posted on August 8, 2002 09:52:27 PM new
On another thread I asked if anyone is interested in hearing about a book source. Caveat: I am not a book dealer, so I am willing to pass on what I found out to those who are book dealers.
My husband was a law professor before he had a big stroke a few years ago. What I say about books and law schools relates to most colleges and universities, public and private, and is not specific solely to my husband's school.
There are two parts to what I have to say: textbooks and rare books.
First, the textbooks. The publishers are desperate to get professors to use their books, so they send newly published textbooks and teaching manuals, factory sealed, to the professors free-of-charge, hoping that the professors will look at the books and decide to use them in their courses. The professors get inundated with these books, piling up, most of them not ever opened. At my husband's school, once a month along comes a little old man who owns a used bookstore, visits the professors, pays them a quarter each for certain books, leaves the rest behind. After the little old man visits, the professors send all of remaining books over to the school library. This is just an aside, but academics possess no business sense and it hasn't occurred to them to sell the books themselves. The college library takes possession of the books and holds a book sale for the students, advertising by posting it on the bulletin board, the sale does not get advertised in the local media. The students are poor, buy a few books, and the rest of the books, which number in the thousands, get taken to the recycling center. These books may not have resale value locally, but when placed on eBay there is demand elsewhere.
Second, the rare books, this will horrify those of you who are book dealers. The college libraries get donations all the time. They don't have the space for the donated books, or want the donated books, and if the books don't sell at the book sale to the college students, these books go to the recycling center too. Last week one of my husband's friends was sitting in my living room telling me about how he was recently looking at these donated books that were being placed in the truck to be hauled off, and saw books from the 18th and 19th centuries, everything from complete sets of volumes relating to railroads, etc., and in good condition. He was telling me this because the concept of selling these books on the internet instead of dumping them was new to him.
Anyway, that is my source. Contact the college librairies and offer to purchase the books that are going to be dumped for a penny each, give the librairies some revenue. Better yet, go head-to-head with the little old man from the used book store and get to the professors before him.
Keep in mind, I am not referring to used marked-up textbooks, but to brand new books and donated books of value.
posted on August 10, 2002 11:48:57 AM new
No book dumping, here in Texas. Our schools of higher learning get together and have annual tent sales which are well advertised in the print media, as well as on the TV and radio.
