Some Guy wrote:
> Allan Adler wrote:
>
>> Some Guy <noemailformethanks@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>>
>>> You'd have to have a library with a hefty collection of valuable
>>> books that keep being put out for sale at low rates, where almost no
>>> one except this bookseller comes and buys them, and the book sale is
>>> one that allows the bookseller access within the time frame required
>>> by the listing services for ****pping, which I believe is either 2
>>> days or 3 days for Amazon.
>>>
>>> Valuable books tend to disappear from library sales much faster than
>>> they are ordered online, but the returns from the eventual sale
>>> nearly always makes it worthwhile to snap it up right away for the
>>> astute seller. It's just too darn risky to do otherwise.
>>
>>
>> I addressed the issue of access in my reply to your other posting, so
>> let me focus on what you say about valuable books. The topic of
valuable
>> or, rather, very expensive books arose in this thread in connection
with
>> pricing strategies, and I don't really disagree with what was said
>> about that.
>
>
> Always realizing that "valuable" and "expensive" are not quite the same
> thing. "Vaulable" in this case implies a level of demand consistent
> with the high price tag, whereas "expensive" simply means there is a
> high price tag that might ultimately never result in a sale.
>
>> But maybe that isn't what you are referring to. Maybe you just mean
books
>> that one can sell for much more than the $2 one is likely to pay for
them
>> at the booksale and which might really be in demand through Amazon. If
>> such
>> a book actually comes along, I would agree that one should grab it. The
>> 2-volume work of Kobaya**** and Nomizu on differential geometry,
>> absolutely,
>> they should simply spend the $2 per volume and buy it.
>
>
> Although this discussion started with Amazon in mind, keep in mind that
> there are other online listing services which affect the total online
> bookselling market.
>
>> However, the books that this person was carefully going through and
>> checking
>> against Amazon were just the ordinary kind of stuff that one finds at
>> library
>> book sales. I think stuff like that tends to move more slowly. For the
>> most
>> part, it is not qualitatively different from stuff one sees being sold
by
>> sidewalk book vendors and their stuff doesn't seem to change much when
>> I look
>> at their tables. Even there one does occasionally find some worthwhile
>> books:
>> I found a student edition of Demosthenes in Greek and a copy of
>> Liddell and
>> Scott and a book on Latin prose composition, all in reasonably good
>> shape,
>> and took all the ones I didn't already own; but I buy books to read
>> them and
>> to use them for reference, not to resell or collect them.
>
>
> There are two other reasons why the person might have been checking what
> looked like normal, not particularly valuable books besides making a
> list of material he/she was going to list on line but store at the
> library. In my opinion, one of these is more likely based on my
> experiences:
>
> A. The person was a newbie who does not have enough experience to
> recognize valuable (or potentially valuable) books on sight and so was
> being slow & methodical in learning what was what.
>
> B. The person was checking for sleepers that booksellers might have
> missed. No bookseller knows every valuable book in existence, and it
> has happened that I've pulled good stuff from a library sale after the
> other booksellers have been through it, but this has not been common and
> has been limited to specific books in niche markets I knew from
> experience would sell quickly and highly. I certainly could not sup****t
> myself on such books since they happen along so rarely.
>
Or both together.
I once went over a table of books after a number of dealers had been
through it,
and picked up a first edition of Wilfred Owens's poetry. Apparently, the
others
were not up on the fact that he was one of the famous Waar Poets of WWI.
>>>> Assuming there are some booksellers operating as I have described, it
>>>> is quite possible that they are not very successful. It is also
>>>> possible
>>>> that they are making enough money to make it worth their while.
>>>
>>> The latter case probably happens about as often as winged monkeys
>>> make their exit from one's nether regions. Having assisted a
>>> bookseller who was hunting for inventory at library sales in the face
>>> of other booksellers doing the same thing, I know that such a
>>> possibility is not worth considering for someone who's planning on
>>> eating based on the results.
>>
>>
>> If you don't mind sharing your experiences, I'd like to know more about
>> how the bookseller you assisted operated at library book sales, and how
>> they operate in general at book sales.
>
>
> Since she has passed away and her business is being sold off, I don't
> see any reason not to. If I decide to enter the bookselling business
> myself, my supply won't be based on library sales. Bear in mind that
> these are MY experiences, not necessarily a universal manner in which
> they operate, though I would be surprised at any significant and
> widespread variance.
>
> A good bookseller knows which libraries tend to end up with the best
> donations and thus which ones are worth spending time exploring. Usually
> each bookseller will have some area in which they have more expertise
> and so will concentrate on such books, so among several booksellers
> you'll usually have enough to cover the majority of interests at the
> better library sales. Often, they will strive to be one of the first
> ones in the door if they can to get first look at the tables or shelves.
>
> Depending on the bookseller's skill, they'll either quickly skim the
> rows and pluck out the good stuff with dispatch, or where they're not
> sure they will just grab things they think are worthwhile and make a big
> pile, then go through and check them in more detail, either through
> technology (e.g. laptops or Amazon scanners) or their own evaluation
> where they don't trust a rapid glance enough. They will then return to
> the library shelves or tables the books they have decided or discovered
> are not worth buying.
>
>
You should see the feeding frenzy at the Glastonbury, Connecticut library
book
sale. It is held outside on the lawn of the library. The sale starts at
9:00
am, so by 8:45, hhundreds of people have encircled the tables outside the
start
line. At 9:00 sharp, a librarian sounds a horn or rings a bell, and
everyone
charges. Images of a movie I saw in the 50s about the great land rush
with
settlers' wagons wrecking themselves in the headlong dash always come to
mind at
that moment. One has about five minutes to find books other than those of
niche
interest.
Francis A. Miniter
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