I just walked into the local charity shop. They’re selling secondhand recent novels 10 for €1. How mad is that? 10c each. We’ve got stacks of secondhands at home that haven’t budged neither. Do used books sell much anywhere any more?
Look on Amazon or Alibrris for that out-of-print book you’ve always wanted and get back to us.
Used books can be fabulously valuable, but it’s all about offereing them to the right person at the right time. That requires lots of human effort to sort and store and advertise or display. If you just have a wheelbarrow full of books and neither the time nor inclination to sort them and try to sell them individually, then 10 cents each (or the local equivalent) is about right.
books are worth heaps if you have the right ones. Check ebay.
I have some books stored that are probably worth a few quid but I was commenting specifically on the fact that books that we could have sold for €4 or thereabouts a few years ago are now available at such a low price in a charity shop. I imagine there are people who go about snapping up valuable gems from these stores at bargain prices and sell them on ebay.
Yes there are.
And?
The same is true for records, whether vinyl or CDs, and movies, whether video or DVDs, and clothing, and furniture, and jewelry and dozens of other items that still have some value to someone other than the original purchaser. Every used book store is an example, but so are second-hand shops and consignment shops and antique shoppes and flea markets and Salvation Army stores and all the other variations.
I’m positive there are good used book stores right around you, because they are around everywhere. Abebooks.com must have tens of millions of books listed from tens of thousands of dealers. Amazon.com sells used books. There are dozens of library book sales every sale, most of which don’t sell book discarded from the library but books donated by patrons. Booksalefinder.com lists a gazillion of these and other book sales in the U.S. and Canada.
Used books are a huge business. Used anything is a huge business.
I buy tons of used books on amazon and half.com. I’m sure I could find them for a quarter at a thrift store, but I’m not gonna run around searching stores for a specific book when I can just type the title in and there are tons of options for five bucks right there.
Thrift stores are always selling things for whatever they can get, and the people buying books at thrift stores aren’t necessarily experts – they’re usually looking for a cheap read, and the books are often in battered condition. Heck, it’s not just books. If you look around the thrift shop, you’ll find clothers (barely worn) at bottom-euro prices, too.
Other places that sell used books (such as bookstores, amazon, etc) are more particular about quality, price is based on the market value for each particular book, etc.
Also, thrift stores don’t usually get customers who are looking for books. They’re there for clothing or other items; the books are just a sideline. Since there’s no clientele, they are sold cheaply to get them out of the store.
We’re offered lots of secondhand books in our stores but we’ve stopped taking them. They don’t budge like they used to, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere. I’ve got boxes of novels stacked around me here. Maybe I should bust them open and see if there’s anything you dopers want.
You could always put them up on Half.com yourself. That way, you might extract at least some value out of them before you give the leftovers away.
Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that half.com operates in Ireland. Thanks for the suggestion though.
I’m sorry…I forgot your location. The euro mark should have at least told me it was outside North America. :smack:
Our used book store isn’t buying books right now, so they must not be selling. The recycling/transfer stations all have places to drop off books for others to choose from.
It all depends on the book. The used book stores I go to are still doing a thriving business. But if you have 20 copies of The DaVinci Code on hand, the 21st won’t be worth too much - especially of anyone who wants to read it has already.
I don’t try to sell many books to the stores, but when I do they are pretty careful about what they buy.
aside When I was in grad school our sf club had a poker game with used sf books as chips. The Best of Barry Malzberg was in every pot. 
I wound up with it.
I dunno what the story is though, it seems like bibliophiles hereabouts usually go for new copies of books they want. We used to have a lot more people browsing our secondhand section.
Well I might have been in St. Pierre Et Miquelon. 
I think shipping is a problem. Even if you sell it for a dime, they want a few bucks for shipping. It’s not worth it. A book I’ll take for a dime, isn’t worth $2.10 to me.
As one poster said “It’s easier to go to eBay and type in a title.” I think that is why people buy books online. I go to eBay and the prices are all over the map. It seems all the books on eBay are “collectors” editions. Wow who knew hundreds of the same book.
Even as a little kid I used to see papersbacks for a nickel or a dime. That is what our library sells it’s book for. Hardcovers go for 50¢ to $1.00. Even at Borders I’ve seen brand new, shrink wrapped, hardcovers for $3.00 or $4.00 in the “bargain books” section because it’s an Excel book and it’s last years edition. The current edition is $30 - $50, and has virtually the same information in it.
As an academic, I’ll almost always check amazon’s used books before heading to the library. If I can get it for under 10, including shipping, I'll buy it rather than check it out. I've bought plenty of .10 books over the past few years!
I’ve got a ton of stuff listed on Amazon Marketplace. You’ll know my Seller Name when you see it.
What kind of books do you carry?
Our local thrift shop has lots of books, but most of them seem to be either crap or copies of last year’s bestsellers. I don’t see a lot of people buying there either. I’d guess that people who want to buy the latest hot book, influenced by ads or word of mouth, don’t want to wait to see if it shows up used. The used bookstores have a much wider range of things. I seldom buy any books at the thrift store myself.