Have you ever felt like strangling an Amazon seller who lists a rare book at 50 percent less than the next available copy? Well, don’t get mad, just send a message like this one. A reader (a bookseller in New York state) sent this note to a lowballer, and the offending listing was gone the next day:
It is nice you can offer this book for half of what it sells for elsewhere. But do you realize that when you do this, you devalue the item and at some point, it will lose all value. I suspect that you would also like to make money, but are you aware that this book is rare, out of print, and will not be getting reprinted any time soon? Underpricing by 10-20 percent is heard of, but unless you have a book in terrible shape, 60 percent or more slaps the face of other retailers.
I hope you don’t want what you have into your home when you go to sell it. You see, even homes can get depressed in value (and they are so low in some places the house is worth less than the mortgage). That is what will happen with this book. Some of us pay a lot for these books at auction, only to find that someone has cut the price so low, they aren’t even getting back what they have into them.
My two cents. Thought I might point out how your pricing looks to other sellers.
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14 Comments
Of course, some people are just clearing out a house after a loved one has died and are lowballing the price in an effort to get the estate sale over with as quickly as possible. They don’t care about market value. They’re just willing to take half the value of the book rather than have it sitting around at full value as yet another part of the estate for months.
Since it’s such a great bargain and you know what the book is truly worth, you or another collector might profit to buy the book yourself and sell it for what you believe it’s worth.
Welcome to the free market. If I can acquire a rare book at a cost which allows me to sell that book at a profit when priced 50% less than my competitors, why shouldn’t I sell it for less? If I can sell it for a lot less, then all the better. If I can make a reputation for selling rare books for less, it is the foundation of a business. That holds true for books *and* houses and every other normal good in the world. It is how innovations occur.
Why bother telling them the real value. Just buy the darn book from them and then price it properly
I totally agree with L. Welcome to the free market.
Complaining about lowballers is a huge waste of time.
1. Time obsessively checking your listings is better spent acquiring new inventory and networking.
2. If someone is selling a “rare” book for $68 and I list for $23 and the book still doesn’t sell? Guess what: it’s not actually worth $68.
While I understand the sentiment here, that’s just how a free market works. Beth is right, if it’s really cheap just buy it from them and resell at a profit. I’ve heard of sellers getting angry emails from book authors, saying “how dare you sell my book at such a high price, I never got that much for it! (and how dare you profit from MY book!)” Once again, that’s how the market works.
Everybody is motivated by different things when they fix a price.
Maybe the seller is forced to move the book now and cannot afford to wait several months to wait for the right price to come up.
I just had to close my store down and I can tell you, it is better to receive half the value than having to give everything away for nothing in the end, so I slashed my prices into oblivion, with the result that all my books are gone. And I actually have some cash in my hand rather than a stack of books that have become worthless to me, since I cannot take them with me (moving abroad).
Please do not “educate” other sellers how they “should” price their books without any background information. This is a free economy. Buy the book yourself if you think it is such an incredible deal. And if you can sell it for more – you win!
L says, “If I can sell it for a lot less, then all the better.”
Why? If instead you can sell the book for much more and make a much better profit? If you have a good selling reputation (feedback) then you should be able to sell it by matching the current lowest offer. You still get the reputation of being the best bargain and you make more money.
Undercutting the low price by 50% is simply poor business. On the other hand, I like the idea put forth by the others, buy it and re-sell it for more.
Hi,
If the low baller only has one copy then the market for that title will clean up relatively quickly. Cleaning up the market realtively quickly depends on the price of the book and demand.
If the price prior to the lowball offer is high (say 700 or more) and demand low then the lowballer will not move the item quickly as they desire. If the price of the low balled item was say $60 with only three available and the low baller comes up with 30 copies and drops the price to $50 there would be a problem.
If the lowballer only has one copy and you can buy him out without comment I would do that rather than send an email.
What about mass sellers with penny offers? No reasoning with the GoodWill who is selling a book for a penny that I can only sell at cost for three dollars.
I mean heck they are the GoodWill tryinig to bring affordable b ooks to the underprivliged and destitute.
Paul Hanrahan
here’s a better way to educate – buy the book and resell it. Maybe the person is having some sort of life problem and has got to get rid of the book or whatever, just buy it and make a profit.
That being said, there are some utterly outrageous prices on books – there will be most priced in the $10 range and 1 going for $300. No remarks on why it’s worth $300, but again, if I thought I could get $300 for a book, I’d definitely give it a shot….
I thought the letter was poorly written and not helpful. I agree with the people who said “That’s free enterprise,” “buy the book yourself and look at it as an opportunity.” If a book is OP with a strong, ongoing demand, what do you have to worry about? The low-balled book disappears and yours is there and waiting for the next buyer at the right price. We all know it’s a race to the bottom. We need to apply ourselves to finding a niche. Being a bookseller, if you love it, it’s the hardest way to make an easy living (besides professional gambling.)
To use a parallel example, I don’t believe in being a scab laborer and a slave, but it’s up to each individual to stand up for themselves and make better choices afforded by the law of free-will. I’m not a Libertarian per se. I’m just learning how to be strong, do what I feel is appropriate and let the chips fall where they may.
There’s just too many of ‘em.
With 2500 Bestsellers of a Title I can see it but with 3 or 12 of a Title no sense unless there are numerous reprints keeping prices low.
If a pricey book is lowballed -BUY IT!!
Wow that reminds me of what a doctor I used to work for said about other doctors who charged lower office visit fees. The theory was the insurances paid too low and paid a percent of “usual and customary fee in the region” so if all the doctors raised fees (doctors in different private practices) then the insurance companies would see an elevated “usual and customary” fee in that area and raise the reimbursement.
(The companies would pay a percentage such as 80% of the ‘usual and customary’. So if the UCR was $50 the doctor would charge $100, take the 80% of the $50 and write off the rest (or collect a co-pay from patient and write off the remainder). I said to the doctor, “The problem is you also charge $100 to the patient who has no insurance and expect full payment up front, and you wind up getting more from them than from those who have insurance.” He kept his policies the same.
I bet some who don’t like the undercutting price for a rare out of print book lest it lose its value would complain of the greed of those physicians. If they do, can you say “pot calling the kettle black”?
The offending listing was gone the next day.
Was it? Or was it sold?
Sue-
We are thinking of moving abroad and have lots of books.
Where are you heading?