Now here’s something interesting: A list of valuable ISBNs up for auction on eBay.
The description says the list includes 50,000 book ISBNs that sell for $25 or higher on Amazon. It’s being sold by DirectTextbook.com. The list has a starting bid of $100 and will be auctioned a maximum of three times during the next month.
Here’s an example of one of the books on the list:
Here’s the blog for DirectTextbook, which gives contact information.
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5 Comments
It’s a list, but at a sale you are either picking by eye or using a wireless scanner.
50,000 books in electronic form really is of no use.
I wonder how many of those books have no sales rank. There are many, many examples of Amazon listings made by sellers in which the same edition of the same book is duplicated up to 10 times. And some of those listings are almost always priced very high because the seller thought he or she had the only copy of a rare book.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve sold plenty of books at high prices that had no sales rank when I listed my copy, but it takes judgment to see when a title is actually scarce and when it’s merely priced high because the seller didn’t do enough research.
Interesting. I checked the four sample ISBN’s listed in the auction. Two had Amazon ratings above 3,000,000 and two had ratings in the 200,000’s or 300,000’s. One had the lowest priced available used copy on Amazon at $5.62 — not quite “selling for $25″. Then I ran the four ISBNs at cash4books to see if THEY were buying them. They were buying only two of the four, and for one of those they offered less than a buck.
I think I shall pass on this good deal.
John Baker, Best Bookshelf
Frankly, I would not spend cash money for such a list. The sales ranks on amazon change every day, and what use would the list be anyway?
You can get a sales rank when you have a book to list. One is not going to purchase book based on this list. It’s just some opportunist trying to make a buck on redundant information.
Sometimes I despair as a bookseller, but then….I LOVE what I do….I am good at it….and I know my books. This is just a bunch of B______T.
The party in question is trying to get customers who are hoping for a quick buck in book sales…which isn’t going to happen! Know your books, know your market, be honorable and knowledgable, and you can make a living doing this!
Thank you Anonymous 6/11/07 for your refreshing commentary and encouraging words. You are a bookseller after my own heart.
Mark M.