Book Selling, a Thing of the Past?

by Anonymous
(Location Unknown)

November 8, 2014

This type of business model is a failure.

{The} Salvation Army, along with every other thrift store has heard of a thing called eBay/Amazon long ago.

They process the good items into in-store auctions or online by means of scanners. It is quite amusing the people that go to thrift stores thinking they are going to score some rare albums/books and what not, only to find that even the slightly decent ones are behind glass or online.

Just check Goodwill & Salvation Army on eBay/Amazon. What that means is, you are left like a chicken scanning through countless books with Profit Bandit or whatever scanner you use to find absolute garbage which will never sell. Thrift stores are a thing of the {past} and I am afraid the reselling business is just about dead and overpopulated; ranks have been filled quite a while ago.

Response:

November 8, 2014

Hello Anonymous;

I don’t normally reply to anonymous posts, let alone allow them to show up on my blog. But this one is so absurd that I felt compelled to reply.

First of all, it’s true that in many regions of the United States, major thrift stores such as the Salvation Army and Goodwill do indeed sell online themselves. In those areas of the country where this happens, it’s next to impossible to acquire salable inventory from their retail store outlets.

However, it’s often possible to purchase their credentialed (meaning RAW) inventory by the truckload that’s hasn’t been picked over, as I explain in my book, Advanced Internet Bookselling Techniques.

In addition, there are many, many areas of the country that do NOT sell online, and their credentialed inventory goes straight into their stores. I currently buy $50 and $100 books for $2 to $6 every single day!

What if you don’t live in a part of the country where thrifts don’t sell online? One option is to do what I did. Move! Go where the money is. If that’s not an option for you, then I strongly advise you to look at the many other different ways of acquiring salable inventory not only in my advanced book, but also in my book for beginners, Internet Bookselling Made Easy!

I don’t mean to be disrespectful to Anonymous. But before publicly posting outrageous comments online, the least one can do is give the full picture. Maybe Anonymous has had a gut wrenching bad experience selling books and he/she is venting his/her frustration. I understand that. But it’s not that way for us all. Some of us actually make a pretty decent living buying and selling new and used books online.

Good hunting.

Joe Waynick
Bookseller, Author, Mentor

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