QUESTION: I recently went to my first library book sale. I ended up buying nothing, even though I was one of the first people through the door. I couldn’t find anything that looked valuable. I checked about 30 prices with my cellphone and couldn’t find anything worth more than about $2. There were some obvious pro buyers there with shopping bags full of buys.
When I saw about 20 “microwave cookbooks” with yellowed covers on a shelf together, I left the sale in disgust. What am I doing wrong? Did I just go to the wrong sale?
ANSWER: I’m betting that either the sale you went to had very few bargains due to poor donations, or that the sellers you saw with bags of finds may have grabbed all the goodies before you had a chance.
Library sales are the most consistent source of good used books for me. The larger, regional libraries in particular seem to get tons of donations, and they don’t have room for all those books on the shelves.
However, one trend I’ve noticed is that some libraries are starting to “cherry pick” their donations. They’ll check the prices on all their books before offering them at a sale, and the ones that are really valuable, they’ll sell themselves. Or they’ll set aside a “special collection” and price them ridiculously high. At one sale I attended, the books had a range of prices from ABE. Very few of the books sold.
Another possibility is that the Friends volunteers who staffed the sale were able to get first crack at the merchandise before the doors opened. When the merchandise has been cherry-picked before the doors open, it’s hard to find much good material.
Having said all that, this was your first sale, and it takes a while to get the knack for finding books. Finding really good books at a library sale is sort of like finding a needle in a haystack. Even at the really good library sales I’ve been to, 90 percent of the stuff available is junk — as far as reselling is concerned. But through experience you’re able to quickly spot the good stuff that you can resell.
So I would suggest two things for you:
- See if there’s another library sale (at a different library) where you can go through the same process. If the first sale you went to had such bad donations (or the donations had been cherry picked) the odds are you’ll have much better luck at your next sale, particularly if it’s at a different library.
- Get some general practice picking books. Like if you could get to a library that has a shelf-full of books that are always for sale, any day of the week. That way you could get some practice picking books outside of the pressure of having to get them during a library sale, when you’re limited by time.
One of the weird things that I’ve always found from going to library sales — the more experienced I’ve gotten at picking books, the higher my expectations are. So these days, I’m always disappointed on the way home — my first impression is usually, “Well I spent three hours, and what a waste.” But after I start listing the books, my mood improves. There’s usually several nice surprises.
So all is not lost. It seems like you have high expectations too. Just get in there are start buying, and you’ll find the gems.
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the response is very helpful. thank you
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I get all my books from library sales. Resale prices for me so far have ranged between $0.01 and $875. My average monthly net is only around $1000, but I have 3 little kids and honestly I don’t work very much at it, so I find this is just very ready, very easy money, especially since the whole family enjoys these sales tremendously and everybody gets to pick all the books they want and help out Mom.
Taking the whole family is such a refreshing change from the usual commercialism at Borders or the Mall. So I love libary sales and try to support them. (Although I am not sure if I am doing them a favor by buying 500 books for $100 from them).
Over the years (it’s been 6 in my case) you will get to be an expert at spotting the double digit books. My experience has shown that local or regional library sales do not tend to be cherry picked at all. On the contrary, I always leave with the impression that these poor hapless library sale volunteers have absolutely no clue whatsoever about what is worth how much. And so they try to price yet another copy of “Angela’s Ashes” at $5 and let me leave with 3 copies of “(I won’t tell you
” priced at a quarter each, which I will then sell at $79 a piece. There tends to be at least one of these at every sale and by now I know which titles to look for when I first get there.
And I never even go to the first day of sale, we go to bag sales only, at the end, when all the books have (supposedly) been picked through. Buy all the books you want, $5 or even only $2 a bag, and it still adds up to $1000 net a month. Not enough to feed a family, but not bad for a little bit of family weekend fun!
By the way, my 2 year old dragged the $875 book out from under a table and I paid 50 cents for it.
A big cheer to library sales!!!
Practice and research, my friend! Both pay off. I get almost all of my books from library sales and I brought home some real stinkers my first few times out. Now I make sure and review Ebay’s Completed Listings and read every blog and book that I can find on bookselling. Work at honing your instincts before relying too heavily on price lookup tools. Good luck adn don’t get too discouraged.
I have been selling on line for more than 6 years after working three years in a large bookstore run by a non-profit organization. While helping to buy stock to enhance the stock brought in through donations I found that belonging to the Friends of the Library at numerous libraries within reasonable driving range of home really paid off since most libraries in our area have a Friends Only preview sale, usually the night before opening day. The attendance is lighter than and the sale is fully stocked. We than attend the last day’s bag sale and normally find some real treasures there in addition to inexpensive ways to buy for friends & neighbors with specific interests. Don’t give up on library sales…with a little experience they may turn out to be one of your best resources..
Joan
I’m a volunteer at our FOL bookstore–library discards and donations. I volunteer one afternoon a week. I always go through the discard box & have found some gems there. We have a 50 cent table & I’ll pick up 1st ed. fiction there. One just went for $20. When I find a book for resell, I’ll put it on the volunteer’s shelve and buy it when we have a half price sale (2-3 sales a year). I go to as many library sales in our area as I can. I always manage to get at least one that will bring in good dollars. I love the last day bag sales. It’s a great source.
I agree with everyone’s advise.
Also… when you do have stinker books, the big questions is what to do with them?
One suggestion is to trade them on the internet. Several nice sites are http://www.frugalreader.com and http://www.paperbackswap.com.
A word of caution… those above mentioned sites don’t want “booksellers” swooping in and grabbing all the “good stuff.”
While shopping on those sites, I keep a low profile and trade my “one-centers” for books I really would like to read (someday!) And, if a book is in the inventory that you know would bring in a good price, just convince yourself that you’ll read it before selling it!
Keep the faith, think the best of your customers, and most importantly list the book’s condition honestly — you’ll grow your business in a short time!
When you go to library sales, let the force be with you.
Experience, experience, experience!!! So many think this is easy money, not realizing how many hours this entails. The money is something else also. So many buys that are worth less and have to be dumped. Also, knowing what books are REALLY worth and not ruining the market with penny books. You have to do your homework first!!
I just started selling books in September. I live in a very small town of 2500 people so I have to be very resourceful buying books. The library 30 miles away has a sale first Saturday of every month. If you go early they have free books and I load up anything I think might be worth a few dollars and have come away with a few $30-40 books. The sale has childrens books 25 cents, pb 50 cents and hardbacks including vintage books for 1.00. I buy about $40 every sale and I am increasing sales every month. I am contacting all the little libraries around me to find out when they have sales and can’t wait to go to yard sales this summer.
Experience is the key. If you are looking for “gems” – forget it. You will get lucky now and then but don’t count on it. Go to the bag sales at the end and spend $2.00 for a bag of stuff that looks fairly promising. Forget current best sellers (Tom Clancy, John Grisham, etc) unless you have autographed items. Also forget old text books. Older stuff by established authors is often good, but you are looking at stuff that you will probably sell for $5.00-20.00 on line. Yeah, sure, every now and then you’ll find a 4300.00 or $900.00 itme, but count those as bonuses. Figure on giving 2/3 of what you buy to Goodwill. Remember that you are a bottom-feeder, not a climax predator. You want to buy cheap and sell at reasonable prices. Also remember that pearl divers usually make a living from the shells, finding an actual pearl is a bonus.
Dick Thurston