Book selling best outlet suggestions

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Jacob

Pint of bass, porkpie, and packet of crisps please
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Got a few thousand books to sell, need the space. Opinion wanted on best outlet - looks like AbeBooks as long as I keep up the turnover.
One idea was to put them all on my own website and cut out all the middlemen, except Paypal probably.
Would be a lot of work writing up details etc but quite a pleasant retirement hobby.
Any alternative suggestions? Any booksellers here?
 
Are the books valuable?
A few are. Worth more than £50 say. But is a large collection bought for general reading, not as a book collector.

PS one good idea popped in already - categorise them and sell by category e.g. woodwork and craft related books as a group, to attract buyers with related interests.
 
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options tend to be:
- ebay or amazon for general books
- abe for more 'special' books - first editions / rare to find / etc.
- a dealer if you have a collection of interesting books - again, they are either looking for books on collectors subjects (trains / military / etc. - woodworking might be one topic?) or firsts / or children's books / etc.
- charity shops - if the books are just general run of the mill type books then there isn't an easy outlet - some charity shops may take them (not sure about a couple of thousand), but lock down has lead to clear-outs and therefore they are swamped with books...
- car boot sale or equivalent could work - either your doing it - or selling boxes as a job lot on ebay for someone else to shift
- selling them outside your house can work if you have foot traffic past where you live
- facebook marketplace can work

ideally look at grouping them if you can - a set of 6 by one author can be a popular choice, and if nothing else their interest in one book means they have to buy them all and you get rid of 6!

I wouldn't sell them on your own website - who is going to randomly find them for sale? - plus you have the hassle of payments etc.
 
Times have changed, books used to be a valuable source of information and valued but now so many just rely on the internet or digital versions, for me there is nothing better than having a physical book to read as there is something with a book you cannot get online. I think your idea of categorising them is a good one, that way you can target the right people. There are some good secondhand book sellers in the UK, maybe worth contacting. I can think of Barter books in Alnwick, based in the old railway station and the High Peak bookstore in Derbyshire.
 
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I sold a couple of hundred books a few years ago. I used one of the bulk buyers, you scan the barcode and they give you a price, somewhere between 20p-£5 per book depending on demand. Once you hit a certain price point they will then pay for shipping to collect the books. I made about £150 so on average less than £1 per book but it was very easy. Valuable books worth more than £10 each I sold on ebay including the most expensive book which was £500, not bad considering I paid £60 for it.

Selling on your own site is likely not worth the effort, ebay will be but only for books over a tenner each. If books are only worth a quid or so then use the middle man buyers.
 
Google and other search engines?Paypal, Sage, and others

good luck :) - seriously, I build websites for a living (well me and my team!)
If you think that you are likely to suddenly start appearing at the top of search engines for those searching on specific titles, I would think that unlikely

Books fall into the 'desirable' or 'not' category - and the vast majority are 'not' so bulk selling tends to be the best option - I know with my collection that teh firsts I have will have a range of values from a few pounds to many more - but the reading copies are realistically worthless - you might get 50p - £1 each if you put a lot of effort into selling them - so split the two groups and put the effort first into the books with some value...
 
The internet takes all the fun out of life - I have been telephoning book shops for years in a forlorn, pointless search, and then you just send me a link. How the times change.
Going in to a 2nd hand bookshop is still a treat though. You never know what you'll find.
 
Have you got a copy of "Everything you need to know about Japanese Water Stones" by J. Butler? It's a very small book.
No but I can knock you up a copy in no time! Hmm, food for thought there. :unsure: A ten volume series on modern sharpening?
 

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