Book scouting with a PDA and a Scanner have become the norm for most booksellers.  This means that anyone with a scanner is subscribing to some service which provides them with the data on the book prices.  All of these services are subscription based and charge a monthly fee.  There are many companies offering the scouting service so which one to get?  I have used a few of them and generally lean towards the least expensive service that seems to not have too many people complaining about their service.

Prices generally range from $9.95 a month for Scoutpal to $50 a month .  There are likely other services which are even more expensive.  There is not really a lot different between all the services – they get their pricing info from the same place – Amazon.  They all show you sales ranks and condition.  Some provide a downloadable database (which is great) of the price info so you do not need an internet connection.

My recommendation is go with Scoutpal – they have good service and the info they provide is the same as everyone elses.  Why would you pay more for something that is the same?  I was paying $30 a month for ASellerTool and they were great – early on I had a bunch of questions and they responded asap but eventually I realized I was just paying them an extra $20 a month for no reason. 

If you are new to online bookselling do not pre-pay for a whole year of a scouting service regardless of the discount.  You could end up with a service you do not want and be stuck to it.  It is not hard to switch services so shop around first but start at the lower price point and see if it fits your needs first.

Textbook Season Ending & Return Season Starting
There is almost never a case when I do not accept returns - most markets require you to accept them (see Amazon's A-Z policy). I keep my return policy simple. The only time I have not accepted a return is when a significant amount of time has passed between the purchase date and the return date or if the books condition is materially different from when I sold it (such as full of highlighting). Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the customer experience when I run a business from home and do not interact with the customers. Continue reading
Amazon Charge When Shipped (Amazon CWS)
What does CWS mean for us booksellers? Not much. You will not have your account credited until you ship a book. If you use The Art of Books or a similar inventory management system Amazon should be automatically updated when the book is shipped. There are a couple of downsides to Amazon's Charge When Shipped - you do not get to send your own confirmation email to the buyer and the buyer can still leave feedback on a canceled order. Continue reading
Is the Amazon Kindle bad for Online Booksellers
Sales of the Kindle are one thing but it remains to be seen if people are actually going to adapt to using it as their primary way to read - as we have seen with Amazon recenlty deleting Orwell titles there are several issues with the Kindle that will effect its popularity. Continue reading

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