for that price savings the buyer figured it was worth it even though I listed it as just acceptable condition. Anyway, now I see that buyers will buy ex-library books if competitively priced.
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keziak
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posted on April 27, 2001 02:34:41 PM new
Doesn't a tiny part of you wonder if you could have gotten more, though? I've sold a ton of ex-library books, it's my mainstay, and a desirable one could easily go for $15. It's impossible to generalize, though.
keziak
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pjglad
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posted on April 27, 2001 04:32:32 PM new
Keziak---This book was just in acceptable condition. In addition it was just the 1978 edition of the 2000 book listed there. Also I think that the other sellers were asking way too much. However, if I had a later edition in better shape, I would have asked for more. It's great to read that you have sold a lot of ex-library books. I'm feeling a lot better now.
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