Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
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Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
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Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#2He never explains why he feels bad about it.
It seems like a perfectly respectable profession to me, bringing books from ignored corners of dank bookstores to the hands of those who really want them.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#3He never explains why he feels bad about it. It seems like a perfectly respectable profession to me, bringing books from ignored corners of dank bookstores to the hands of those who really want them.
It is perfectly respectable to make the market more efficient, but elements of the marketplace (the elderly man and "No electronic devices allowed" sign) make him feel bad about it.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#4He should educate himself on older books. It seems that ISBNs have been out only since the 70s, which means that most truly valuable books won't have them.
He is right that it will be rare if he actually sees a valuable old book, but since he is already going through so many books chances are he will see some from time to time. So he might as well learn something, so that he recognizes a truly valuable book when he sees it.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#5I thought about building a system for charity/thrift stores that let them scan in the ISBN of every book donated. I'd run a central database so you could search for a book and see where it's in stock in your city. Likewise could set alerts for when a given book is donated - and helps store to price books appropriately.
I decided it was unlikely that people would find the books they wanted in their city so it's pointless. Didn't see this angle though - catching the odd winner that goes unnoticed.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#6I've made a few good sales from library finds, usually on more timeless or slow-changing technology books. A COBOL book holds value a lot longer than a Java or .NET book.
I've tried without success to convince my local Friends of the Library to sell the more profitable incoming books online themselves.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#7He should educate himself on older books. It seems that ISBNs have been out only since the 70s, which means that most truly valuable books won't have them. He is right that it will be rare if he actually sees a valuable old book, but since he is already going through so many books chances are he will see some from time to time. So he might as well learn something, so that he recognizes a truly valuable book when he s…
It's also rarely worthwhile to investigate anything that looks truly old or anything that doesn't have a barcode (which usually means it's old). It's certain that I've passed by very valuable old books. I do carry a smartphone along with the PDA so I can search online for curious pieces from the pre-ISBN era. But that research hardly ever pays off. My work is crowded by artifacts of thought and expression which the culture hasn't wanted to conserve.
It sounds like he has, but his own experience has taught him it's not worth the opportunity cost.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#8This is pretty cool. In all my time going used book sales, I've never seen anyone doing this. Maybe I just go at the wrong times.
I wonder what the economics are here. Using his setup, you can get an Axim X51 on eBay for around $100 and the scanner he uses goes for around $250 on eBay ($384 new). That's at least $350 in initial costs.
Assuming a profit of $5 per book (just a wild guess) you'd need to sell 70 books to recoup that cost. Using his ratio of 1 "buy" to every 30 "reject" books, you'd have to go through 2,100 books to recoup your initial costs!
Taking it a step further, if you could scan three books per minute (another wild guess), it would take 700 minutes, nearly 12 hours, of "hunting" to earn back you startup costs.
Based on all those numbers and assumptions, your hourly earnings are roughly $30 per hour. ($350 / 12)
Based on a standard 2,000 hours of work per year (basically, 5 days a week for 50 weeks), this comes to $30*2000 = $60,000.... awfully close to his estimate of $1,000 per week for a person working alone.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#9He should educate himself on older books. It seems that ISBNs have been out only since the 70s, which means that most truly valuable books won't have them. He is right that it will be rare if he actually sees a valuable old book, but since he is already going through so many books chances are he will see some from time to time. So he might as well learn something, so that he recognizes a truly valuable book when he s…
It seems that ISBNs have been out only since the 70s, which means that most truly valuable books won't have them.
I almost did a web dev job for a bookseller who was closing his bricks-and-mortar store to go online, and he said the really profitable books were not the really old ones. It would be a book someone remembered from their childhood, etc. Mostly modern stuff. It takes a seriously long time for oldness to impart value.
Re: Confessions of a Used-Book Salesman
#10He never explains why he feels bad about it. It seems like a perfectly respectable profession to me, bringing books from ignored corners of dank bookstores to the hands of those who really want them.
It's actually of benefit - there is a book out there that I want but it's hidden in a library or garage sale in a city 1000mi away.
This guy makes it available for me to buy at a price I set on Amazon - rather than the book ending up in the trash and me not having what I want.