Not Random Thoughts About Selling Books

[c marvel]

I guess I will stop buying these fancy editions unless I can sell some books. Regarding selling books, specifically on eBay--Being an eBay seller is a pain and there is more work to it than I realized. The secondary market seems great for buying books, not so much so when it comes to selling books. My hope is to sell some books here or at the Horror Drive In forum. Quite a few of the books I've read lately are books that I know I'll donate.
I live in a room and have two bookcases and books in storage boxes. Included in my room is one box of Memories from Home (That is the label I put on the box). During a trip home in 2000 I realized I had to save what stuff was mine otherwise the items would be lost or destroyed due to the situation at that time. Organizing my bookshelves helped out. I don't have a storage unit and sure hope to avoid ever having one.


Cap

[Theli]

I've never sold books, but I have sold other collectibles before, though not on Ebay. Still irritating though. Hard to get fair market.

[fanatic]

We all tend to over value our own books. The sad fact is that they are only worth what someone is will to pay for them. Books for the vast majority are not investments they are indulgences. They lose value the second we buy them.

[Theli]

This is more or less true, but the other problem you have to consider is that while they may sell for more you don't always get the full amount back. For example there is always fees, and such, included and none of them end up in your pocket. Shipping, ebay fees, etc. So while you, or someone else, may spend $100 for a book, the seller only pockets $60.

The other problem is selling to stores or to other sellers. I'm not a store with a name and reputation, nor do I have distribution. When I sell something I don't command the same reach and respect as someone like Camelot Books or Lonestar Comics etc.

[mhatchett]

The thing I learned about books is that very few of them retain much value, especially nowadays. There are exceptions, of course, but your average hardback seems to sell for about the price of a paperback by the time you’ve finished reading it LOL! I think lots of books are impulse buys, I know many of my purchases have been, so I try to be more selective with what I purchase. Many times, I trade rather than sell, that actually seems to work out for me better, in that I get a better return in books than cash. I do try to be philosophical about the whole thing, I mean, if I read the book and enjoyed it, I got my money’s worth out of it. If I didn’t enjoy it, well, I’ll move it along to someone else who might enjoy it and I’m making room for new additions. I often re-read books, so I keep most of what I purchase. Other things I hang onto for research purposes. Interests change, I have a huge Civil war collection that I plan to sell in the future, because I’ve moved on, but I’ll hang onto a few titles that are important to me. I guess you have to adjust your expectations or just hang onto things until the market changes. Another thing I do is gift books, no monetary value, but I do believe I sometimes get paid in Karma cash LOL!!!

[c marvel]

For me, the issue is mainly about space. That is, I don't have enough space. I like to make a sale that is fair. Most posters here have been cool when they've inquired about taking a book off my hands and the price I ask is wrong for them. I've learned there are at least two rude posters in this forum when it comes to trying to sell books. 'Nuff said.

Cap

[mhatchett]

Never enough books.....Or space LOL! The eternal conundrum!

[bugen]

Never enough books.....Or space LOL! The eternal conundrum!

The best method for storing books comes from a book, of course, as demonstrated here by Merlin:

Higitus Figitus.gif

[c marvel]

I have been doing this for a while now and after starting this thread it has become clear to me that I will continue reading the books I know for sure I won't keep and will be donating. I'm currently away on a vacation trip home. I think I probably have 11 or 12 books that fall into this category. There are 2 CD titles I want and the missing #61 for that Dark Regions Ghost House title I mentioned.

Cap

[RonClinton]

The thing I learned about books is that very few of them retain much value, especially nowadays. There are exceptions, of course, but your average hardback seems to sell for about the price of a paperback by the time you’ve finished reading it LOL! I think lots of books are impulse buys, I know many of my purchases have been, so I try to be more selective with what I purchase. Many times, I trade rather than sell, that actually seems to work out for me better, in that I get a better return in books than cash. I do try to be philosophical about the whole thing, I mean, if I read the book and enjoyed it, I got my money’s worth out of it.

This is where I'm at these days as well.

I realized long ago that any expectation of my "collectable" books retaining their value -- or, ha!, increasing in value -- is wasted energy, so while I enjoy those periodic exceptions to the rule where I do see some stability or increase in value, I know that they value plummets as soon as I order the thing. So my mindset if that I'm buying only for my own pleasure, for the time I plan to spend reading and (hopefully) enjoying it...if I get more pleasure from a $40 signed/limited HC than the trade HC or cheap tpb that might also be available, then so be it.

As far as resale, eBay has become too little return for too much effort, so I've also turned to trade...thankfully there's a high-end genre bookseller in my area that I can work with to achieve a decent trade...it's still pennies (well, maybe nickles or dimes ;-) ) on the dollar, but at least I come away with something I want, and it's heckuva lot easier than listing a bunch of books, tracking their sale, packaging 'em up, standing for a half-hour at my local Post Office to ship them, and watching my profit being eaten away by eBay and PayPal fees.

Plus the prices achieved these days on "collectable" books @ eBay are absurd and only seem to be getting worse. Example: I just picked up two as-new signed & numbered HC Cemetery Dance books that I really wanted -- Paul Olson's WHISPERED ECHOES and Glen Krisch's NOTHING LASTING -- at less than 25% of each cover price and both with free shipping. That means that after the seller spent $3 or $4 on shipping, he garnered about $5 a book, or 13% of cover price. And I was the only bidder on both books. A great deal for me as a buyer, but I value my time waayy more than that as a seller, so as mentioned above, now go the trade route rather than eBay. As an aside, I've yet to have any luck on the classifieds here or at other forums (though, granted, I haven't tried to use them too much for selling as I don't want to come off as spammy), so, again, just plan to stick with trading with my local genre dealer, maybe save eBay for those books with some exceptional value (though needless to say, I don't often sell those kinds of books ).

Our hobby is one that provides me a great deal of both personal pleasure and satisfaction, but I came to realize some time ago that for the most part those two things are all the return from it that I can reasonably expect.

[jeffingoff]

Our hobby is one that provides me a great deal of both personal pleasure and satisfaction, but I came to realize some time ago that for the most part those two things are all the return from it that I can reasonably expect.

So true. If I ever choose to sell a book, I'll use eBay as a last resort and only if I don't care what I get from the sale.

[jeffingoff]

A prime example of the points above: I just won an auction for Earthling's slipcased edition of The Hellbound Heart. The starting bid was $225 and I was the only bidder. It's been 10 years OOP and you can't touch a copy on Abe's books for less than $350. If the seller had started the bid at $100, I might have had the book for that cheap. It's worth more than $225 to me, but no one else cares.

[Sock Monkey]

A prime example of the points above: I just won an auction for Earthling's slipcased edition of The Hellbound Heart. The starting bid was $225 and I was the only bidder. It's been 10 years OOP and you can't touch a copy on Abe's books for less than $350. If the seller had started the bid at $100, I might have had the book for that cheap. It's worth more than $225 to me, but no one else cares.

Congratulations on the add! I was watching that auction and was tempted to throw in a bid, but held off due to a rash of purchases coming up. Auctions are always iffy as it relies so much on garnering enough attention from potential buyers during a small window. There have been many times where I would have placed larger bids on books if the timing had been right. $225 is a pretty good deal for that book, but if the buyer purchased it at issue price from Earthling, they did make a nice profit off the sale.

[jeffingoff]

Congratulations on the add! I was watching that auction and was tempted to throw in a bid, but held off due to a rash of purchases coming up. Auctions are always iffy as it relies so much on garnering enough attention from potential buyers during a small window. There have been many times where I would have placed larger bids on books if the timing had been right. $225 is a pretty good deal for that book, but if the buyer purchased it at issue price from Earthling, they did make a nice profit off the sale.

Yeah if the buyer bought it for issue price at $100, then they did make a nice profit. Thought it's a PC copy so I don't know how they came by it. I'd imagine it was at a discount--which means it was an even larger profit to them. But maybe not. And anyway, my quick research turned up nothing cheaper (I did find one copy at $250--but everything else was at least $350-$400). I'm happy. I think it's a good price for one of my favorite books signed by Barker!

I also scored a signed ARC of Malerman's new novel UNBURY CAROL off of eBay for a very reasonable amount.

Two books I didn't plan on buying and I'm trying to slow down!

[Sock Monkey]

Yeah if the buyer bought it for issue price at $100, then they did make a nice profit. Thought it's a PC copy so I don't know how they came by it. I'd imagine it was at a discount--which means it was an even larger profit to them. But maybe not. And anyway, my quick research turned up nothing cheaper (I did find one copy at $250--but everything else was at least $350-$400). I'm happy. I think it's a good price for one of my favorite books signed by Barker!

I also scored a signed ARC of Malerman's new novel UNBURY CAROL off of eBay for a very reasonable amount.

Two books I didn't plan on buying and I'm trying to slow down!

Malerman has another new book on the way?! Man, he's on a roll. I've been really tempted to spring for a copy of the limited edition of GOBLIN. I really want a copy of the lettered but I don't know if I want to wait that long to be able to read the book.

There's no such thing as "slowing down" with book buying. It's a progressive disease...