Yes, but to him they’re not books, and his evaluation of them has nothing to do with the books themselves.
“Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “Yes.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “Yes.” “Can I resell this object for a profit?” <BEEP> “No.”
This wouldn’t work for all stores… Not all used books are worth the same amount. They’d have to scan the books themselves to do this, and either sell the valuable ones through another dealer or deal with pricing books individually. The friends of the library don’t have that sort of system. They have a sign that says “Hardbacks $2, Paperbacks $1”. Easier to just ban the scanners.
It seems to me that the best response would be for an employee of the shop to scan all the items as they’re being shelved, and to set aside the more valuable ones themselves. If they’re already doing this, then there won’t be any incentive for the scanning customers, and they’d raise more money to support the library.
I understand the premium on library shelf space, and also how the library’s needs for particular volumes will rise and fall as time goes by. I do think that some libraries abdicate some of what should be their mission when they go only by circulation statistics, and don’t consider that certain kinds of books ought to be in libraries even if they aren’t particularly popular.
I don’t think that any of that has much bearing on resellers. If the gem-to-you is not popular or significant enough for the library to keep it in the catalog, then I’d expect it’s not popular or significant enough to have a visibly profitable online market, either. Resellers are only going to be snagging books that the library does or should keep on its shelves.
Now this is plausible. I don’t really think anybody should be saying that $2 for a hardcover is “overcharging” anyway. But if the practice is common enough in an area that most would-be library bookstore shoppers are aware of it, the perception that professional pickers have already gone through everything may be more significant than the reality of what they’re doing to the inventory.
Personally, when I go through used bookstores or library-reject sales, I’m hoping for serendipitous oddball finds–things I wouldn’t buy at all otherwise–not just bargains on better-known titles.
I’d bet quite a lot that the sign is there as CYA so staffers/volunteers can crack down on the associated rudenesses listed above (book forts, monopolizing whole shelves at a time, intentionally mis-shelving) and that if an otherwise well behaved and polite shopper is scanning a few things discreetly they wouldn’t even get the stink-eye.
Public libraries don’t have booksales (and permanent used book rooms) because they make money from it. They make almost nothing from it. Even though the sales (and/or the used book room) have no labor costs because they are run by Friends of the Library or such, they still make almost nothing from it. They have to set aside a room for the books, and it might be a better deal for them to use that to house additional staff or fit more books into.
Every year they accumulate additional books, partly because they have to buy new books and partly because people donate books to them. They have no choice except to get rid of some books. No choice. They can’t expand the size of the library (and the city or the county might even prefer to sell off that building and have one less library). Only so many books fit into the building. They have to go through all the books they own (or have just been given) and get rid of some. Perhaps it’s some of the books that are on the shelf, or perhaps it’s some of those given to them. Arguably it would be more cost-efficient for the librarian who decides which books to keep and which ones to get rid of to just toss the ones that they are getting rid of directly into the trash. After all, it takes time for him to box up those books and give them to the Friends of the Library. It takes time for the librarians to build up the Friends of the Library and persuade them to do the free labor for them.
The library has used booksales and permanent used book rooms because they believe that reading is an important social force. By making books extremely cheap for the people of the city or county, they are increasing the literacy of the city or county. That’s what they want to encourage. They don’t want to serve as a warehouse for books that will be used for resellers to pick through and sell to people outside of the city or county. They have used booksales and used book rooms for the same reason that public libraries exist, because everyone, regardless of how poor they are, deserves to be literate and to have access to cheap and/or free books.
I don’t hate scanners and in fact I am friendly with one scanner at our local Goodwill thrift. She does not make “book forts” and puts the book back when she’s finished. I can see how there might be asshole scanners, but she is not one. Her scanner did originally say “Boo-Yah” when it when found a good deal, but she turned the audio off.
In this thrift the management is VERY aware of what value things might have on eBay and routinely looks up things on eBay to set prices. They were doing this with books for about a year and started marking books with a black permanent marker dot to show they were to be priced more than the default softback/hardback prices. The scanners and catalog guys (like scanners but use a printed catalog) stopped coming and the books began to pile up. Then they stopped looking up (it was time consuming) the books and started making books that “looked” like they might be valuable. This Goodwill then had to have several half off (or more) book blowouts to clear out the unsold overstock. They stopped trying to out scan the scanners.
If scanners behave like jackasses or make a mess then ban them, but if you ban scanners entirely you are choosing to leave money on the table, which is perfectly valid choice if scanners are more of a PITA business disruption-wise than they are worth monetarily.
The unspoken reality in this context is that a fresh supply of non-picked over used books is potentially worth a LOT of money if it is efficiently categorized and priced to market. The problem is that this categorization and pricing process would effectively destroy a lot of the local, casual walk in trade as part of the charm of searching for used books is the treasure hunt aspect and getting deal. If the store is a virtual eBay you might as well search on line as that will be a much more efficient search and the cost is relatively the same sans shipping. if you let scanners go nuts in a store and pull all the easter eggs there’s isn’t much chance of a non-scanner customer having a good bookstore experience.