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.

Where on-line booksellers get their inventory is on of their most closely guarded secrets.  If someone discloses where they get their books on a forum they are flamed by all the other booksellers – the comments with all their vitriol are hilarious.  The funny thing is all these booksellers get their books from the same places for the most part- such as library sales. 

If you do your homework you can find many sources of books that are not as widely used.  I am not going to disclose all my sources (I do that in my book which is linked over to the right under products I recommend) but here are some obvious places to find books to sell on-line:

• Library Sales – you and everyone else will be at these.  Go early, line up and run like you just been called down on the Price is Right.  You can find lots of stuff at these but to be honest I almost never go to library sales any more.  Too much hassle.
• Craigslist – put up an ad saying you buy books
• Goodwill, Salvation Army and all the thrift stores.
• Yard, Garage and Estate Sales
• Your friends, family and yourself.

None of the above are too big a secret but they can be a start for slowly growing you inventory.  The problem I have with all of them is there is too much uncertainty as to what type of books you will find.  I have stood in line for a few hours (with a hundred other people) at a library sale, paid my $10 -$15 bucks to get in only to find tons of paperbacks.  I guess using the above as my book sources is just too inefficient for me.

In future posts I will discuss some other options (some I have advertised on this site) and also talk about how to make the most of the above sources.

Abebooks – I don’t get them and now they do not get me as I have closed my seller account with them.  Their fees and commissions are nuts for the average seller of books.  Maybe they think they are Amazon or eBay and can get away with the higher fees.  After the monthly fees and the per sale commission coupled with low volume they were getting closed to 50% on every book sold. 

Abebooks doesn’t seem to care either.  Some sites try to get traffic and sales – I must get two emails a week from Alibris offering a 10% coupon on their site.   I guess the main problem with Abebooks is their monthly fee schedule relative to the little traffic they get (at least for me).

Biblio does right what Abe does wrong.  Biblio seems to understand that they do not have the sales volume to charge a high monthly fee and they provide options that are reasonable to list a few thousand books on their site.  I have about 2500 books listed on Biblio and maybe get three sales a month from them but that is fine as they do not charge for listing my books there but only take a commission if there is a sale.  Makes sense – they get my inventory and I get access to their market.

Abebooks charges you for access to their market which just isn’t worth it.  If anyone is having success selling on Abebooks I would love to hear about it but also are you making money on those sales after all the fees and commissions?

Another gloomy report in the NY Times again today.  Though traffic is up at Amazon sales are down.  Not good.  I have had good sales so far this month but am I missing sales?  Should I cut my prices to beat the competition.  On Ebay should I offer free shipping?  No – at least I am not – though on ebay I see a lot more free shipping.  I just had one of my biggest weekends  ever in terms of sales and am hesitant to cut my profits for more sales as even some of my very high sales rank books are moving.  If only the books with very low sales ranks (up to 100,000) were selling I would make changes.  Something to keep an eye on.  I hope your books sales are going well also.