"Friends of the Library" Book Sales

On May 7, 10:31 am, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:
bml wrote:
Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
....
A couple of years ago the friends of the library bought a scanner -
they scan the likely candidates for high value (over about $20)

How do they scan pre-1976 books?

They don't - that is one reason why the "real" dealers still come.


and pull them for special
pricing or selling online. Since they started doing that I have not seen any scanners at the
sale. All the dealers who attend now seem like "real" book dealers who don't rely
solely on scanners. The "amateurs" and "look everything up" dealers have stopped attending
because they don't find much.

So, the "friends" have successfully reduced their buying
pool by driving away the average person. Wonderful.

No, they do what the "look everything up" dealers were doing
- It takes a little work, but no skill. The books that the "scanner
dealers"
would have bought sell anyway - some pulled by the friends to sell
somewhere else
and the rest sold at the sale to "real" dealers or the general public.
The "real" dealers probably prefer not having the people with scanners
getting in
their way even if it means losing a few marginal books.

As for "driving away the average person," the people who feel that
there is
nothing for them already felt that way from seeing the dealers pick
over the
place.

The "average" person is looking for books to read and they still show
up - the dealers
won't touch last year's best seller, but the general public buyers
usually grab some of them.
There are lots of books that a dealer won't pay a buck for, but the
"average" person will buy
it because the used book store would charge two bucks or more. [The
successful dealers
get most of their common stock for a quarter, so the "average" person
is not competing
with the dealers for that stock.]


BML

On May 10, 11:08*pm, bml wrote:
On May 7, 10:31 am, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

bml wrote:
Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
...
A couple of years ago the friends of the library bought a scanner -
they scan the likely candidates for high value (over about $20)

How do they scan pre-1976 books?

They don't - that is one reason why the "real" dealers still come.

and pull them for special
pricing or selling online. Since they started doing that I have not seen any scanners at the
sale. *All the dealers who attend now seem like "real" book dealers who don't rely
solely on scanners. The "amateurs" and "look everything up" dealers have stopped attending
because they don't find much.

So, the "friends" have successfully reduced their buying
pool by driving away the average person. *Wonderful.

No, they do what the "look everything up" dealers were doing
*- It takes a little work, but no skill. *The books that the "scanner
dealers"
would have bought sell anyway - some pulled by the friends to sell
somewhere else
and the rest sold at the sale to "real" dealers or the general public.
The "real" dealers probably prefer not having the people with scanners
getting in
their way even if it means losing a few marginal books.

As for "driving away the average person," the people who feel that
there is
nothing for them already felt that way from seeing the dealers pick
over the
place.

The "average" person is looking for books to read and they still show
up - the dealers
won't touch last year's best seller, but the general public buyers
usually grab some of them.
There are lots of books that a dealer won't pay a buck for, but the
"average" person will buy
it because the used book store would charge two bucks or more. *[The
successful dealers
get most of their common stock for a quarter, so the "average" person
is not competing
with the dealers for that stock.]

One of the used book dealers in my area pays
one-dollar for like-new hardcover novels and
sells them for $3 each. This is really a wise
policy, becuase even though most of these popular
hardcover novels are sold on the net for less than $1
(in used, like-new condition) buyers have to pay
the $4 shipping. So, by charging $3, the dealer
gives customers more incentive to buy in the
bricks-and-mortar store. As far as getting books
(and this dealer is very particular about the books
being in "as new" condition) they never stop coming.
Often the dealer has to turn sellers-wanabe away
until the stock sells down. People realize that
they can't get anything much for these books on
the net, so they are glad to get $1.

[Memo from the upstairs office]

BML