"Brian" wrote in message
...


my-wings wrote:
...

3. Good book with a less than perfect jacket? Slap an archival Mylar
jacket
protector on the thing without delay. It improves the appearance of even
a
heavily tattered jacket substantially, and you will get more than your
small
investment out of it when you sell the book.

Also, it protects the jacket (and book) from shelfwear, handling damage,
shipping scuffing, and even damage during unpacking by the customer.
This is essential for a brick and morter shop and good policy for
an e-shop. [I've seen customers rip dust jackets pulling the book off
the shelf.]

Heh. I never even thought about the hazards of having live customers
handling stock in a B&M shop. Good point.



5. In non-fiction, snap up the weird titles. There will be a customer,
no
matter how esoteric the subject. Ideally, there will be two such
customers
who both find you the week you decide to list it on eBay.

For a shop with browsers, the weird titles give the shop character and
makes browsing fun - even if the odd books take years to sell at a low
price, they are worth having around. This is one of the things that
a financial analysis will say not to do, but there is a benefit
that cannot easily be represented on a balance sheet (except in that
nebulous asset called "goodwill.")

Another good point. I remember this fabulous bookshop in (what was, at least
20 years ago) Milwaukee's east side arty district. It was just a small shop,
next to a coffee shop, and it had entrances that connected to both the
street and the coffee shop. This was before coffee lattes were even a
twinkle in the B&N eye. The store was open until midnight, or some such
fabulous hour, but the best thing about it was that it was filled with
titles I'd never seen anywhere else. It was a new book store, but by far the
best I'd ever been in. I was only able to go to it a few times, because I
was a visitor in the city by the time I appeared, but I still remember it
for the variety of its selection..


...

8. Pack every book as if it were a treasure. It's possible that I don't
know
what I've got, and some buyer just made his buy of the year on my eBay
auction. I don't want to ruin somebody's great "brag" with rotten
packing
just because he didn't pay much for the book. Karma, after all.

Even if a customer paid two dollars for the book, they bought the
book in the condition you described and you have an obligation to
deliver it in the same condition. If you ship a book in poor
packing and it arrives in lesser condition, you have cheated the
customer. [Of course there is shipping mangling that will destroy
anything, but you should make the package able to withstand the normal
shipping abuse. The fact that it was a cheap book is not an excuse to
ship it unprotected.]


You're right of course, and the result is the same, but I still like the
idea of someone making a great "find" in one of my auctions. I
mean....theoretically I like the idea, leaving aside the fact that I would
probably want to kick myself for not researching what I had better. Still,
it's what keeps the game exciting, and all. Besides...I like all parts of
selling (with the possible exception of standing in line at the post
office), and that includes doing a professional wrapping job, even on a $2
item.


Happy Holidays!

Alice