Accounting for Textbooks Sales using Bookscouter.com and Excel

Since the beginning of this blog, my article on selling textbooks through Bookscouter.com has remained the most popular and so I thought it was about time to make a follow-up post.

Textbook sales are particularly complicated because every textbook buyer requires a minimum order size to justify paying for shipping and when using Bookscouter.com you receive (when you're lucky) numerous competing offers.  It would be nice, of course, to simply pick the highest offered price and sell to them, unfortunately however, sometimes the highest price doesn't cover that particular company's minimum or it is necessary to sell a few books at a lower price so that you can sell everything you bought instead of having books left over from companies whose minimums you didn't meet.

To do this, especially after a trip to a book fair where you have a pile of books to sell, is easiest when you use a spreadsheet.  I previously described a spreadsheet to be used to keep general accounts and this textbook spreadsheet is designed to work in tandem (probably in different tabs in the same Excel or OpenOffice Spreadsheet file).

Click Image for Full-Sized View

 The system here is similar to that of my other book spreadsheet.  Column A is the book's title, column B was the cost of the book for me and column D is the book's ISBN (for more on ISBNs, see my post on the matter).  I will get to Column C in a moment but it is the highest price column.

The rest of the columns are listings of companies that buy books via Bookscouter.com.  So "BookByte" is Bookbyte.com, TextRUS is textbooksrus.com and TB.com is Textbooks.com.  I write the ISBN into the spreadsheet and then cut and paste it into the Bookscouter.com search engine, I then copy down all of the prices (if any) into the appropriate column.  It tend to bold the highest price and then write that company's column letter into Column C.  So, on row 11 (Plato's Symposium), the highest price was Bookbyte, which offered 75c and is in Column E, so I wrote "E" into Column C.

Row 12 (and it varies because you need to add a row in for every new book) is one of the few formulas, which simply totals all of the prices for that particular company.  So the formula for BookByte (column E) is as follows:

=SUM(E3:E11)

The first letter changes depending on the column, and the final number (in this case the "11" in "E11") is the last row before the total row, so as you add more books, it gets higher.

The next row, Row 13 in our example case is fixed and it is a listing of the minimum prices that each company will ship for.  The ones you're most likely to use are:

Bookbyte: $10

Textbooksrus: $15

Textbooks.com: $10

Bookstores.com: $10

1st Class Books: $15

Powell's: $5 (nice!)

Valore: $10

Sellbackyourbook: $5

Bookitbuyback: $10

Moola4books: $8

Webuytextbooks: $5

From here on out it's just a matter of comparisons and a bit of math.  If you have a large number of books, such as after a book sale, you may have to juggle a bit.  I highly recommend selling books as quickly as possible as prices change rapidly (and, in my experience, downwards), so you may not always get the best price for your books in an attempt to fill the orders and sell as many as possible.

P.S.: Those of you who want to know more about how to work Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Spreadsheet, here is a good primer. 

Good luck!

Parts of a Book Part II: Inside

Previously, I featured a post that discussed the external parts of a book, today-as the next installment of our three part series-I wish to open the covers and explore the internal divisions of books.  The goal here is to provide you with the knowledge and, especially, vocabulary necessary to be able to evaluate, appropriately price and sell your books.

For this exploration of the interior architecture of books, I will start inside the front cover and work my way to the back.

Depending on the book, the first pages may in fact be blank.  These pages are called the gathers and are a product of the mechanical method in which books are created, which we will get to in our next segment.  Basically, there must be an equal number of pages in each subsection of the book when it is bound and if there are not, the machines put a few extra pages in the front to balance, hence the gathers.  Sometimes the gathers are at the end of the book, depending on the publisher.

Working in from the gathers, one next encounters the title page.  Here you'll find the full title of the work, the author, publisher and year.  This is an immensely important page for us as is the next page, the edition notice (or copyright page), which contains the ISBN number and the edition number (click for my posts on how to read ISBNs and how to identify first editions).  With these two pages, we have information on: the title, who wrote the book, when it was first published, what edition this copy is, who published it, where and what the ISBN is.

There are two minor variations on this theme: a "half title page" and a "frontispiece."  The half title contains nothing more than the main title (so no subtitles); the frontispiece is a decorative image which is on a page facing the title page, these are a bit old-fashioned and were often beautiful wood-cut prints.  A nice frontispiece can add value to a book.

When looking to see if a book has been signed by the author, check out the title page or the half title.

After these technical pages, we begin to come to more content-oriented pieces: the acknowledgement, the dedication, the table of contents, forwards, prefaces, introductions and prologues.  Of course, not all books have all of these things, unlike the title page and edition notice, which are standard for all commercially published books.  Together all of these elements, from the title page to the final prologue constitute the part of the book known as the Front Matter.

This is followed by the main body of the book, which is known as the Content Matter.  It is a bit ironic that while books are written for their content matter, it is often what is contained in the external condition of the book and in the information of the front matter that determines the value.  A terribly written text can become valuable simply because of who wrote it, when they wrote it or what condition it is in.  When evaluating books, however, I simply note what the contents are (if the book is well known or is in a subject that I believe sells well) and then move on.

Finally, we come to the last element of the interior of the book, the End Matter.  This includes epilogues, afterwords, glossaries, postscripts, appendices, the index and the bibliography.  This material influences price far less than either of the other two, in fact it can be missing altogether and still be a valuable book.  The only tiny footnote to this is that if you have a book that you believe may be valuable as an academic text, the absence of a good index and bibliography basically means that its value is limited to scholars, was put together shabbily or simply isn't a serious book.

This concludes our discussion of the interior geography of books, I hope it helps you not only to better evaluate the price of a book, but also to appreciate their craftsmanship.

Next Post: Part III- How Books are Made.

Parts of a Book Part 1: The Outside

A book dealer needs to understand not only the ways in which the contents of a book influences its price, but also how the role of a book's physical state affects its value.  We must be able to accurately judge and describe the books we sell and in order to do this we must have a familiarity with the lingo regarding the parts of the book and a basic understanding how books are put together.

This is a rather large topic, so I will divide it into three parts: this first one dedicated to the surface of the book--the covers and edges.  The second will focus on the internal divisions of a book and the final segment will detail how books are created.

Starting on the left-hand picture, the inside of the front cover, we see a single sheet of paper, the endsheet, often decorative and of heavier stock than the rest of the book.  One half of the endsheet is glued to the cover forming the pastedown, the other half is the flyleaf, which is intentionally left blank.  At this point, we can also see the book's edges.  The long edge that runs down the page is called the fore edge, and the bottom is called the tail and the top is called the head.  The edges are sometimes gilded or colored, a process where they are coated in a material like gold which serves not only to beautify the book but also to protect its pages.

Turning to the right-hand picture, we see the outside of the book.  This leatherbound book is traditional in its structure and not all books will have the same elements.  The most important parts here are the covers, which protect the front and back of the book, and the spine, which protects the book's bindings.  Connecting the covers to the spine is a narrow flexible area called the hinge (or the joint) which allows the cover to open.  At the top, where the binding meets the head, there is sometimes a protective piece of cloth called the headband.  Along the spine there are sometimes ridges called raised bands, which used to have a function in covering the cords that bound a book together but today are decorative.

As we examine a book for purchase or sale, we need to be fluent in these terms so that we can give a good description of the text.  In particular we need to see that the spine is straight and uncreased or warped, and that the edges are not worn.

Next Post: The internal parts of a book.

Identifying First Edition Used Books

When I started this business, one of the few things I "knew" was that first edition books were the most valuable.  So, I looked through piles of books around my house to find the first editions for sale... to my surprise I soon realized that it is sometimes a challenge to identify a first edition, much less sell it.

The art of identifying first editions is a relatively complicated one, in part due to variations between publishers.  Alibris publishes a full guide to the issue as does Bookseller World and you might consider picking up a copy of A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions by Bill McBride, but here are some hints to get you started:

• Start by looking at the dust jacket or wherever the price is normally located.  If there isn't a price tag, chances are it's a Book Club Edition and is probably worthless.  The dust jacket may even be labeled "Book Club Edition"

• Go to the Copyright page.  Look for the words "First Edition" or "First Printing" or look for a string of numbers for instance these from my copy of Attila the Hun by John Man:

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

If the number "1" is the first in the sequence, it's a first edition.  If not, even if it says "First Edition 3 5 7....", then it's not a first edition.  Some publishers use letters instead and "A" replaces "1."  The one exception is Random House, which does write "First Edition 3 5 7...." for its first edition.  Confused yet? 

• When the numbers are missing, editions are labeled as such.  However, if the copyright says something like "First Penguin Edition 2009" and then below the title the word "2010," it is not the first edition.  Basically, if there are ANY dates later than the first edition date on the page, it's not a first.
• As the book rises in rarity, be more wary of fake dust jackets.  This issue is handled well on artbusiness.com, and I suggest you take a look there before buying a 1st edition Great Gatsby or Color Purple, but for the moment it pays to double check dust jacket information with the copyright page for rarer books.

Happy Hunting!

Basic Accounting: Creating a Spreadsheet of your Stock

Click image for full-size view

As you begin to accumulate enough books that you don't remember all of them, the prices you paid for them, etc, it becomes necessary to keep an accurate list of your stock and pertinent details.  For this problem, I have used a simple spreadsheet program such as OpenOffice Calculator, which is a free, open-sourced software that I recommend.  Many readers may be more familiar with the very similar Excel Program from the Microsoft Office Suite.  My instructions here work for either program.

I have 17 columns of information for each book, some of which are filled out upon acquisition and some upon sale.

 

Description of the Book

Column A and B (Book Name and Author, respectively) are straightforward and filled out at acquisition--I prefer to put author last name first and put works like "The" and "A" after the rest of the title.

Column C is status, which is a shorthand for me to know what position this book is in.  Is use the letter codes: "A" for Acquired (a book which has been purchased but not put into an online sales program), "AC" for Academic (books which I hope to sell to textbook companies and have not put online), "P" for Posted (e.g. on the Amazon Marketplace), "E" for Ebay (and not Amazon, my usual default), and "S" for Sold.

Column D is the ISBN, which is filled out at acquisition; for books before 1966 I write "Predates ISBN" and for those after 1966 for which I cannot find an ISBN I write "Unknown ISBN."

After these four columns, I typically switch to Columns O, P and Q which are "Type," "Condition" and "Description," respectively.  For "Type" I use letter codes: "HC" = Hardcover, "SC" = Softcover, "TB" = Textbook, "MM" = Mass Market Paperback, "OT" = Other.  Condition Codes are pretty well established (I went over them here), but for reference are "N" = New, "LN" = Like New, "VG" = Very Good, "G" = Good, "A" = Acceptable, and "P" = Fair.  The final section, "Description" is a one to two sentence thumbnail of the book's physical condition.  Here is an example:

"Straight and tight spine. Slight wearing on spine jacket. Name on inside cover"

Descriptions are used in all of your postings and having this here helps you save time.

Calculating Your Minimum Price

Column E is the weight, in ounces, as measured by my kitchen scale.

"E Ship" (Column F) and "E Fee" (Column G) are for "Estimated Shipping" and "Estimated Fees."  This is a rough number that I put in so that I can estimate my minimum price (column M)-which is the lowest price I could charge for the book and still make a profit.  Estimated Shipping is based upon the weight plus a few ounces for shipping material compared to the USPS Media Mail Rates (don't forget to add $0.75 for tracking).  Estimated Fees is based upon the Amazon Estimated Fees and Pricing; as Amazon tends to be the most expensive site I use, I base my minimum prices upon it.

Column H, "Cost," is pretty straightforward: how did I pay for the book?

With Column A - H completed, I am able to calculate Column M (Minimum Price) and begin posting the book online.  Column M actually contains a formula which reads (for the first row):

=SUM(F3:H3;3.99)

The $3.99 is the automatic shipping rate Amazon adds to all books.  As rows F-H are written in negatives, this will typically produce a negative result.  You need to mentally delete the negative signs in Row M which will give you an estimate of the lowest price you can post this book on Amazon and still break even.

With all of the previous columns filled, you have all of the information needed to post the book online and begin selling.

 

After the Sale

Columns I - K are filled out after the sale.  Column I is for the actual internet fees for sale and J is for the actual shipping costs.  Like F and G, they are written in negative numbers.  Finally, Column K is for the sale price of the book.  With this data inputted, you should be able to calculate your profit in Column L.  Here is a formula you can put in that will do it automatically for you:

=SUM(H3:K3)

The only remaining column, N "Site," is for you to note on what website you sold the book as a reference.  Don't forget to change column C, Status.

 

Uses and Other Info

This spreadsheet allows you to keep track of how many books you have pending and how many you've sold (you might find it convenient to add a column for the date sold as well), where you've sold them and what your profits have been.  This can be done automatically for you by putting a little formula into line L2:

=SUM(L3:L244)

These formulas have also been used in lines F2, G2, H2, I2, J2, and K2 to produce ongoing totals of your expenses and profits.

Best of luck!

Book Hunting

So, you've scoured your shelves, begged from your family and run out of books on hand?  The time has come to begin book hunting in earnest.  There are three primary techniques that I have found useful for finding more stock for your shelves: (1) the Internet, (2) deals with acquaintances, (3) sales and shops.

(1) Internet
There may be other options out there--and I'd love to hear about them--but the best places I've found for buying books online are Craigslist and Freecycle.  Craigslist is a classified ads service that is free in most parts of the country.  It has a dedicated book section which is a bit of a crapshoot but it is possible to find great deals on books, especially when someone is selling off a collection.  Freecycle is a posting service where people put up objects they want to give away to the first comer.  Books are far rarer on Freecycle than Craigslist, but it offers a convenient daily email service which is worth a look.

(2) Deals
Once it becomes widely known that you are interested in books, people who have them but aren't able or willing  to sell on their own may approach you.  Sometimes these can be very profitable, such as a deal I had with a nonprofit in my town that was liquidating its library, I handled all the sales and we split the proceeds, what I didn't sell, I brought back to them for a rummage sale.  I had a similar deal with a friend for whom I sold a collection of Star Wars posters, my single biggest sale to date.  Figure out what you think is a fair trade, make sure to account for shipping and other costs and present these partners with an offer.  Sometimes it might be worthwhile to let potential partners know what your deal is--either by email, personal conversation or a post on a social media website.

(3) Sales and Shops
This is where the thrill of the chase really kicks in.  Thrift stores, garage sales, and library sales are major sources of books and I try to make the rounds once a week to look for stock.  Big library book sales can be a bonanza, though they often require long drives, commitment of a day and early mornings (best to get there when they're opening).  Check out Book Sale Finder for locations near you.  Less dramatic, but also useful are the everyday types of sales many libraries have.  These are worth checking out, especially as librarians often presort out worthless books.  The best deals come from thrift stores: Goodwill (Store Locator) and the Salvation Army (Store Locator) in the United States; in Britain I found Oxfam Stores to be good stops (Shop Finder).  Garage sales can be good sources, though I find that the big estate sales are better than small sales: when someone is selling a handful of objects they tend to price them higher than you want to pay.  Books available in big estate sales tend not to be priced with nostalgia in mind, meaning that the prices tend to be lower.  Flea markets/Swap Meets/Car Boot Sales can sometimes have good finds, but they tend not to be book-heavy locations.

Good luck and don't forget that when you're buying don't forget the calculation: Profit = Quality - Condition - Cost

Packing Books for Shipping

**Always check the shipping requirements of any website you sell through to ensure you utilize their standards**

The safe packing of books is a crucial technical skill for successful sales. A good package performs three roles:

1. It ensures that your books arrive safe and sound at your destination without damages.
2. It presents your customers with an image of professionalism which leads to more positive reviews.
3. It is as light as possible, keeping down shipping costs

I attempt to pick up packing materials as often as possible—I avoid paying for them by asking friends and family for used boxes and picking them up from the mail department of work—in fact, the purchase of boxes can be avoided all the times if you keep your eyes out.

You want to avoid using boxes from specific products (like shoes), using only relatively plain brown boxes. This adds to the professionalism of your product. You particularly want to avoid using un-reinforced cardboard—such as is used in cereal boxes.

If the website you are using provides a shipping list, make sure you print it off and include it within the box. Also include any company-specific materials you might have (such as book marks or thank-you notes). You may want to add a personal note—such as “Hope you enjoy the book! [You Name]”--so that your customer has a personal connection to you. This builds potential for return customers and your chances of having positive reviews.

However, when employing used boxes, it is important to carefully remove all labels with shipping labels, completely black out (using a sharpie) any shipping marks (“Media Mail,” “First Class” etc). If the box is damaged at all, but you still judge it as usable, you can reinforce its corners and edges with packing tape.

You should always choose the smallest box possible that will fit your book to keep down the weight. Inside the box, you will want to add packing material as tightly as possible. Avoid using newspaper on books that might be damaged by smudging ink.

If you sell textbooks (a topic I will go over in a future post), the rules are altered. As the textbook companies are paying the shipping bills and care not a wit about how the boxes look. I save my uglier boxes for this type of shipping and utilize the heavier newspaper as packing material.

When attaching your shipping labels, make sure they are easily readable, preferably printed. This not only gives a professional presentation, but also ensures that the Post Office's computers can read them. Most websites provide labels to print off. If you are using prepaid labels from the Post Office, using the packing tape around the edges but not over the bar codes as their sensors sometimes have difficulty reading them; however, for UPS or FedEx, the companies recommend covering the prepaid labels with packing tape.

Finally, if you have a fragile object, don't hesitate to write “Do Not Bend” or “Fragile” on the outside of the box to better protect your goods.

Best of luck!

Tools of the Trade

Home book dealing is a relatively simple when it comes to the list of necessary tools. For your convenience, I have divided the list into two sections, the first are those tools that are necessary for sellers just getting on their feet and the second part is of those tools which are useful, and probably eventually needed, but not necessarily in one's first few sales.

Necessary Tools

1. Scissors: For cutting packing material, tape and address labels.
2. Packing Tape
3. Packing Materials: More on this in a future post.
4. Black Markers and Pens: For writing on packaging.
5. Computer and Printer: For posting books and printing address labels.

Useful Tools

1. Photographic Materials: A digital camera (preferably with the macros function), a black background (like a piece of cloth) and two light sources.
2. Utility Knife: For cutting boxes.
3. Rubbing Alcohol and Swabs: For removing price sticker gum from glossy covers.
4. Ruler or Measuring Tape: Preferably the kind of tape used by tailors, so it can wrap around books
5. Scale: Preferably a digital postage scale ($39.99 at the post office last time I stopped by), but even a kitchen scale works. A bathroom scale is not precise enough.
6. ISBN Scanner: More on this in a future post.

Besides the ISBN Scanner, all of this equipment is relatively easy to come by. Quality is only crucial when it comes to the camera (blurry shots don't sell books) and the packing material (nothing looks more unprofessional than ship-shod packaging).

How to Classify the Condition of your Books

In a previous post, I noted how to evaluate the condition of a book.  That post was designed to help you to determine whether a book was worth purchasing. In this post, I will go over how, as a seller, you can classify your books according to condition for buyers. While there is some variation in terms—and you should ALWAYS look over the condition codes for any website you use—there is general agreement amongst dealers as to the categories used and their general meaning.

These condition codes are: New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable, Poor. In general, the only categories that you should consider buying are the first three, anything below Very Good is not worthwhile.

List of conditions

New: These books are exactly in the condition that one would purchase it from the producer.

Like New: Also called “Fine,” these books show some of the wearing that is typical of books that have been stored for some time. Some defects may include shelf wear or very faint dents on the cover.

Very Good: These books are worn, but still in excellent condition. This is the minimum level that I will buy books in with very few exceptions. There should not be structural problems with the book's spine, and no tears to the dust jacket.

Good: This is an average used book. The spine may be creased or worn, the bindings may be loose, there can be highlighting, or a crooked (“cocked”) spine

Acceptable: Also called “Fair,” all of the content pages are present but may lack the title pages or the end pages.

Poor: Also called a “Reader.” This book is still readable but the dust jacket may be falling apart.

In all cases, defects should be noted including writing inside the cover (e.g. the previous owner's name), bookplates, stamps, etc. There are a couple of qualifying circumstances that deserve special notation:

Ex-Library: If your book is a former library book, that needs to be marked. Books that have been rebound with “library bindings” are usually not worth your time.

Book Club: Book club editions (which are marked as such usually on the inside of the dust jacket or on the title page) must be noted as such. They are also largely not worth your time.

Judging a Book's Value

Perhaps the most important skill for an aspiring book dealer the ability to evaluate the profitability of a book. This requires a bit of practice and it is inevitable that there will be some losses on your part when you're starting out—and that you may sink money into some books that you can't move. However, with practice and a bit of systemic thinking, these losses can be mostly eliminated.

The key idea is to be able to balance costs and profits: sometimes books “look” valuable to the untrained eye (as in “of course this big, heavy leather book is expensive... it's big and leather”) which actually have little to no profit margin. Moreover, this guide assumes that you're—at least at first—not willing to risk considerable amounts of cash in acquiring single expensive books, it's better to spread your risk out amongst a larger number of less expensive books.

In order to determine whether a book is worth your while, there is a simple calculation of profitability that I like to use:

Profit = Quality – Condition - Cost

The first step is to evaluate the Quality of a book. This is an intangible estimate of how much it is worth based off of its history, rarity and desireability. There are a few factors that come into play here.

• Age: Generally speaking, the newer the book the better the quality you will need to get a good price. I avoid books within the last 20 years unless they are pristine. Older books tend to have more value due to rarity alone.

• Content: What is the book about? Is it a subject that a large group of people still find interesting? Unless the book is well-known, avoid mass-produced novels, even hardcovers. It may be useful to specialize in an area: are you knowledgeable about gardening? Or history? Learn about authors, movements and ideas in a particular area and you can better sell them.
• Appearance: Is the book nicely put together? Are the images (if there are any) glossy and full color? Is the cover leather? A high quality book is worth more than a standard run. Generally speaking, avoid soft-covers unless their condition is “Like New” (see below), this is especially true for the small mass-market paperbacks.
• Notoriety: Is the book or the author/illustrator well known? Famous authors can often deman higher prices simply because people are looking for them..
• Edition: In general, earlier editions are better but don't assume a 1^st edition means a valuable book (more on 1^st editions in a future post). Avoid Book Club editions—they are usually identified by a note on the inside of the dustjacket.
• Signatures/Inscriptions: Like 1^st editions, signatures by the author (illustrator, etc) usually mean a valuable book—but only if anyone cares enough about the author to pay for their signature.

With these factors in mind, you have a rough estimate of what a typical buyer for you book would be willing to pay if you met up on the street and the book in your hand was in excellent condition. There are, however, mitigating circumstances, the first of which is the Condition of the book. This also has a few qualifying circumstances. Here you need to pick up the book and evaluate it physically:

1. Spine: Look at the book from the side—carefully take off the dust jacket if necessary—is the spine straight? Is it creased? Are the pages tightly bound?
2. Cover/Dust Jacket: The first question you need to ask is if the DJ is present at all—not all books have them but you can safely assume that any hardcover book printed after WWII had one with the exception of fancy leather-bound beauties (the kind with gilded edges). What condition is the DJ and the cover in? Is there shelf-wear (the incidental wearing at the edges that naturally comes from taking a book on and off a shelf)?
3. Pages: Open the book, are the pages white and crisp? Is there discoloration or water damage? If the pages are falling out or badly damaged, chances are the book isn't worth your time. Is there writing inside the book? This is a bad sign, with the exception of a previous owner's name on the inside cover, other writing drives down value.
4. Mold: Open the book to the middle and put your nose up close to the spine and smell. Do you smell mold?

Together, these elements of the condition combine to determine the condition category of the book: New, Like New, Very Good, Good and Acceptable. I will go over these more in a future post, but suffice to say that I avoid anything below Very Good unless there are some strong mitigating factors.

Finally, you need to think about costs—the mony that you have to lay out just to get the book to the customer.

1. Shipping: How much will it cost to ship? You need to figure out roughly how much a book weighing a pound feels and looks—if you can eyeball this, you can judge how much it will cost to mail it. Don't forget the 75 cents for delivery confirmation.
2. Purchasing: How much does the book cost to you?
3. Online Costs: This is a sneaky bit of the calculation. Any website you use to post your books on will cost you. Some, like Amazon, can swallow a considerable portion of the profit. I will detail these costs when I cover the various websites available.
4. Incidental Costs: Did you have to drive somewhere special to get the book? Does it require buying a peculiarly shaped box? These are important incidental costs.

This gives you a rough estimate of how much you must ask to simply break even on the book and does not include payment for your time.

These factors may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but with time you learn to judge. As a rough guide I begin my thinking like this:

Base Value of a hardcover

+$8

Published before WWII (1939)

+$1

Published before WWI (1914)

+$2

Beautiful appearance (e.g. full color, glossy images)

+$1

Softcover

-$2

Each condition category below New

-$1

Online Costs

-$3

Shipping Costs for a <1 pound book

-$3.5

This means that for a book published in the last few years with the condition “New” (Quality $8 - $0 Condition - $6.5 Costs), has a potential profit of $1.50 before the cost to purchase it. I would not spend more than 50 cents on a book like this. Now, this is meant to be a rough estimate and it is very possible that you will make more on this book, but this guide gives you a way of guessing the profitability of the book while on a purchasing expedition and limit your losses until you get a handle on how much your books are worth.

Obviously, your profit margins are quite slim for many of these books—I am very happy to make $5 on a book. Of course, there are always gems to find, books that surprise (and disappoint) you. I have bought a book I estimated was worth $12 and come home to find it auctioning for $40.

Given experience and a larger cushion of profit in the bank, you can begin to take more risks and turn over more valuable books. However, even with highly rare books the basic calculation (Profit = Quality – Condition – Cost) remains fixed.

Getting Started

The best way to get into dealing books is to jump right in with two feet: scour your bookshelves and gather up a pile of books you are willing to get rid of. This pile (small or large) will give you a chance to experiment with judging a books' value and desirability without having to risk sinking money into purchasing stock.

Set up a dedicated email account and establish yourself with accounts on the three most basic websites: Amazon, Ebay and PayPal. Before actually selling with these websites you'll want to practice using them—surf through books similar to the type you are selling and look how they're described and priced. What are people actually bidding on? What is the market glutted with? You'll probably want to go the final step and actually order a book from both Ebay and Amazon, just so you can be sure you know how the system operates, the better you know the customer's point of view, the more you can ensure that they have satisfaction from you.

Now you're ready to start posting books. Be conservative in your descriptions and cautious in your packaging with your first packages: you haven't got any reputation online to back you up and you want to ensure that your early reviews are good ones.

With time, you'll want to add to your stock: I suggest letting loved ones know that you're in the market to take any old books off their hands (perhaps offering them a cut of any proceeds) as well as any old packing material. You should start hording packing material as quickly as possible.

As you start to wear down this free seed-stock of books, you can begin to actually start book-hunting in earnest. I will have more on this in a future post, but good places to start are thrift shops and library sales. Experiment, but never pay more than $1.50 for a book until you get the hang of it.

Congratulations, you're a book dealer!

Welcome to by Book or by Crook

Welcome! 

This blog is dedicated to helping you learn the ins and outs of becoming a home book dealer. I aim to provide all of the information and resources needed to make a profit off of the buying and selling of books through the internet directly from your home. With this information, you can supplement your income, learn something about books and gain a bit of financial cushion in these difficult times.

I began as a book dealer in February of 2011 when I returned from working for six months in the United Kingdom.  While I am trained as a university lecturer, I was unable to find any work in my small city in my field for months. I almost fell into book dealing when I began scouring my shelves for anything I might be able to sell on Ebay or Amazon—family members heard I was selling books and began giving me old ones and eventually I began to work proactively to find books at library sales, thrift stores and classified ads. Once I got up a supply of books and figured out the tricks, I was able to make about $200-$300 a month. One of my major hindrances was that I live in a small city, I have no doubt that in a larger community, with more books available, I would have been able to make a full living.

But home book selling is more than simply a way of putting cash in your pocket (though that never hurts), it is also a lot of fun. I've learned about the history and making of books, about paper, the laws of copyright, and many other subjects. What's more, I've traveled all over my own community searching out books and at the same time meeting people, discovering new neighborhoods and generally enjoying myself.

What I should say, before we get too far, is what this blog is not about. It has nothing to do with opening or running a used/rare book shop and it's not about being able to appraise truly rare books. My goal was always to acquire moderately valuable ($10-20) books at cheap prices ($.50 to $1.50) rather than hunt down the larger, rarer catches. This approach means you need to know less about each individual book, and you put less risk on the sale of each book.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be posting about a number of subjects, starting with the most basic, skills like evaluating whether to buy a book, rating a book's condition, signing up on the proper websites and hunting down books. My goal is to post several times a week, more frequently at first to establish a basis of knowledge.

I love to interact with my readers, please feel free to comment on any posts or contact me with any questions. My email address is buythebookblog@yahoo.com