QUESTION: As a new seller, should I try selling remainder books online? Should I contact publishers directly for remainders, or try a wholesaler?
ANSWER: Remainders can be a great sideline to your used-book business, and boost your sales volume. Buying books in quantity is much easier than hand-picking used books — if you know what you’re doing.
I’ve sold remainders profitably, and I talk about it in detail in my book. Just as with used books, you’ll have winners and losers. But it’s much easier to make bad mistakes with remainders and get stuck with tons of worthless books.
So this is something I don’t recommend for new sellers. Dealing in remainders, hurts and overstock books is much more dangerous than selling unique used books. If you make a long series of disastrous mistakes you can lose a fortune with remainders. By contrast, with secondhand books, you can probably earn a decent profit even if you pick your books while blindfolded.
I’ve never gone through bookstores to get remainders, I buy them online at places like Book Depot and Kudzu Book Traders. I’ve listed the top remainder wholesalers at the bottom of this post.
With remainders, it takes a lot of work to find the few available titles that still sell relatively well (check the Amazon Sales Rank) and still command half their retail price. Through wholesalers, you can usually get them for about 20 percent of their original retail price.
In particular, I warn new sellers to avoid purchasing “skids” of remainder assortments. If you don’t know the titles you’ll be receiving, you’ll probably be disappointed when you receive them. Your skid will probably contain fiction bestsellers from a few years ago that are practically worthless for online sellers. Think about it — if a wholesaler is offering a great deal, they will advertise exactly what they’re selling.
Here are the major remainder dealers who sell books in quantity through their Web sites. In cases where I’ve received shoddy service from a dealer, I’ve left them off this list — I won’t recommend companies that don’t provide good service. Most of these dealers require you to have a state sales tax certificate before you open an account.
A1 Overstock
info@a1overstock.com
American Book Company
bburtner@americanbookco.com
Bargain Books Wholesale
Debbiesmith@bargainbookswholesale.com
Book Depot
rick@bookdepot.com
Book Sales, Inc.
sales@booksalesusa.com
BooksNSave
vasantabhyanker@hotmail.com
Bradley’s Book Clearance
sales@bradleysbooks.net
Daedalus Books
pnuhn@daedalusbooks.com
East Tennessee Trade Group
larry@rhinosales.com
Fairmount Books, Inc.
psnow@fairmountbooks.com
Great Jones Books
sales@greatjonesbooks.com
J R Trading Company
deb@jrtradingco.com
Kudzu Book Traders
books@kudzubooktraders.com
LRA Books
customerservice@lrabooks.com
Marketing Resource
mavedis@mribargains.com
Maximus Books, LLC
sforsell@maximusbooks.com
Reader’s World USA, Ltd.
inquiry@readersworldusa.com
S & L Sales Company, Inc.
jim@slsales.com
wcbbooks.com
Related posts:
![[Google]]( http://www.weberbooks.com/selling/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)
9 Comments
I’m looking for a business that will buy our remainder books.
We have 1800 copies of:
The Weight Is Over by Dr. Jack Tips.
ISBN 0-929167-21-X
This book was featured on Television in 2002 – 2004 and sold 10,800 copies.
Books are new, high quality trade paper, in original packing cartons. They were printed in 2005.
If it’s not for you, would you please refer me to a remainder buyer. This is my first time to seek a remainder buyer.
Thank you very much.
Jack Tips
Apple-A-Day Press
I don’t know if anybody is following on this thread, but I have a rather unique situation for those in the “hurt/remainder” business.
I have just over 1200 copies of “Infinite Exposure”. Cloth bound hard cover with dust jacket shrink wrapped in pairs. The title is not yet available in print. I’m looking to unload these books, charging only for 1200 copies and only charging $8 per copy. When the title does go into print the list price will be $24.
Don’t worry, this is all legit. McNaughton & Gunn is breaking in some new direct-to-plate technology and it is not quite ready yet. Everything about these books is perfect, except one tiny little detail. I read for hours before I noticed it, and I’m the author. They didn’t print any quotation marks. They left the space for them, but printed a blank.
Otherwise, this was absolutely perfect. Rather than pulping them, I would like to put them into the ands of a hurts/remainders dealer and let some people enjoy them. I just cannot ethically charge full price.
Use the contact info on http://www.infiniteexposure.net to reach me. One way or another I will have these moved in less than two weeks.
I have purchased the inventory from a local book distributor (he went out of
business and his inventory was sold). There are at least 2683 cases of books’ – over 82,000 Books. Cases are NEW- unopened. Some out of print books.
There are best I can tell, 18 different books. I am looking for a place to sell large quanities. Can you help me. WILL SELL CHEAP– 10 cents a book and you take them all. I will furnish ISBN’s if interested, or prehaps you can tell me who I might contact. Use the contact info on http://www.wballauction-realty.com to reach me
contact for book sale
How can I sell remainder books online myself without the aid of a wholesaler or an overstock/remainder dealer?
We have a warehouse filled with thousands of reproducible activity books designed for kindergarten-third grade teachers. Retail: $6.95 each. Need to move them out at $1 each in boxes of 150. Color covers. 32 page. 8.5X11. Titles in English as well as Spanish. See titles at MisterKindergarten.com. Contact us at MisterKindergarten@gmail.com
I am a retailer and I would want to buy remainder books at the price of 1 or 1.50 per copy. If you are a wholesaler or if you can offer me a bargain, please do contact me on info@knihyzanglie.cz.
I will get back to you as soon as I can and we could arrange the details.
I have 200,000 copies of brand new mostly sports related books that are overstock from one single publisher. They are all first quality and in cases on pallets. There are 500 SKUs with quantities in various ranges from a couple hundred to several thousand. We are selling them at 90% off of retail. Please contact me if you have any interest.
We have two hardcover books that have exhausted quick profits and recovered our investment and still left some remainders which we will sacrifice for $6.00 each, shipped.
“Birds of the Caribbean,”Second edition, ISBN: 978-1-929440-17-7. This 248 page book has 112 original, watercolor illustrations and is a lovely book.
“William Grayson and the Constitution, 1788″ serious history of the Revolution and the Constitution, as well as the life of William Grayson, Founding Father, first Senator from VA.