Does making $100,000 a year selling....

10 years ago

used books seems at all likely?

Several months ago our local newspaper had a feature story on our Friends of the Library's "brick & mortar store", where they sell used donated books to raise library funds. Among the browsers' comments was one from a man who claimed to do just such thing. I got the impression he mostly sold through the internet.

My husband recently picked up three large books at garage sales for a dollar each, which he turned over to a local consignment shop, which sold them for $25 each, and he ended up getting 50% of the sales, but, so far, that's the best we've ever done.

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Comments (18)

maddielee
10 years ago
Gross or net? I can see how someone who works hard ( buying books, placing the ads, shipping etc) might gross $100,000.00 in a year.

Netting that much would be very hard.

ML
sheilajoyce_gw
10 years ago
I have bought many books at our very nicely stocked Friends of the Library store. While I have been in there, a fellow came in with a list on his smart phone and went through all the books of certain categories, bought what was a box of books, and left. He was very fast and friendly. He goes around to all the FOTL stores in the area and fills orders he gets online. The volunteer clerk told me what he does when I asked her as he seemed quite different from most shoppers there who take the time to browse. I bet he makes a lot. The cheapest books are 50 cents, but most are more. Paperbacks are 35 cents, and so are many children's books.

I don't know about $100,000, but I bet he makes a lot.
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socks
10 years ago
I volunteer in such a bookstore, and we have dealers come in from time to time and buy up a bunch of stuff to resell. They are just making educated guesses at what they think they can sell. In order to make or sell $100,000 a year, a person would have to move a lot of books.
sushipup1
10 years ago
I'm sure it must be online sales. I buy a lot of one-cent books, and pay $3.99 shipping/handling. Which doesn't cost that much.
Elmer J Fudd
10 years ago
For that $4 of revenue, let's say shipping and getting the book costs $2. That would leave $2 of profit.

$100K of profit would require 50.000 books per year, which means 137 books sold and shipped 7 days a week, every week of the year.

It's very unlikely an individual or couple could handle that kind of volume. A larger operation with employees would have greater expenses and would need even greater volume levels.

This isn't a get rich quick scheme by any means. Even operating at a fraction of this volume would be pretty hard and not very lucrative.
alisande
10 years ago
I sell books on eBay and Amazon, and I buy used books to read. Like Sushipup, I buy a lot of 1-cent books online. But I don't sell the ones that go that cheap, and I've often wondered why the sellers bother. I guess the explanation is that Amazon refunds the $3.99 shipping charge to the seller, and the average book (between 1 and 2 lbs.) costs $3.17 to mail. But you have to factor in the cost of shipping supplies, and the seller would have to sell an enormous volume of books to make a decent profit. Some do.

I would be suspicious of a statement like, "I make $100,000 a year selling books." For one thing, it sounds like empty bragging. For another, it would be foolish to create competition for yourself by attracting people into that line of work.
Holly_ON
10 years ago
Depends on the quality of the books. Big difference between rare/collector books and romance/chick lit books as far as resale value. I predict charity book sales will be losing their appeal as the years go on. I am a senior and have collected thousands of mostly current mystery/biography/animal digital books (literally) over the last few years paying very little. The vast majority were free. My bookcases are empty. I predict the trend continuing. Charities will be flooded with discarded books, storage costs will increase but the number of customers will actually decrease.
juellie1962
10 years ago
Amazon started out as someone selling used books from their garage......
Elmer J Fudd
10 years ago
I think that's a bit misleading. It was started to pursue internet commerce (which is a technology-related endeavor), in a garage (the ubiquitous beginning for all tech companies whether true or not) and among other things, sold books.

Such beginning has nothing in common with someone running a "mail order" business selling books or whatever from home using Ebay or Amazon.
heather_on
10 years ago
I see a couple more reasons that make me think that paper books are fast becoming a thing of the past. A lot of used paper books begin to smell musty which causes those of us with respiratory illnesses problems let alone the stale smell. Many libraries are now finding bed bugs in their books. Also many people are trying to reduce clutter and have houses that are clean and minimalist looking. Ereaders and tablets are very reasonable in price now. Many excellent books are free and there are many websites where you can get free books. My feeling is that digital books will soon take over.
ruthieg__tx
10 years ago
I don't know but you might find a real niche..I know a friend who specializes in a particular type of book and papers..

Snidley is forgetting that the buyer pays shipping...
Elmer J Fudd
10 years ago
Ruthie, when a book sells for a penny, or two dollars, and shipping is $3.99, I'd suggest to you it's the seller who pays shipping. The charge to the buyer is the biggest part of the seller's revenue with numbers like this. The seller keeps what isn't paid to third parties for "shipping" - what they can save, they keep.

But my first comment was - I don't know why anyone bothers, there's little money to be made selling inexpensive things.
alisande
10 years ago
I don't know why anyone bothers, there's little money to be made selling inexpensive things.

Wouldn't it all depend on the markup and the volume? With all the truly inexpensive stuff for sale in this world, it seems to me there must be people out there making money on it. Consider the dollar store....

Heather, I'm sure you're right, but I wish it weren't so. I have a Kindle, but still prefer to have a real book in my hands. I used to work in a university library, and witnessed the beginning of replacing textbooks with e-books. Those e-books were still ridiculously expensive, though.
Elmer J Fudd
10 years ago
I thought the conversation was about individuals and small businesses? Of course the amount of profits of any business depends on markups and volume, I just suggested that in the case where one sale was just a few bucks at a time, a business run by one person or a couple would struggle to have enough volume to earn enough to make it worthwhile.
heather_on
10 years ago
If I was starting up a business it wouldn't be in regular paper books unless I was to specialize in rare old ones. Just not worth the time and effort.
susanjf_gw
10 years ago
it really depends on the stock and what books they find to sell...recently some man on pbs antiques roadshow, brought in Charles Darwin fist edition, about 8 grand...his dw had found it (not nearly that much)
alisande
10 years ago
"The hunt" is fun! Because I don't have a smart phone (and because I don't always learn from my mistakes, apparently), I can expect both kinds of surprises--delight and disappointment--when I bring the books home and look up their values. Those that aren't worth enough for me to list (my minimum is $12) get donated to the library book sale.

I enjoy the process, and I think that's critical.
ruthieg__tx
10 years ago
Perhaps you are right Snidley...and just I don't understand what you are saying .....but anyone that sells, for instance, on ebay knows what the charges are going to be....and

The only way that seller is going to pay for shipping is if they include the cost of shipping in the original price of the item when the set the price... otherwise they don't stay in business very long...You can say, Free shipping in all your adds all day long but I guaran-damn-tee you, it ain't free...

Does making $100,000 a year selling....

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