Goodwill Pricing

On Mar 24, 12:36 am, wrote:
On Mar 22, 4:54 am, "RF" wrote:

On Mar 21, 3:58 am, wrote:

I think it is more like "a little learning is a dangerous thing."

You ought to know palmjob!

As expected. Another wet-noodle attack
from Spankard Finnan. Give it up, Bob.
You look pretty silly wriggling around on your
belly while flailing those wet noodles at me.
You are close to becoming another famous
spankard like 'Louse-monkey" Hausmann,
"The Dumpster Rodent," "Lousy" McLemon,
and a few hundred others. Actually, your
pathetic "lames" belong in alt.flame, but as
you well know, you would readily be toasted
to a humiliated crisp over there too. Cheers.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

Another blathering blast of hot air from palmjob the chronic onanist.
Other than giving me fodder to insult you and put you in your
deservedly lowly place, your posts are meaning less to me, since I,
like everyone else, don't give a rat's ass what you think! The most
pathetic thing about you is that you probably believe that anyone does
care. Sad, very sad.

I can't help wondering why certain thrifts and library donation
store managers have such a hard time grasping the fact that their
business depends on their prices being considerably lower than
those of typical used or rare book stores. After all, the selection
found in a thrift or library donation store will never be comparable
to that of a good used book store. People don't patronize thrift
shops and donation stores because they have a "great selection."

We get complimented on our selection all the time. We aren't as big
as some of the local used book stores but we are better than most of
them.


Instead of trying to jack their prices up as high as they can,
they should keep their prices low and work on getting more book
donations. They are not doing their organizations any favors
by driving away paying customers.

Don't work in one, do you?

The point of these shops is to make money for the charity, not to
provide bargains for the customers. There are some kinds of book
where "pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap" is appropriate (romance
novels, say) but if there's somebody on the shop who can price a
a book to realize more income they should be doing it.

We use a mixture of strategies. Stuff sold on the Internet (not
a large proportion) gets the standard Amazon price. Routine stuff
like recent paperback fiction goes for a third of the cover price,
give or take a bit due to condition or topicality. (We can ask a
premium for Ian Rankin as he's our best-selling author by a long
way; every schoolkid needs a copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird" as it's
a standard set book, so we can sell it in any condition). More
antiquarian stuff goes for about half what a professional dealer
would ask (which means many dealers are prepared to buy from us),
with some exceptions where I know damn well I can sell the thing
easily at the full dealer rate so I might as well cut them out.
Other stuff we just send for pulping.


It is like cetain thrift volunteers get "sellers remorse" when
it dawns on them that someone is getting a great deal They
should be delighted because if someone is buying a book it means
more money is flowing into their organization and it probably
means the customer will return and buy more books.

Just as often it means the charity could have got more by selling at
a higher price to a less stingy customer.

We don't get many customers looking to get 500 pounds' worth for 50p.
Or not many *repeat* customers like that. People looking to rip off
a charity are sleazy pains in the arse and we don't have any duty to
be nice to them. We aren't short of customers, and we prefer the kind
that will bring an old copy of "Batman" to the counter and suggest it
might be underpriced and we should check it in a comic price guide.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

On Mar 24, 3:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

Just as often it means the charity could have got more by selling at
a higher price to a less stingy customer.

Since when is it the customer's job to tell the charity what to charge
for the book? What's being "stingy" by paying the asking price?

We don't get many customers looking to get 500 pounds' worth for 50p.
Or not many *repeat* customers like that. People looking to rip off
a charity are sleazy pains in the arse and we don't have any duty to
be nice to them.

Since the charity presumably sets the sale price, how can a person
"rip off a charity" short of walking out without paying?

We aren't short of customers, and we prefer the kind
that will bring an old copy of "Batman" to the counter and suggest it
might be underpriced and we should check it in a comic price guide.

I'll bet you prefer that type!
I'd prefer it if Salma Hayek sat on my face but that's not going to
happen either!
Again, it's NEVER the customer's duty to educate the seller.
Just about everybody who frequents "thrift shops" and the like are
clearly looking for a baragin and what's wrong with that?

Just as often it means the charity could have got more by selling at
a higher price to a less stingy customer.
Since when is it the customer's job to tell the charity what to charge
for the book? What's being "stingy" by paying the asking price?

I was suggesting that charities could get more by asking a higher price,
thereby getting a classier type of buyer.


We don't get many customers looking to get 500 pounds' worth for 50p.
Or not many *repeat* customers like that. People looking to rip off
a charity are sleazy pains in the arse and we don't have any duty to
be nice to them.
Since the charity presumably sets the sale price, how can a person
"rip off a charity" short of walking out without paying?

Look up the Kohlberg moral development scale sometime and see where
you come in.


We aren't short of customers, and we prefer the kind
that will bring an old copy of "Batman" to the counter and suggest it
might be underpriced and we should check it in a comic price guide.
I'll bet you prefer that type!
I'd prefer it if Salma Hayek sat on my face but that's not going to
happen either!

I was not describing a theoretical possibility.


Again, it's NEVER the customer's duty to educate the seller.

Look up the Kohlberg moral development scale sometime.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

On Mar 24, 8:12 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

Again, it's NEVER the customer's duty to educate the seller.

Look up the Kohlberg moral development scale sometime.

Why don't you do the same and see what it says about your insufferable
holier-than-thou attitude?

On Mar 24, 12:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:
I can't help wondering why certain thrifts and library donation
store managers have such a hard time grasping the fact that their
business depends on their prices being considerably lower than
those of typical used or rare book stores. After all, the selection
found in a thrift or library donation store will never be comparable
to that of a good used book store. People don't patronize thrift
shops and donation stores because they have a "great selection."

We get complimented on our selection all the time. We aren't as big
as some of the local used book stores but we are better than most of
them.

Instead of trying to jack their prices up as high as they can,
they should keep their prices low and work on getting more book
donations. They are not doing their organizations any favors
by driving away paying customers.

Don't work in one, do you?

The point of these shops is to make money for the charity, not to
provide bargains for the customers.

[...]

Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe
charity stores are different in your region.
Basically, in Southern California, people go
to thrift stores and library donation stores
to find bargains. I have never seen one of
such places that comes close to competing
with any used book store in the vicinity.
(Most of the used book stores in the area
are reasonably professional -- the net has
in effect run the really crappy ones out of
business.)

Anyway, you sort of give the impression that
you think people go into thrifts and donation
stores for altruistic purposes. That is silly.
They go there looking for bargains. Period.
And since, around here anyway, there is no
thrift or library donation store which comes
close to competing with any of the used
book stores as far as selection, then the
only thing drawing customers is the quest
for a bargain. After all, if the customer's
only interest lies in giving the charity
store their money, they can mail a check.

[From the upstairs office.]

wrote:
On Mar 24, 12:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:
I can't help wondering why certain thrifts and library donation
store managers have such a hard time grasping the fact that their
business depends on their prices being considerably lower than
those of typical used or rare book stores. After all, the selection
found in a thrift or library donation store will never be comparable
to that of a good used book store. People don't patronize thrift
shops and donation stores because they have a "great selection."
We get complimented on our selection all the time. We aren't as big
as some of the local used book stores but we are better than most of
them.

Instead of trying to jack their prices up as high as they can,
they should keep their prices low and work on getting more book
donations. They are not doing their organizations any favors
by driving away paying customers.
Don't work in one, do you?

The point of these shops is to make money for the charity, not to
provide bargains for the customers.

[...]

Maybe your shop is an exception, or maybe
charity stores are different in your region.
Basically, in Southern California, people go
to thrift stores and library donation stores
to find bargains. I have never seen one of
such places that comes close to competing
with any used book store in the vicinity.
(Most of the used book stores in the area
are reasonably professional -- the net has
in effect run the really crappy ones out of
business.)

Anyway, you sort of give the impression that
you think people go into thrifts and donation
stores for altruistic purposes. That is silly.
They go there looking for bargains. Period.
And since, around here anyway, there is no
thrift or library donation store which comes
close to competing with any of the used
book stores as far as selection, then the
only thing drawing customers is the quest
for a bargain. After all, if the customer's
only interest lies in giving the charity
store their money, they can mail a check.

Around here (and most other places I've been), many (most?) of the
customers in the thrift shops are there because they can't afford to
shop elsewhere. They are obviously low-income folks who are looking for
children's clothes that don't cost an arm and a leg, or pots and pans
for their kitchen. The book selections are usually pretty bad, so it
isn't as if book collectors are making regular trips to buy quality books.

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Technology is a way of organizing the universe
so that man doesn't have to experience it. -Max Frisch

On Mar 24, 4:53 am, "RF" wrote:
On Mar 24, 12:36 am, wrote:





On Mar 22, 4:54 am, "RF" wrote:

On Mar 21, 3:58 am, wrote:

I think it is more like "a little learning is a dangerous thing."

You ought to know palmjob!

As expected. Another wet-noodle attack
from Spankard Finnan. Give it up, Bob.
You look pretty silly wriggling around on your
belly while flailing those wet noodles at me.
You are close to becoming another famous
spankard like 'Louse-monkey" Hausmann,
"The Dumpster Rodent," "Lousy" McLemon,
and a few hundred others. Actually, your
pathetic "lames" belong in alt.flame, but as
you well know, you would readily be toasted
to a humiliated crisp over there too. Cheers.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

Another blathering blast of hot air from palmjob the chronic onanist.
Other than giving me fodder to insult you and put you in your
deservedly lowly place, your posts are meaning less to me, since I,
like everyone else, don't give a rat's ass what you think!

Nonsense. Just who do you fancy you will fool
by flinging your latest bundle of horsefeathers, Finnan?
Eveyone in the group but you is by now well aware
that you remain simply another spankard waddling
along far behind me wailing "WAAHHH..." while
flailing those wet noodles around in what you
have deluded yourself into thinking is a menacing
satirical fashion...

The most
pathetic thing about you is that you probably believe that anyone does
care. Sad, very sad.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On Mar 24, 12:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:
I can't help wondering why certain thrifts and library donation
store managers have such a hard time grasping the fact that their
business depends on their prices being considerably lower than
those of typical used or rare book stores. After all, the selection
found in a thrift or library donation store will never be comparable
to that of a good used book store. People don't patronize thrift
shops and donation stores because they have a "great selection."

We get complimented on our selection all the time. We aren't as big
as some of the local used book stores but we are better than most of
them.

Instead of trying to jack their prices up as high as they can,
they should keep their prices low and work on getting more book
donations. They are not doing their organizations any favors
by driving away paying customers.

Don't work in one, do you?

The point of these shops is to make money for the charity, not to
provide bargains for the customers. There are some kinds of book
where "pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap" is appropriate (romance
novels, say) but if there's somebody on the shop who can price a
a book to realize more income they should be doing it.

We use a mixture of strategies. Stuff sold on the Internet (not
a large proportion) gets the standard Amazon price. Routine stuff
like recent paperback fiction goes for a third of the cover price,
give or take a bit due to condition or topicality. (We can ask a
premium for Ian Rankin as he's our best-selling author by a long
way; every schoolkid needs a copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird" as it's
a standard set book, so we can sell it in any condition). More
antiquarian stuff goes for about half what a professional dealer
would ask (which means many dealers are prepared to buy from us),
with some exceptions where I know damn well I can sell the thing
easily at the full dealer rate so I might as well cut them out.
Other stuff we just send for pulping.

It is like cetain thrift volunteers get "sellers remorse" when
it dawns on them that someone is getting a great deal They
should be delighted because if someone is buying a book it means
more money is flowing into their organization and it probably
means the customer will return and buy more books.

Just as often it means the charity could have got more by selling at
a higher price to a less stingy customer.

We don't get many customers looking to get 500 pounds' worth for 50p.
Or not many *repeat* customers like that. People looking to rip off
a charity are sleazy pains in the arse and we don't have any duty to
be nice to them. We aren't short of customers, and we prefer the kind
that will bring an old copy of "Batman" to the counter and suggest it
might be underpriced and we should check it in a comic price guide.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

On Mar 24, 12:36 pm, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

We use a mixture of strategies. Stuff sold on the Internet (not
a large proportion) gets the standard Amazon price..

[...]

Exactly WHAT is the "standard Amazon price"?
Are you saying you ask the Amazon new price
for used items? With most books -- both new
and used -- there is a whole range of Amazon
prices, unless someone has the only copy
of something. So, "we ask the standard
Amazon price" strikes me as a bit glib for
ANY used book shop, be it a charity or a
for profit. Further, judging by some of your
other remarks, I would suspect that your idea
of the "standard Amazon price" means
matching the HIGHEST price someone else
on Amazon is asking for a similar copy...

[Memo from the upstairs office.]