Picking which books to downsize

If you’re in the used book business you shelves pretty quickly end up groaning under the sheer number of volumes you have available.  But sometimes the sheer volume can become an impediment to selling, especially with a physical store.  If you’re online only, the only person that has to deal with the piles is you.  In a store, if they piles get too large they can become difficult for customers to find what they want.  Sales slow because there’s too much clutter and too many choices.  There’s so many choices, people can’t decide what they want! and even if they did, they may be loathe to pull it out of the stack because they’re afraid it may fall!

So eventually, it comes times to prune down the piles.  But you don’t want to go about pruning them willynilly.  How do you pick what books to get rid of?

This becomes extra difficult if you listen to other booksellers.  What works for them may not work for you, even if they’re in the same town!  Great, their customers love this author…. you can’t give them away.  (though trading it to them for something you need may work…) You need DATA.  About YOU.

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Take the next step: Buy Books at Auctions

More about auctions Apparently there are auctions and then there are Colorado prairie auctions. On TV, I’ve seen pictures of auctions in England and other places where people are INSIDE and they actually sit on chairs, and to bid, they hold up a paddle. Isn’t that amazing? And there’s an article on this blog which … Read more

Used Books Canada A Book Hunt

Looking for used books in Canada is not a difficult process if you know where to start. Take it from me, I’m somewhat of an expert in the topic. I was fortunate to have operated a used bookstore in Canada for four years. Obviously part of my day to day operations involved buying books. Now … Read more