Library book sale, directed toward booksellers

My wife, associating with an ex-library director who volunteers time,
told me of a library book sale that is intended to be of interest to
booksellers and is not being publicized as the usual library book
sales are.

Apparently books of better than usual quality have been retained for
this sale. Pricing is said to be set in relation to the market for
used books. I do not know if this is in relation to high-end or low-
end pricing; I have always noted that pricing is highly
individualistic.

The notion seems problematic to me. I get the picture that
booksellers are *supposed* to be interested at prices that dealers
*might* pay. In businesses where dealers buy for inventory, setting
prices at a percentage of a well-defined market price may be well
advised. But at a major used-book store in our metropolitan area,
there are progressive markdowns of unsold books from $5 to $1. What
happens to books that don't sell at a dollar, I shudder to think.

I get the picture that dealers buy at prices that offer little or no
risk, and that they would prefer to have room to negotiate rather than
buy at stated prices. In other words, I believe this sale is likely
to prove unsuccessful.

Comments, anyone?

David Ames

My wife, associating with an ex-library director who volunteers time,
told me of a library book sale that is intended to be of interest to
booksellers and is not being publicized as the usual library book
sales are.
Apparently books of better than usual quality have been retained for
this sale. Pricing is said to be set in relation to the market for
used books. [...] The notion seems problematic to me. [...] I believe
this sale is likely to prove unsuccessful.

I would agree. A much better model is the Christian Aid book sale in
Edinburgh:

http://www.standrewsandstgeorges.org..._book_sale.php

They get dealers in to help sort and price their donations; in return
the dealers get first pick at *some* of what comes in. And they work
together, so nobody can quietly sell themselves an incunabulum for 50
pence. The result is that Christian Aid gets sensible market prices
for their books, and the dealers and the public get a fair deal too.
It's been going for more than 20 years so they know what they're doing.
There is even one dealer who takes a week's holiday from his business
in the US every year to fly over and help out.

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On Mar 14, 9:12 am, "David Ames" wrote:
The notion seems problematic to me. I get the picture that
booksellers are *supposed* to be interested at prices that dealers
*might* pay.
David Ames

They would do better to sell tickets to anyone who wants to come in
early (dealer or collector) for first pick. Cutting down your
potential customers doesn't make a lot of sense. And collectors, as
opposed to dealers, may be much more willing to pay higher prices for
good selection early.