I haven’t even opened a book since college. I either read information on my computer/phone, or I watch the TV/movie version of a book. If one doesn’t exist I’m not interested.
We also find the thread informing and interesting. We would suggest leaving it here as is.
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I have a feeling the last few posts here are going in the junk drawer soon, and rightfully so. 
I do all OA for my book sourcing which I’ve got down solidly.
Out of curiosity, what would make Austin a “bookmine” for sourcing books?
Maybe this is the route I could take to expand my book business, local sourcing that is.
I’ve been reticent to source locally as when I have visited a few goodwills a savers and habitat restore, I found 3 worthwhile profitable books out of 3 seperate visits totaling 3 hours with a return value of about 60 bucks total and the only reason the book were profitable was due to them being seasonal textbooks. This just isn’t a good return on my time.
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I’m a book buyer, rather than a book seller, but I would imagine that any town that has as robust an academic community as does Austin might well fit that bill; I would further suspect that the fact that it’s also a state capital probably supplements that as well.
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Solid reasoning. I guess I likely should have asked where to source, not why.
I suppose I’ll need to go somewhat unconventional.
I’ve tried estate sales and thrift stores, they’ve just generally not panned out for me. I’ve read they used to but now people are looking up list prices on ebay for listing. maybe I’m missing something to sourcing locally. I’ve never really gotten a return on the time spent.
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Every book has the potential for becoming an item which is no longer permitted for sale on Amazon, new or used.
And I am not just talking about censorship.
Most of us have had our ability to have books from a publisher banned.
Some of us have had books which reference a name which is trademarked banned. Barry Manilow or Elton John songbooks for example.
Amazon no longer stocks every new title itself. Many new titles are deliberately left to 3P sellers to sell. This has reduced the number of gaylords of books Amazon throw into liquidation each year. You do not have to compete with Amazon on every new book.
There are sellers on the site who are listing the Ingram Book inventory and having Ingram drop ship, without violating Amazon drop shipping policy. Just as Amazon used to. They do not have to worry about Amazon pricing because Ingram has lots of titles which Amazon does not stock.
There is no predictability to when a used bookseller will face serious removal of Amazon inventory listings.
There is no longer any predictability to book demand on Amazon.
Everyone wants to try their hand in selling books, CDs, DVDs etc and most of what they source is cheap product which is cheap because no one wants it. Liquidations, returns, remainders. And a larger percentage of them get pulped each year.
Libraries can no longer find buyers for their shelf pulls. It was not that long ago that there were companies bidding competitively to take them.
When I can buy a book from which a single plate brought $300 with 35 plates for $100, that is big trouble.
When one can sell an expensive book offline for substantially more than online, that is big trouble.
Selling books on Amazon is more like selling ladies fashion every season.
You have to be a stubborn crackpot to think you can make money selling books of merit or intrinsic value. I keep trying but even I will be giving up. Ebay may be my last stand, there are still some old time buyers there.
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Dogtamer answered your question about Austin’s being a bookmine better than I could have. You need to expand your sources. You are in a great place for bookselling:
College Town
State Capital
Wealthy demographic
Well educated population more likely than otherwise, to read, buy and collect books.
I am in NYC. Factors in addition to what you have in Austin that work for me:
Small apartments
Center of the media world
Wealthy well-educated population
Lots of signed books available
Excellent local public libraries, many with FOL’s that sell donated books
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I disagree. The schmatte business is nothing like the book business. I can keep books on the shelves for years before they sell, as long as they earn their space when sold.
Try doing that with last season’s fashions, although the kids are becoming wise to the huge waste that is fast fashion, and some of them are learning to take care of their clothing, and make repairs.
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What business works for people is totally dependent on the person.
I think books are a terrible business and would never get into it, and a lot of booksellers would probably say the same about my business.
You gotta do something that works for YOU. If someone’s opinion is that a business model is bad/doesn’t work, it just means they don’t have a method of doing it that works well.
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Sources for used books are quite varied. Thrift stores are hit and miss especially Goodwill stores which can vary from one city to another in regard to prices and available selections.
You may want to check out the FOL’s in the smaller cities and towns outside the Austin area too. Interesting things sometimes turn up in these small communities.
Churches and other organizations receive large numbers of donations for their annual rummage sales or year-round stores. Some people are more eager to donate their books to church-related sales than other organizations.
Check out the books section in other types of stores too. I once found a big table of used books at a sports cards and collectibles store. They were sports-related books but the owner had reduced the prices because they were slow sellers that took up too much valuable space. (He made more $$$ from the sports collectibles). I made an offer for the entire lot and it was accepted. That was five years ago and I’m still selling items from that lot.
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You can but the odds of them selling are lower than in the past.
The interest and intellect in the buying public is dropping.
An older book dealer once asked me, “what are the slowest selling books in most bookstores?”
His answer was THE ART BOOKS. Although most booksellers prize their art books, many of them are works of art in themselves, they turn very slowly, if at all.
I have visited many bookstores once every year or two for a long time. I noted he was correct more often than in error. I look at the art books because I buy for my collection. The selection in many stores never shrinks, nor does much appear to have sold. I am paying less every year. The booksellers who rely on that revenue who remain, are moving to lower priced space, and targeting their sales to an identified customer base.
This fits with my own observation. Many books only sell when paid for with OPM - other people’s money.
This was more obvious with my own website, but also during my Amazon years. Many titles did not sell unless they were being paid for by a university or library.
The doctoral student who wanted an obscure volume for their thesis research which was not in the university library would request the title from their library, or be reimbursed for their own purchase.
The corporate buyer would buy an obscure title in science or technology and be reimbursed by their employer.
When I was in the corporate world, I would buy 20 or 30 titles a year and be reimbursed.
The corporate world is different. The academic world is different. Publishing is different. One in ten books published each year makes a profit.
Many books are independently published to Kindle or KDP paperback. There is no place for the used bookseller anymore.
There is little reason to keep most of what is published today on the shelf for the future, as libraries have discovered. Many books acquired by libraries are eventually dumped, unread. There are waiting lists for in demand titles on Overdrive and once the demand drops, it goes to zero. Libraries are coordinating their book club readings. When a title is chosen for a library book club, all of the copies in 10 or 20 libraries are sent to that library for the book club members. When the session is held, they all return home or get sent to the next library which has chosen the title.
Book club books are now a genre, like seasonal books. Absolutely unrelated to the content.
Used clothing on Ebay is selling for more than new fast fashion. And used clothing sellers are complaining about how they have no sales. Just as sellers of fiction and other “best-sellers” or former “best-sellers” are suffering. Amazon is doing its best by restricting who can sell, but that is a futile effort.
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Would you say that would apply to a town like Amherst MA as well?
For many years, I would travel to an auction in Amherst which ran sales each month with books from faculty libraries. The quantity grew, the apparent quality did as well, but the resellability did not. That auctioneer gave up.
The reality of having the residue of years of buying has hit me hard. I have not lost any money on my strategy. But finding a home for what I still own is a challenge.
And time of ignoring the challenge has passed.
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Isn’t one of the working bookselling strategies to buy lots of used books in bulk, so the cost per unit is close to zero on them, so that even if the majority of it ends up in the trash the seller still turns a profit on it?
I definitely agree that it’s a declining business overall, but as with all declining businesses, some sellers’ businesses will outlast others, and competition will decline as well.
I will say though, there’s nothing that kills a business strategy faster than it getting popular. RA used to be a good strategy, until everyone started showing up in the clearance sections with scanners. Buying abandoned storage lockers used to be a profitable business, until storage wars aired and a bunch of fools went to every auction to bid up the prices.
Private label copycat products used to be real good on Amazon too, until everybody started doing it and raced to the bottom.
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It has been. My strategy has been a variation on that. Buy large lots with enough identified quick sales to pay back the cost of the lot.
BUT the problem is, the lots I buy are far higher quality than the pallets of “hurt books” that the typical online bookseller buys. There are relatively few books which are obviously for the pulper. And if you actually love books, they are hard to discard.
This is why my posts on this thread can be so easily viewed as heretical. To me as well as to some others who I truly respect.
My “if sold” total for Ebay inventory is over $100k, with a cost approaching zero. My Amazon inventory approached $500k in listings, with a cost approaching zero.
There is no telling what the unlisted inventory would total.
There is a day of reckoning when the shelves need to be cleared. When the piper must be paid.
How many books does the sign above The Strand on the corner of 12th St say they have?