by Lynn Mandaville

In the world of on-line book sales, get-rich-quick isn’t the key to success.

Guaranteed success, in fact, is just like everywhere else in the world.  It depends on a slow, steady, educated approach to marketing used books.  This includes considering the condition of the book, how many of them are available on-line, the currency of the book’s information, the recent history of the sales of the title, and, sometimes, speculation about selling something that might be collectible but in questionable shape.

All of these things were learned through some research and trial by fire by volunteers of the Friends of the Chandler (AZ) Library.

Begun four years ago, this lucrative fund-raiser came together because a bunch of volunteers were willing to work on a shoestring to develop the process and accumulate the materials needed to run a small, used-book business.

The most important element, I think, was determining the break-even point minimum selling price, then figuring in costs of shipping, the cost to use the Amazon platform for sales, and a reasonable profit.

When I got involved in this enterprise three and a half years ago, we had to be able to list a book for at least $8 and have that book appear on the first or second page of the search results on Amazon.  Now the minimum is $10.

One can’t get greedy if one wants the item to sell in a reasonable amount of time.  Inventory space is at a premium for a cottage business that is confined to two small back rooms of the library.

Our short and steady sales depend on people with a variety of talents.  First are the folks who cull the glut of used books for potential stock.  (These come from donations and the weeding of the four branch collections.)  Second are the “quickscan” people who do a cursory search to see how many of a given title are available and the lowest average price for the best condition.  If the book passes the minimum price threshold, condition, and availability number, it goes on to the researchers who examine the books for possible flaws they may have, such as broken spines, torn covers or pages, marginal notes, or children’s scribbles.  The researcher assigns a price, then either directs the item to the mender (me) for improvement of condition or to the poster who actually places the item on-line.

Over the almost four years this enterprise has been conducted, volunteers have discovered that some books are better suited for sale on Ebay or Craigslist, and there is a volunteer who takes those items and facilitates those sales.

Rare and collectible books that can demand exceptionally high prices are handled by two or three specially trained women who do extensive research, then hand-deliver them to a rare book broker in Phoenix for sale.

But our bread-and-butter comes from the books that sell in the $13–$30 range.

A consistent flow of these items netted the Friends $10,000 the first year, $20,000 the second year, and $40,000 the third year.  If projections pan out, the net sales should garner upwards of $60,000 this year.  That’s about three times what the in-house sales bring in annually for the Friends.

When our supervisor posts the quarterly sales numbers, all of us volunteers get a huge rush from internalizing what our efforts have done for the library.  But in the past half-year or so, two of those of us who do the order processing have taken to having a friendly competition of sorts to see who “sells” the most books for the greatest dollar amount.  (Christine has this task on Tuesdays while I have Thursdays each week.)

A normal day sees six to ten orders placed for books that fall in that $13-$30 range.  A great day would be sixteen books, with some, like textbooks, going for $50-$75.

When one of us gets a ringer that goes for over $100, Christine and I tend to let everyone know about it, as if we were solely responsible for the coup.

I’ve had some really great days, so-to-speak.  One that I remember fondly was the day I “sold” thirteen items, one of which was a six-volume set of classical Chinese literature printed in both the English translation and the original Chinese characters for $150.  Also sold that day was a beautiful art book of works by an artist known for his comic book art that went for $82, as well as a  bound paperback anthology of comic books in a series, printed on newsprint in acceptable condition that garnered $57!

I haven’t had a rush like that until this past Thursday.

Among the usual best-sellers and textbooks that are our unsung heroes, I sold what might have been considered a throw-away by someone who didn’t have our access to the research behind used book sales.

It was a small (littler than an old VHS cassette), mass-market paperback published by Perennial Library press in 1973.  Though its condition was listed as “acceptable” its yellowed pages were crisp and clean, with no damage to the discolored cover or the spine.  The original retail list price for this book in 1973, written by the political activist/comedian Dick Gregory, was $1.75.  That’s not a typo.  One dollar and seventy-five cents.

This single little gem titled Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet For Folks Who Eat : Cookin’ With Mother Nature sold to a woman in Detroit for $122.

About this sale I am still speechless.