Is there an app on the iPhone that can take the place of your pda book scanner and book scouting software? Almost but not quite yet though it is clear the capability is there. So do not cancel your book scouting subscription and throw away your PDA yet. Hopefully the day will come soon when you can.

There are several apps for the iPhone that try to replicate a scanner by taking a photo or video of a barcode and transmit back price info. These scanning apps will often have trouble reading a barcode and the info they give back isn’t all the info booksellers need. Amazon has their own app that when you take a photo of an item it emails you back the info – this is a bit slow if you are at a library sale but okay if you are just out at one of your book buying haunts. SnapTell is another app that is pretty good and like the Amazon app it is free.

If you have an iPhone it is clear the capability is there to provide an application that will be able to integrate with the Amazon database and provide Amazon sales rank info, book conditions and price info. At the very least the app would enable you to download the database and be able to get the info you want from it the catch is going to be getting the isbn’s entered into the iPhone quickly.

The camera on the new iPhone has been improved and hopefully we are close to seeing the potential uses for booksellers come to fruition.

Friends of Library Sales are starting to peak now (with the exception of this weekend).  If going to book sales and elbowing people is your thing now is the time to map out your calendar – check out www.booksalefinder.com – to find your local sales. 

I don’t go to book sales much anymore but you can slowly build up your inventory by going to them.  The downside to Friend of Library sales is that they are overrun with other booksellers with their scanner many of whom work in teams.  I would often see people running into the sale and indiscriminately  scooping up armfuls of books  and putting them into bags then running to a blanket where there partner is and doing it again.  There would be no selection process – just a mad rush which would mean if you were not on of the first on line you find many books gone (and piled up on someones blanket).

I remember one sale where someone had hundreds of books piled up on a blanket after they had run like crazy through the sale – at the end of it they had hundreds of discards left laying on the grass in a pile after they had scanned them all.  Me – I would be happy to leave with 30 good books.

I hate having to get to the sales 90 minutes early to get a decent place online.  When you get in there is barely any space to move let alone put your books down.  God forbid if the place where the sale was used air conditioning too.  Also – many sales will cherry pick some titles out and put them online themselves.

This has turned into a big gripe on library sales but let me back up and restate that you can find books at them and often find some treasures at them that make it all worthwhile.  I found some rare physics texts that sold for hundreds of dollars at one sale.  These books were sitting there well after the intial mad rush but had been bypassed because they were old  (from the early sixties and pre-isbn)

Anyway – if Friend of Library sales are your thing then Good Luck and Good Hunting.

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.

Yes (and no).  If you are just starting out in selling books online hold off in buying some expensive package of a PDA with a scanner and a monthly subscription to a service like Scoutpal.  You may get all gung-ho about your new venture of selling books and go out and spend hundreds of dollars on an PDA set-up.  Slow down…. you will eventually want to get a scanner but before doing so make sure you have some of the basics of online bookselling down first.  Get a feel for the process of listing books you already have and dealing with the shipping side of the business before you invest larger sums into your business. 

 The short version of this post would be don’t make larger investments in your business until you are sure it is something you are going to commit to.

The majority of online booksellers will need to eventually get a scanner and a handheld especially if your main inventory sources are places talked about in the previous post.  There are several experienced guys at every sale I go to (always first in line) who do not use scanners and do not deal with the general stock at the sales.  They go straight to the antiquarian books and are very knowledgeable.  They work at brick and mortar stores that specialize in first editions and other niches.  Scanners are of no use to them and they always leave sales with plenty of books.  If you are going to specialize in a specific niche and really know your stuff then you can likely save the expense of a scanner (and the monthly subscription fees).

I have a Dell Axim with a scanner that I no longer use and I cancelled my subscription to my scouting service.  I no longer need them though I am still a full time online bookseller.  I just have different sources of inventory where I no longer need to go to library sales. 

I found having a scanner and scout service were invaluable for the time I used them.  They helped me make thousands of dollars by finding books I had no idea were valuable and they also saved me much money by helping me avoid books I thought were good.  If you are in the market for a PDA and a scanner shop around on eBay first before buying a package from one of the scout services – you will be able to save a bunch of money that way.  I will talk about some of the scout services in a future post.