Originally published in the October 30, 1995 issue of AB Bookman's Weekly, a Magazine for the specialist book world.Chapter Two: Buying Inventory for a Used Bookstore
If you're interested in having a bookstore, chances are that you've already bought a considerable number of books for your own enjoyment. Within your field of interest, you've probably shopped with discrimination. Once you have a bookstore, you just have to expand this discrimate buying to a much larger scale. There's one other difference: you'll now be buying a lot of books that you're not personally interested in and would never read yourself. Unless you plan to specialize in a very finite manner, you'll be buying books to suit hundreds of individuals. But no matter what books you're buying for whom, buy them in the same way that you would buy for yourself. Always try to buy the best books in any particular field, in the best condition you can find them. There is no sense in buying books in poor condition just because they're available cheaply. Good titles in poor condition are not bargains--not for you and not for your customers--so force yourself to pass them by. You'll be offered a lot of books in poor condition and with low saleability. It's in your best interest to refuse these types of books right from the start, even when your stock is low. Just remember: it's harder for potential sellers of shabby books to understand why you don't want their books if they can look around your store and point out the same poor quality. Books can be "Poor", "Good", "Very Good", "Fine" or "Mint"(like new), plus some subcategories of these levels of condition. Even "Good Condition" books must be complete but will exhibit several minor faults or one or two major faults. Dealers should concentrate on buying books in "Very Good Condition" or better, and price them accordingly. When you're buying, always critically assess the resale value before making your offer. And remember, dust jackets are of supreme importance too; the presence of a dust jacket on a collectible title can make a $20 book a $100 book, and a $100 book a $1000 book. Some exceptions where "Poor Condition" books might be tolerated may occur in the antiquarian field where some titles are scarce in any condition. However, even then, remember that an old collectible book worth about $500 in "Fine Condition" would still only be valued at approximately $150 in "Good Condition" and perhaps $30 in "Poor Condition". (Author's up-to-date note: Today's Internet Listers, Pay Attention!) Sources of Books One of the commonest questions asked of a bookseller is "Where do you get all your books?" These days I usually tell people that about 20 percent of my books come from bookscouts, 20 percent I scout myself, 10 percent are remainders, which I order from three or four wholesale distribution companies, and the remaining 50 percent I buy from individuals who phone or walk in saying they have some books to sell. Although the proportions will differ, these will be the sources of your books. If you buy an existing store, you may inherit some bookscouts with it. Margaret Haller, in her book, "The Book Collector's Fact Book", describes a bookscout as "Any individual, either self-employed or working for a book dealer, or for one or more collectors, who searches for special titles in such places as secondhand stores, auctions, church sales, book fairs, old- book stores." Some bookscouts may be used to making regular stops at the store you've bought. They will have been bringing certain types of books that the former owner had indicated he or she would buy from them. But even if you're start- ing your business from scratch, the bookscouts in your area will soon find you; first to see if you're "giving books away", that they can buy and resell for profit elsewhere, and also to ask you what types of books you'll be willing buy from them. Bookscouts can be very important to your business, so you will be wise to try and develop a good reciprocal relationship with several of them. Start off on the right foot by paying them fair prices for their books-- that is, the books that you really want from them. Give bookscouts a strong indication initially of the types of books you most want and pay them about one-third of what you'll sell the books for. For higher ticket items, let's say, books that you know you can sell quickly for $50 or more, give the bookscout as much as 40 to 50 percent of what you'll sell them for. In this way, you'll assure yourself of seeing more good books in the future. It's also a good rule to try and buy something from a bookscout each time he visits, even if you're short of funds that day. Two or three trips to your store with no sales and you could be dropped from a bookscout's route. Just as a point of interest, I have one bookscout who has been bringing me books almost every week for ten years. Over the last two years, my acquisitions from him represented about 10 percent of my total purchases. (Author's Note: I still buy the odd book from this same bookscout today. He's 82 and still in the game!) Scouting Get out and scout books yourself! If you don't already know there the major thrift stores are, find out. Also, watch for signs at churches and read the ads for sales and community services in the local papers. In that way, you'll soon discover some small thrift stores which may only be open one day a week. It will pay you to scout every morning on your way to work. Set up schedules for yourself for the various days and visit the thrift stores religiously--it's persistance that counts when scouting for books. Sure, there may be some stops that you can cross off your list because you didn't find a book to buy there in five or six visits and there just isn't an appreciable change in stock. But for all the other locations, providing you're finding a few saleable books at each visit, keep at it. At some time, those stops are going to yield some good, and perhaps valuable books. If you know your books and can recognize a $50 book when you see it, sooner or later you'll find some for 50 cents or a dollar. Even at the major thrift stores, some of them chains, where books are priced higher, you can still make some decent profits. Spending $10 to $20 each morning on thrift-store books can increase your retail stock value by $25 to $100 a day. Extrapolate those numbers over a year and you can see that scouting for yourself can give your business a big boost. Of course, there's nothing to stop you from buying books from other bookdealers as well. Your profits won't be as spectacular but you can still make a lot of customers happy who have specific wants. Over time, your greatest source of books is going to be the general public, and they're going to contact you. Mostly, an individual is going to want to sell books for two reasons: 1) someone in the family has died and the relatives don't want that person's accumulation of books; or 2) someone is moving a great distance or into a home smaller than what they've been used to, and most of their books have to find a new home of their own. The sellers are either going to walk into your store or phone you, asking if you would like to buy their books. To get their phone calls, you want to be sure to have a prominent ad in the Yellow Pages under the listing "Secondhand and Antiquarian Books". In that ad, besides stating the types of books you sell, you must state that you also buy books. And, I've never thought it hurt to state in the ad that you pay fair prices. Now, "fair" is a relative term, and a pretty subjective one at that, but by using it, you will at least encourage many people to give you a shot at convincing them that what you say is true. You should have a rough rule-of-thumb formula that you can explain to people when they ask you how you arrived at your offer for their books. Some will ask, some won't, but you should try to be consistent at all times. Personally, I tell people that I pay 15 percent of the cover price for paperbacks, and for hardcovers I pay about one third of what my selling price will be. In reality, I might pay 25 to 50 percent of my selling price for hardcover books, but these variations are based on condition and saleability factors. I will also pay 20 percent of cover price for some paperbacks in fine condition and an even higher percentage for paperbacks that are a few years old but still popular sellers. This is because the cover price is out of date. For instance, Graham Greene's books in paperback always will be in demand. Copies of these paperbacks printed in the 1970s with cover prices of $1.95 to $2.95 are certainly worth more to me than 30 to 45 cents each. I gladly pay 75 cents to one dollar for well-preserved copies. The reasoning here, of course, is that new printings of these same paperbacks are selling for $4.95 to $6.95 and so a good used copy is well worth $3-$4. So, whenever you're buying books according to a formula, be aware of the worth of the books. (Author's Note: of course, today we're looking at $8.95 to $10.95 original retail prices, and $4.50 to $5.50 secondhand.) Making House Calls By all means, be prepared and willing to make house calls. if people have more than a couple of boxes of books, they're usually reluctant to go to the trouble of bringing them to your store. It's up to you to make arrangements with those people to visit their home, either in the early morning or early evening. An extra advantage of visiting the home is that you will probably get to see all the books, not just the ones these people would pack up to bring to you. Books that weren't going to be for sale may sometimes be bought after all. In addition, you may have a personal or business interest in other things old--as I have an interest in early metal toys. By visiting the person's home, you will sometimes come into contact with these other objects and you may want to try and buy them as well. If the people are thinking about selling these things anyway, you may as well make your offer. Over the years, I have gone on many book calls, but have also come away with dolls, toys, pictures, postcards, bookshelves, vases, and even two slot machines! To save yourself a lot of grief, ask a phone caller a number of questions about their books before you make an appointment to call on them. Try to determine if they actually have books you'd be interested in buying. It makes no sense to tear all the way across town to view two bookcases full of Reader's Digest Condensed Books, or a garage full of boxed books that "got just a bit wet when the roof leaked three years ago this past August". Ask if the books are mostly paperback or hardcover, primarily fiction or non-fiction, can they give subjects and authors, what's the age of the books, and what's the overall condition. Ask people to try and be especially critical of their books when it comes to condition, because you certainly will be. There are two schools of thought when approaching people with a lot of books for sale. Some booksellers like to buy the whole lot, then dispose of what they don't really want. Other dealers like to be selective and just make an offer on those books that they really want in their store. There are pros and cons for both approaches. You'll have to make your own decision, but let your decision be dictated by circumstances. If 75 percent or more of the books proffered are what you would term to be "good books", then you'll likely buy them all. If the percentage is somewhat less, then you may want to agree in advance with the seller that you will just be selecting those books that you can really use and that you'll be making your offer on those books alone. Make sure you have this agreement before you select your books. The situation has arisen many times that a seller will let you go ahead and make your pile of books that you want--obviously the best books--only to insist on selling all the books or just turning down your offer. Why? Just to have you do the hard work for them of separating the wheat from the chaff. Now they know which are the most valuable books and they can send you on your way empty-handed. Try not to give away your knowledge; it's your livelihood. Many people wil have books which they think are extremely valuable, when actually the books are quite common and sometimes worthless. Other people may place no value on an accumulation of books that includes many valuable items. It's up to you to know the difference and act accordingly. As a novice, if you buy in a state of ignorance, you may be fortunate enough to acquire some very good books in large lots that you have purchased from individuals for very little money. However, it's more likely that if you buy several large lots of books from basements and garages without positively recognizing several bonafide treasures, then all you're going to end up with is a large quantity of very bad, or at the best, extremely mediocre books. For this reason, you must make a supreme effort to acquire considerable knowledge in as short a time as possible, and in the meantime, proceed cautiously. Some booksellers like to buy entire large lots of books because they feel they can always get their books at very low prices this way. If the books are of generally low quality then I am at the point where I just do not want to invest the time needed to individually handle every book in a mediocre collection. When you're new to the business, you tend to be more enthusiastic about taking a couple of thousand books for three or four hundred dollars and attempting to make a big profit on them. After working your way through a few of these type of purchases and eventually throwing away three quarters of the books you bought, you will start buying smarter. A problem arises, and it's a question of ethics, when some book- dealers make that three or four hundred dollar offer on a couple of thousand "good books". Let's say these books are worth about $20,000, and yet the unassuming seller has no idea of their value and accepts the bookdealer's offer as fair. Six months later, the seller discovers in conversation with someone that the books sold have a much higher value than imagined. In the fallout that follows, all booksellers suffer. We are tarred with the same brush of dishonesty. We all like a bargain; but, probably 90 of every 100 booksellers who got to see those books, would have offered $5000 to $8000 for them, depending upon how the collection fits into their particular stock. In a just society, we would expect that the dealers who always try to get their books for nothing would soon be out of business. Some- times this happens. However, somehow, some of these people manage to stay in business for many years, buying for as little as possible, selling for as high as possible. But these booksellers do not have the respect of their customers or other dealers. Remember that you have a responsibility to your customers and to the book trade to help elevate and maintain our profession at a high level of respectability. If you do this, the book business will reward you with a great deal of satisfaction for many years to come. Those people who feel that you have treated them fairly will make a point of recommending you and your store again and again. When you love this business, it just doesn't make sense to be short-sighted. XXXXX Terry A. Stillman
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