Using old technology to buy & sell used books
How nice would it be to spend all your time traveling around buying used books and then selling them again on Amazon? You’d get to keep your finger on the pulse of literature, knowing what’s selling and for how much. The lifestyle isn’t easy, as the profit margin on used books can be very slim.
I’ve sold some of my old books on Amazon Marketplace. I think most books only brought in a few extra bucks – not even close to being able to make a living.
There is one used book peddler out there who does make a living from doing exactly that, with a little help from technology. I came across this story first from the good people at Teleread and then read the entire article here:
I make a living buying and selling used books. I browse the racks of thrift stores and library book sales using an electronic bar-code scanner. I push the button, a red laser hops about, and an LCD screen lights up with the resale values. It feels like being God in his own tiny recreational casino; my judgments are sure and simple, and I always win because I have foreknowledge of all bad bets. The software I use tells me the going price, on Amazon Marketplace, of the title I just scanned, along with the all-important sales rank, so I know the book’s prospects immediately. I turn a profit every time.
The article mentions that he, Michael Savitz, spends 80 hours a week at his job. That’s a serious commitment to sell used books. I’m not sure how many people do what Savitz does, but I imagine not many spend 80 hours per week doing it.
Regardless of the number of hours, the technology he uses makes his job a whole lot easier, even eliminating the need to guess which books to buy and which to reject:
The scan happens fast and the prices are stored locally, in a database that I download onto the device from a third-party company. If, according to the settings I’ve plugged in, a book is sufficiently valuable, the program shows me a green “BUY” bar across the top. If it’s a dud, I see a red bar: “REJECT.”
If only the rest of life were that easy.
Selling used books is no get-rich-quick scheme though. As Michael Savitz shows, it takes patience, dedication, long hours and a little help from a PDA.
