ACQNET: RE - Library book sales through E-Bay (2 responses)

Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 08:51:50 –0400
From: Joan Bueter (Barry U.) <jbueter_at_mail.barry.edu>
Subject: RE: Library book sales through E-Bay

You might also try ioffer, http://www.ioffer.com/
Half.com (which is now a subsidary of e-bay but not an auction
which means less monitoring)  http://half.ebay.com/index.jsp
American Book Exchange http://abebooks.com/
Or Barnes and Noble out of print.  This is better than Amazon
because the payments are handled by BN.COM
These are all very good sites for booksales.

Joan Bueter
Barry University Library
Miami Shores, FL
305-899-3767


Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 12:10:48 –0400
From: Helen P. Mack (Lehigh U.) <hpm0_at_lehigh.edu>
Subject: RE: Library book sales through E-Bay

I've been selling unwanted gift books on Amazon Marketplace and
half.com (a division of eBay) for over a year.  Because the process
is somewhat labor-intensive, I got into it with the stipulation that
earnings would go into the library materials budget, rather than
some general University fund.

I think at eBay you have to pay listing and commission charges up
front, while at Amazon and half.com, there are no listing charges
and the commission is deducted from your earnings.  And at eBay,
the listing period is only a week or so.  Amazon's listing period is 2
months, after which you can keep relisting your titles for another 2
months, then another 2 months ...  You can adjust your price and/or
the description at any time.  At half.com, your listings don't expire
at all and you can make the same adjustments whenever you like.

Of course, the databases are not identical, which is why I use more
than one site.  Even so, I do end up with books I can't sell if they
aren't listed in either place.  Apparently half.com used to add titles
upon request, but recently they said they don't do that anymore -- or
maybe mine didn't qualify because they were too old to have ISBNs.
I don't remember.

Some of the items which are not in either database I might send to
an OP bookseller we deal with.  She lists them on abebooks.com and
splits the proceeds with us.  Our earnings appear as a credit on the
next invoice she sends us.  It is a paltry amount, but at least the
books
go to people who want them, rather than to a landfill somewhere.

Overall, I would say that I have had great success.  I earned nearly
$2,200 during the last FY.  The set-up was difficult -- finding the
right person in the University administration to sign off on the idea
and someone else to provide a bank account # for the automatic
deposit of the earnings.  Our bookkeeper then transfers the money
from that bank account into our book budget.  I track earnings in a
special fund with no annual budgeted amount but with periodic
additions of earnings.

Of course there are always things for which there is no interest and
things for which there is an overabundance of supply, which means
that some books aren't worth selling (e.g. bestsellers).  This material
might get donated to a local charity booksale.

Good luck!

Helen Mack

=========================================
Original posting:

> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 14:24:36 -0400
> From: Marina Oliver (Texas Tech U.) <marina.oliver_at_ttu.edu>
> Subject: Library book sales via E-Bay
>
> Hello!
>
Ø Our department has been asked to develop a plan to sell our gift
Ø Books on E-bay. Have any others out there used E-bay or any other
Ø website to sell donated used books?  I’d be interested in hearing
Ø what kind of success you’ve had with that method of book sale.
>
> Thanks,
> Marina Oliver
> Head of Acquisitions
> Texas Tech Univ. Libraries
> V: 806.742.1435
> F: 806.742.8669




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