posted on August 23, 2001 06:32:35 PM new
I've done pretty good with my book sales. Actually my only problem is FINDING more books. It's easy finding lots of crappy fiction books at flea markets or garage sales but a lot tougher to find the nonfiction books which I find sell better. What is a good source for buying cheap used nonfiction books?
posted on August 23, 2001 06:38:35 PM new
I sell books and would love to have a source where I can buy used books in quantity. Not the usual scanning the various auction sites.
Currently other than library book sales, garage sales and swap meets the only other source I know of is the US Post Office who holds auctions on eBay for books but they go for some pretty high prices.
In fact most of their auctions close at prices you could buy brand new books for or remainders.
posted on August 23, 2001 06:41:24 PM new
how about barnes and noble??
we have a shop which has books at 75 % off,i have seen people shopping there,they are mostly non fiction but the content is VERY BORING
posted on August 23, 2001 06:53:10 PM new
Used bookstores (bargain shelves), garage sales, estate sales, library sales, and thrift shops. Look in the paper for White Elephant sales, Church bazaars, trade shows, etc. If you are near a college, check out their bookstores or thrifts. See if they have discount days or periodic sales. Same for Art Museums.
Look in your Yellow Pages under "Publishers" to see if you have any local publishers from whom you can buy at wholesale.
posted on August 23, 2001 07:02:10 PM new
FYI Non-fiction doesn't necessarily mean saleable books. You are dealing with the most oversaturated book marketplace imaginable.
Do your homework or you'll have lots of good books to drop off at the local thrift shop for the next person to waste their time reselling.
posted on August 23, 2001 07:09:08 PM new
....and I wouldnt turn my nose up at fiction so fast.....I have made about 1200.00 NET in the past two months on mostly fiction paperback!!! One is at $30.00 right now, and has three days to go. Of course, do your research FIRST, then, like another poster mentioned, you wont be dropping a bunch off at the bookstore, you will dropping them off at the post office!! Good luck!
posted on August 23, 2001 07:11:15 PM new
i agree we have a glut of books out there in this country,the key is like every trade-know your books.
and it takes time to develop that knowledge and be able to buy when they are avaialble at a good price.
what is a good price,how many copies should you get of course varies with market demand and your own resources.
posted on August 23, 2001 07:15:27 PM new
Just letting you know that the Border's outlet idea seems to be very common. In the past I'd picked up a few from there thinking they'd be great for half or ebay. Unfortunately many other people had the same idea as there were several already being sold on half and ebay.
posted on August 23, 2001 07:52:57 PM new
one thing interesting about books-when they first go on sale,there are many copies and no one wants it.
then as time goes on,there are less copies available and they start to become scarce,scarcer and scarcest.
take a book like marlon brando
's songs my mother taught me or dan quayle -standing tall,or jenifer flower on bill clinton,20-50 years down the road,they will be worth something especially if they are signed by the author.
posted on August 23, 2001 08:19:57 PM new
The problem with the flea markets and the library sales is that at least 90% of the books are junk, or they are Stephen King or Tom Clancey books that get very little online because they are so many of them in print out there. As to dumpsters, do you mean dumpsters behind bookstores?
posted on August 23, 2001 08:36:57 PM new
better to spend time with dumpsters behind dominick,pizza huts as they throw away pizzas in their boxes ,you can pick up some nice pizzas which can still be hot and fresh.
how about going around your own neighborhood and knock on door and ask if they want to donate some books for a good cause.
posted on August 24, 2001 03:50:03 AM new
My best supply I got last March. A vendor at the flea market told me he had 37 boxes of books in storage. He sold and delivered them all to me for just $50. There were over 1000 books of which about 200 were good enough to sell online. The rest I sold 5 for a dollar at the flea market. BTW, that experience helped teach me what books sold best---informational nonfiction as opposed to romance fiction which sell worst.
Right now it is slim pickings at the flea market. I can usually get about 3 or 4 saleable books per visit but not much more. Garage sales is a lot of work just to find a few books. Anyway, I am open to suggestions. I would like to be able to purchase at least a couple of dozen books per day and am still looking for sources. I really enjoy selling books online but, as I said, my biggest problem is finding good sources.
posted on August 24, 2001 04:44:30 AM new
As an aside, here is a terrible source for books: the dollar stores. Sure, the books are brand new, but if you're inexperienced (as I once was) and buy some, you'll quickly find at least 20 of each already up for auction. You'll be lucky to sell those for what you paid for them.
I've found the estate sales to be the most excellent source for books that fetch the higher prices. Not just because some of them will be rare. Usually there is a particular focus to some of the collection and if it's a topic that might sell well, then you've found yourself a bonanza. They don't necessarily have to be vintage books either.
I also note that while scouring the garage sale ads, it truly pays to focus on the ads that mention books, rather than trying to hit all the ones close to you, regardless of what the ad says, if anything. Sometimes the ad will exaggerate, like you'll find maybe 6 books on the table, but most of the time you'll find 6 boxes!
posted on August 24, 2001 04:47:26 AM new
I started selling books in a big way back in February. By the end of that month I had a about a hundred books. By the end of March, beacause of my big purchase from the vendor, I had over 300 books. I reached the height of my inventory at the beginning of May with 440 books. Since then my book purchases have not kept up with sales and my inventory has slipped back to a little over 300 books. So the sales are no problem (as long as you know which books are most likely to sell) but acquiring more SALEABLE books is a huge problem. It's a snap if I wanted to buy fiction books but as I said nonfiction books sell best so I concentrate on them. Since February I have sold about 450 books and with the books I now have in inventory, this means I purchased a total of about 800 books for resale. I would like to acquire a permanent inventory of at least 3000 books.
Well, maybe it's just this time of year but it's a lot tougher now to find them then earlier. If I could find about 50 books per day I figure I would have that 3000 inventory built up in about 3 months. Of course, the BIG problem is finding a source. Bookstores, of course, sell nonfiction but they want too much. I don't want to pay over $2 per book. Usually I get them now for a buck or less.
I go to library sales but, again, most of the books are nonsaleable fiction. Also when I do buy a few good books from a library, a long time passes before more good books come in. Ditto for the thrift stores. Best source has been the flea markets as far as supply and prices but the supply has slowed to a trickle. As to estate sales, again they are often nonsaleable fiction books.
BTW, I bought a book yesterday about how to be a frugal gambler at the flea market for 50 cents and when I listed it on Half.Com it was pre-ordered for $7.50 so I took it. Just too bad I can't find more such books.
Any suggetions out there would be most helpful.
p.s. Does anybody know about that big book sale (300,000+ books) in Newton, CT that is coming up in a week?
posted on August 24, 2001 06:14:16 AM new
Jayadiaz---There is a big book sale of 150,000+ books at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library in Newtown. It runs from Sept. 1-5. Wednesday, the last day is supposed to be a free book day. Perhaps you should check it out since you live there. Do you know anything else about this book sale?
posted on August 24, 2001 07:42:03 AM new
Same challenges here, though at this point the limiting factor for me is not having enough time in a week to do all the scrounging and shopping needed to accumulate inventory. I do not carry much in inventory at any given time because I sell it off, but I need a certain amount to support my Amazon business.
The various "bookselling for idiots" threads of some months ago detailed many strategies that aren't exactly secrets, but they do require work, so perhaps the vast majority of people won't bother [leaving more books for the rest of us!].
One important strategy I use is to take those romance paperbacks to a used bookstore that gives trade credit for Non-Fiction. I then use the credit to buy those books the store is charging $6-$12 apiece. By using this strategy, you can turn a library "bag sale" into $$$ to buy quality books for sale online.
I have also used remainder catalogs to buy out of print nonfiction for sale. I do this by checking all the titles on Amazon, half.com, and ebay while studying the catalogs. Most of them are already glutted, but it's not hard to find desirable books that either sell anyway, or other people haven't picked up to sell. But this approach ties up capital and you are operating on faith that your $6.99 investment will pay off.
Finally, I am now taking the plunge in used bookstores and buying some books outright if I think I can turn my $5 purchase into a $10 or more sale. That's only $5 in profit, but those add up. I am also trying to list more on Yahoo when I have time because every sale there has no FVF, preserving my profit margin.
posted on August 24, 2001 08:24:03 AM new
"One important strategy I use is to take those romance paperbacks to a used bookstore that gives trade credit for Non-Fiction. I then use the credit to buy those books the store is charging $6-$12 apiece. By using this strategy, you can turn a library "bag sale" into $$$ to buy quality books for sale online."
keziak---Interesting what you say about using credit. But how much credit will a bookstore give you for those romance paperbacks? I can get them as cheap as 10 cents each but how much credit would a bookstore give me for about 10 of them? If a gook store is charging about $7 per book I would need to knock at least $4 off the price with the credits of, say, 10 romance books. Is this possible? I thought a lot of used bookstores are sort of leery of giving you too much in the way of credits.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:12:34 AM new
Hi there,
Re; Newtown Library Sale; it's huge, very popular all over New England,and Tri-State area. So competition is fierce. I didn't go last year because I wasn't doing books then,but I drove by on my way to a church sale and the line was over 100 people with an hour to go before 9am opening. First day is 10.00 to get in but I hear the prices are reasonable.
I know that it's already set up and they work throughout the year categorizing,and all books are sorted A-Z,even paperbacks.
I have it on my calendar to call them on Monday and warn them what happenned at a recent sale a few towns over in Redding. 150,000+ books. On the last day (FREE),dealers appeared in droves. One group of 30 divided into three groups (3 huge rooms)ran in with huge boxes and literally tipped over tables and emptied them into the boxes filled up trucks and left. I got there about thirty minutes later, the volunteers were still shaken after being yelled cursed at etc. It was truly disgusting.
Then they had a limit of 2 boxes but anything worthwhile (almost)was gone.One of the volunteers told me there was a woman who apparently worked along side everyone through the year and apparently had been cherry-picking as she went along and storing it in boxes in her office. On free day someone came in she took them straight to her office and they walked out with six boxes of books that had never been presented for sale and presumably left with that person.
As for Keziak's suggestion I have used her advice before with good results. There are no true used book stores near me (that are not high retail). There are several paperback exchange stores that give me credit for half of cover price, but then you can only use the credit for up to half of the book your buying. Example;Paperback is 6.99, you get 3.50, then you find an older pb that you know will fetch 10.00, the orig. cover price was 2.95 (normal shop price is 1.50) you use your credit and get it for .75 and sell it for 10.00. Not bad for a pb.
Paperbacks are interesting,I just bought a bunch for a quarter a piece at a local thrift,spent 10.00 total. One already sold last night for 10.00, 2 others only had one or two listings anywhere, one mine appears to be the only one I could find anywhere, and another there's only one copy on Abe for 46.75, the last one on Amazon sold for 50.00 and has 29 buyers waiting, so that little side trip looks pretty promising.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:19:30 AM new
Jay, I have not had much luck with paperbacks. I know to avoid the romance, but are there any tips as to what to look for you can offer? I do well just to get my money back.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:30:43 AM new
I don't avoid virtually any category, and I especially like romance because I can go to a sale and they're virtually untouched by dealers and ignored.
I have found (through my limited experience) that virtually any category if the book is part of a series,saga,trilogy or whatever term is being used someone will buy it. I limit myself to no more than a quarter on pb unless I really know the book and what it'll do, so I keep my risk low.
I went tag-saling with my sister in NJ about two weeks ago and didn't see much other than cookbooks, but I asked if there were any more and she brought out her father's science fiction collection from the 80,-early 90's, I bought the box along with a Wilton cake decorating book, and some other craft books for 15.00. I've only sold a few so far but am up to 60.00 from that batch.
There's a lot of pb non-fiction,self-help,nutrition type stuff that sells too.
posted on August 24, 2001 09:59:59 AM new
I find that nonfiction informational books sell best. Also New Age stuff which surprised me. Once I bought a bunch of books about I-Ching and I sold most of them within a few days on Half.Com. History is good too. But I tend to avoid fiction since it doesn't get much. An exception was a Pat Conroy book that I found for free and got about $11.00 for it. However, in general, fiction doesn't get too much on Half.Com or Amazon Marketplace.
posted on August 24, 2001 10:55:39 AM new
I specialize in areas that I know about--and a few that I don't but have good hunches. Most of the hunches have paid off...
posted on August 24, 2001 11:32:42 AM new
Actually, now that I think about it, sci fi hardcovers sell well. My first big book sale was strictly beginners luck. I bought the "Dune Encyclopedia" at the flea market for $1. I listed it on a 3 day eBay auction and it closed at $202. I never did near as well as with that again. My next best was $39 for a textbook that I purchased for $1.
As I stated before, buying tons of books cheap is no problem. The trick is to find the marketable books. The ratio is often something like 100 to 1 at the flea markets and garage sales. Lots of junky books out there of which only about 1% are worth buying.
posted on August 24, 2001 02:35:25 PM new
I have to disagree about fiction not bringing big prices on amazon - I average netting about $400 per week on Amazon - selling mostly paperback fiction - you just have to know the winners - the past 24 hours I sold fiction paperbacks for $35, $20, $15 and $12. The $35 and $12 books were both romances.
The key, as someone else has said, is know your market - if you sell what you know, you will do ok. Although, online can also work like B&M - eventually someone, somewhere will want your book - I have sold 'dog' books as well - priced at $1.50 to $2 just to get rid of them. I just sold a box of 80 books to someone that I would not have gotten anything for in trade, nor would they have sold at a flea market - I didn't have to catalog them or spend time listing them - and since they cost me nothing, I have a $50 profit to go in my pocket. (some were clipped corners - all were older and well read) I'm happy, she's happy and it all works.
posted on August 24, 2001 04:15:01 PM new
Pjglad: stores may vary in their policies. For me, it would be worthless if I could trade fiction for only more fiction. That is the case at one store here in town, and I no longer use them. My favorite stores take the paperback fiction and give store-wide trade credit [excluding AV like cassettes].
As for how much, usually they sell for half cover price and give in trade 40-50% of that. So if you have a $6.99 recent romance, they will sell for over $3 and give you over $1 in trade credit. Nice if you bought it for a dime! Older ones will gain less. But it's easy to take in a bag full of them and walk out with $25 in credit to use on nice non-fiction...if your store operates that way. In our area we have 4 that do, so it's not that unusual.
Key point: deal in as many books as you can turn into money, whether it means listing on ebay, Amazon, or using for trade credit. Then you are maximizing the return on your efforts to scrounge, and the money you invest.
posted on August 24, 2001 07:27:14 PM new
I don't anything about used books, let alone new ones. But I have a question? My kids are older now, and I have alot of used childrens' books. Maybe around a couple of hundred or so. They range from preschool to about 3rd grade reading level, and a Hooked on Phonics set that I paid over $300 for. Is there a market for used childrens's books? Many are in mint condition, some in excellent condition, a few in fair. None are in bad condition. Does anyone have any suggestions for me like how to post them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
posted on August 24, 2001 07:39:38 PM new
tonglow: the Hooked on Phonics will fetch a good price if it is in good condition with all the elements. As for the other books, I would recommend that you check the prices on both Amazon and eBay. In Amazon you can do a quick look-up by typing the ISBN in the search area. On eBay, search first in the Active listings and sort by highest price, then go to Completed Auctions and see what the books have sold for recently.
