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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
Hi everyone. I'm considering opening a used book store and would like
some insight/questions. I live in a city with 3 million people. Within a 20 mile range of me there are 3 used bookstores. I know the owner of one very well. He is retired and opened the store just to give him something to do. He is in a strip mall anchored by a WalMart (very high traffic) in a 1200 square foot suite. Nothing fancy not even decorations. He also sells on Amazon. He is very religious and honest and even showed me his Amazon account. He is currently grossing $7,000/month in the store and $10,000/month on Amazon. He does no advertising and relies on walk-by customers. He only buys books in perfect shape. The romance novels and Steven King novels he says are valueless because you can get them online for 1 cent, but cook books and unique books, audio books are big sellers. In fact he is only 1 block away from a Borders and Barnes & Noble but tells me the people shopping in used bookstores are a different breed. He just signed another 5 year lease. In fact he's so busy they hired extra help. Based on his experience, I thought opening a used book store with my wife in my area of town would be a good idea (heavily traveled strip mall). We own another business that takes up little time and nets around $300k/yr. But I go online and do some research and 99% of everything I read is that used bookstores are going the way of the typewriter. They are closing up, being put out of business, have high failure rate, etc. So I'm a bit confused. Can anyone give me some insight on the used book store business and just how risky it is? Is it worth it or like travel agencies will it be wiped out by the internet soon? I don't understand how this bookstore can do so well but everything I read is so negative. |
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#2
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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
On 26 Oct 2006 20:54:32 -0700, "
wrote: He is currently grossing $7,000/month in the store and $10,000/month on Amazon. Hmm. Did you see his shipping department? If his average sale was $10 per item that would be 1000 packages per month, or around thirty per day. Even at $100 per book, which is unlikely, he'd be shipping 100 packages a month. They should know him in the post office. Sorry, but when I hear someone is honest, religious, and making money with a used bookstore, I figure they're wrong on at least 2 out of 3. Denton |
#3
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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
Hmm. Did you see his shipping department? If his average sale was $10 per item that would be 1000 packages per month, or around thirty per day. Even at $100 per book, which is unlikely, he'd be shipping 100 packages a month. They should know him in the post office. Sorry, but when I hear someone is honest, religious, and making money with a used bookstore, I figure they're wrong on at least 2 out of 3. Yes. His extra help is his "shipping dept". They package book orders 6 days a week 9am-6pm and take 3 of those white crates to the post office daily. The main reason they keep the brick-mortar store is so people bring them stock. But they also gross around $400/day in the store. |
#4
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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
Hmm. Did you see his shipping department? If his average sale was $10 per item that would be 1000 packages per month, or around thirty per day. Even at $100 per book, which is unlikely, he'd be shipping 100 packages a month. They should know him in the post office. Sorry, but when I hear someone is honest, religious, and making money with a used bookstore, I figure they're wrong on at least 2 out of 3. Yes. His extra help is his "shipping dept". They package book orders 6 days a week 9am-6pm and take 3 of those white crates to the post office daily. The main reason they keep the brick-mortar store is so people bring them stock. But they also gross around $400/day in the store. And if they weren't making any money, they would't have just signed another 5 year lease at $3k/month. They put everything on Amazon that people bring in. I mean every single book. And he showed me the account onlnie and from 10/1-10-14 their gross sales were around $5k. |
#5
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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
If you think you can make money, despite the fact that used book stores
are going belly up by the hour, then go for it! Walk-in trade will bring in some books, usually those of no value but occasionally some gems, in my experience. Clean-outs, garage sales & estate sales are great places to pick up stock - scan the paper - even the obituaries! -- RWF |
#6
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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
Hmm. Did you see his shipping department? If his average sale was $10 per item that would be 1000 packages per month, or around thirty per day. Even at $100 per book, which is unlikely, he'd be shipping 100 packages a month. They should know him in the post office. Sorry, but when I hear someone is honest, religious, and making money with a used bookstore, I figure they're wrong on at least 2 out of 3. Yes. His extra help is his "shipping dept". They package book orders 6 days a week 9am-6pm and take 3 of those white crates to the post office daily. The main reason they keep the brick-mortar store is so people bring them stock. But they also gross around $400/day in the store. |
#7
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Used Bookstore Business - questions please
On Oct 27, 12:23 pm, " wrote: Hmm. Did you see his shipping department? If his average sale was $10 per item that would be 1000 packages per month, or around thirty per day. Even at $100 per book, which is unlikely, he'd be shipping 100 packages a month. They should know him in the post office. Sorry, but when I hear someone is honest, religious, and making money with a used bookstore, I figure they're wrong on at least 2 out of 3.Yes. His extra help is his "shipping dept". They package book orders 6 days a week 9am-6pm and take 3 of those white crates to the post office daily. The main reason they keep the brick-mortar store is so people bring them stock. But they also gross around $400/day in the store. And if they weren't making any money, they would't have just signed another 5 year lease at $3k/month. They put everything on Amazon that people bring in. I mean every single book. That does not make much sense. In the first place, with the popular mass market stuff, you don't have much chance of selling a book unless you have the Amazon Low Price. And to have the ALP, he would need to be selling a lot of books for a few cents. Maybe this is one of those cases where the dealer scapes fifty cents between what Amazon rebates him for the Standard Shipping Rate and what he actually pays for postage and shipping envelope. That is sort of a pathetic way to make money as a "book seller" but some people are doing it, I guess. The dealers I talk to don't like to list anything for less than $5, and some prefer at least $10 with regard to the price that makes a worthwhile net transaction. But, then, they are booksellers, not people trying to make a fortune by scrounging a penny here and a penny there per sale and running a mill churning out thousands of sales every month. That's not being a bookseller. That's being a money-grubber. I am not saying that the poster's friend fits the bill there, but I do have a difficult time understanding how someone "buying every book" that is brought to him could make any real money in relation to his investment in time and trouble, as well as cash.. [Memo from the upstairs office.] And he showed me the account onlnie and from 10/1-10-14 their gross sales were around $5k. |
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