The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site

`The Home-Based Bookstore’ is written by Steve Weber, who solicited this review from me and supplied me with a copy of his book. I expect this will not influence my review, but it is good for you to know this up front.

Before I opened this book, I posed some questions I thought the book should answer. These questions, with the author’s response follow:

1. What are the criteria for choosing Amazon.com, eBay, or one’s own site for selling a particular title?

The author clearly prefers Amazon over most other options, although he gives some good reasons for setting up your own web page.

2. How do you pick titles to sell? Some obvious examples, such as Stephen King hardcovers are really poor second hand sellers.

The author gives some very general suggestions on which titles to pick and which titles to avoid. I agree with him almost entirely, although I can think of some exceptions to most of his titles to avoid; however, that is based on special knowledge of certain fields such as cookbooks.

3. How do you acquire interesting titles cheaply? Whenever I browse a second hand bookstore, 99 out of 100 titles are pure junk. I have yet to find, for example, an important out of print cookbook at any used bookstore.

The author provides many good sources, including every one I could think of, plus one or two I did not think of.

4. How do you track your stock so you can quickly determine whether or not you have a title OR where you may be able to acquire a title for a book hunter.

The author gives many useful answers to this question, including some new technology options that really surprised me, based on accessing the Internet through your cell phone.

5. What is the best shipping option considering cost versus speed?

The author gives some very good analyses on the advantages and disadvantages of fast versus slow delivery options.

6. Is there any value to branching out to recordings?

The author never once discusses how to apply his suggestions to other merchandise, even though he does go so far as to consider expanding an Internet sales operation to a brick and mortar store.

One of the reasons the author does not deal with other goods is that marketing books through the Internet is so much richer a subject than I imagined, in spite of the fact that I am a major customer of these services. The amount of software written to support this enterprise is staggering.

In a nutshell, Mr. Weber has given us an excellent manual on how to do this very specialized, albeit very popular form of Internet marketing.

The first sure sign that Steve was not pulling the wool over our eyes was when he stated that while this activity can be really rewarding, it is still hard work. The plus side is that you get to keep all the rewards of this hard work.

Since running a bookstore was always one of my secret ambitions, I really appreciated almost everything Weber had to say about this adaptation of the corner bookstore. If I were to point out any one thing where the author was light on his recommendations, it would be with the fact that I think a person who really knows and loves books in the first place will do much better than the average entrepreneur. I suspect that one could get into real estate investing without a good knowledge of law, carpentry, or finance, but unlike houses, books are something which not everyone knows well. One test for an aspiring book merchandising operation would be to name the leading textbook authors in statistics, economics, symbolic logic, and organic chemistry. I cite these because Mr. Weber makes the excellent point that non-fiction books hold their value much better than fiction, especially current popular fiction. The author does not point this out, but a major exception to this rule should be manuals on computer software. No one has any use anymore for a text on Multiplan, dBase III, or Wordpro.

I especially liked Mr. Weber’s recommendation that the reader consider specializing in a particular field, such as cookbooks. This is an especially good suggestion as everyone must eat and so everyone needs someone to cook for him or her. It is also a good field as there is a rich bibliography of out of print cookbooks which most foodies would love to have access to, such as English writer Jane Grigson’s catalogue.

While Mr. Weber does not deal with any other type of goods, I suggest his suggestions would work almost as well for records, toys, or collectibles in general, as long as you know your subject.

I am very happy Mr. Weber provided his book to me for review as it is very unlikely I would have found it on my own, and it is an especially fertile plot of ideas, suggestions, and guidance regarding this enterprise. I am happy for him that he got his work into print when he did.

Rating: 5 / 5

As a fledgling bookseller I bought almost every book available on the subject and studied them all. The Home-Based Bookstore is the only book that I refer to again and again. It covered everything I wanted to know when I started selling and a few crucial things I wasn’t even aware of.

Steve Weber gives step by step instructions in building your business. I was astounded to find lists of remainder dealers, innovative ideas to find decent books, the contact information for the best place to get shipping supplies.

While obviously preferring Amazon, Steve gives information and advice about the requirements of eBay, Abebooks and many other venues for booksellers.

This is a must have for anyone even considering trying to sell books online. In the first few months it will be your bible.

Rating: 5 / 5

There are untold thousands of books on the market that promise the buyer a way to make money. Most just provide an outline, or some ideas that the author claims will produce guarenteed millions, buying distressed properties, government surplus, whatever. Some are by successful business owners, but don’t really get into the details of running a business. And some are out-and-out frauds.

This book, though, is almost unique among how-to business books. It’s written by a successful busienssman, and it’s a real, practical nuts-and-bolts guide to setting up an internet-based used book store. In fact, it’s so detailed you have to wonder why the author is going to such pains to help set up his own competition.

There are chapters on where to buy books, what books to sell and which to avoid, how to grade books, the best selling venues, how to describe books, how to set up an inventory system, how to deal with problems- if you can’t run a business using this book alone, you shouldn’t be running a business, period.

Now reading this book won’t guarentee you can make a successful go of an on-line used bookstore; you still need the kind of drive and perseverence that characterize all successful business owners. This isn’t something you can make a go of in a few hours a week; it requires dedication. And you need to be flexible; I suspect that this business model won’t be profitible forever, as the publishing market changes. But it’s a good model for more than just books. I could see applying the same model to other used goods.

If you are, in fact, the kind of person who has the drive and the devotion to make a business work, and you’re looking for a good business model to start with, you could do a lot worse than to get a copy of “The Home-Based Bokstore”. I strongly suspect that this book will spawn a lot of new Internet entrepenuers.
Rating: 5 / 5

The Home-Based Bookstore doesn’t claim to be complete and comprehensive, so it’s probably not fair to give it only four stars because it skimps on some useful information.

For example, Mr. Weber recommends giving the customer a tracking number but doesn’t make it clear how to get one. I’m sure this is idiotically simple to anyone familiar with postal transactions. That’s probably why Mr. Weber didn’t give a hand-holding description of the process.

I was clueless. I took my first shipment to the post office and asked for a tracking number. The clerk started pulling out forms for costly and complicated types of service and began to spout arcane postal jargon. I couldn’t cope with the information overload so I shipped my books without the all-important tracking number.

My next trip I learned that you have to get DELIVERY CONFIRMATION. Look for the small lime-green form. It has a bar code label (with tracking number) that you attach to your parcel.

I could have used some help with book terminology, i.e., the verbiage to put into the “comments” field of your Amazon listing. If you browse the listings, you see myriad descriptive terms. Is there a right or wrong way to list your book? The book does not address the topic.

The book is rife with listings for pricing and inventory software, online postage services, and the hand-held scanners you can use for automated scouting at book sales. It’s puzzling that the author would present these listings without commentary regarding which ones he found useful, or if he used them at all.

The author could have summarized how he was able to quit his job in three months and sell books full time. As others have noted, he generously shares precious inside knowledge, so this might not be a valid gripe. Without this book or one like it, the fledgling bookman would have a harder time getting started.

This manual outlines enough of the basics to get you started. I was able to sell a few books before I even finished reading The Home-Based Bookstore, the book that introduced me to selling books online. It popped up on my Amazon recommendations and I thought “Why not give it a shot?”

Within days of buying the book, the local Friends of the Library (FOL) had a “parking lot” sale. I headed for the sale with high anticipation of launching my bookselling empire.

The “sale” turned out to be a disturbing mob scene. The books are piled into several plastic shopping carts. Scanner-wielding book vendors paw through them frantically, pushing and shoving to gain the advantage. They are like vultures attacking a carcass. A few books spill out of the carts and are left on the ground. Within minutes, the vendors skulk off to their corners to guard their booty.

The Friends of the Library are selling books on Amazon. They have rightly already culled any books of real value. The books causing the frenzy apparently are the dregs the Friends don’t want to bother with. They are offered at the parking lot sale for 10 cents to 25 cents, however. If you’re not shy about mixing it up with other booksellers, you can make money at a sale like this. That’s what one of the vendors told me. All of the vendors were women at this sale, so the risk of a brawl breaking out might actually be low.

I can’t imagine myself joining a mob scene, so I all but gave up on getting inventory this way. I had plenty of extra books from my own collection, so I decided to use Amazon to clear some space on my bookshelf. Opening an account and setting up your listings is easy as pie. Within a few minutes you are in business.

I listed books from $3.29 up to $65.00 depending on the lowest price showing. The next day my prices were undercut by other vendors. I retaliated with price cuts of my own. They responded with further cuts, and so on. I eventually stopped cutting my price. The other vendors have (Cyberdyne) robotic software that cuts their prices automatically. The book I listed for $3.29 was later listed for a penny, the result of a regressive bidding war between the robots.

I figured $3.29 was my bookshelf-clearing price. If I can’t unload a book for $3.29, I’ll donate it to the library. Let someone buy it for a dime at the parking lot sale.

I typed the ISBN into the Amazon search screen to gauge the market for each book. When you come up with 1,356 copies starting at a penny, it’s safe to say the market is saturated. I ended up with three crates of these marginal books, destined to land on the pavement at the parking lot sale.

Why not sell my leftovers to a used bookstore? The first one I called said no thanks, “we are overwhelmed with inventory right now.” The second place I called didn’t really want to hear from me but said they might consider taking some books off my hands if they met their stringent requirements, etc. Who needs it? I took my crates to the library and got a nice thank you.

I sold seven books! Amazon’s shipping guidelines actually have pictures showing just how you should address your parcels. You can’t go wrong. By my second trip to the post office, I was a savvy shipper, even mastering the DELIVERY CONFIRMATION process.

I gave same day or next day service. My books were in good condition and reasonably priced. I wrapped my parcels meticulously. For my labors, I was rewarded with two 5.0 feedbacks from my customers. Bless their hearts!

I’m going to go on Amazon and find an outfit for a hockey goalie, complete with face mask and helmet. I’ll use it as battle gear for the next FOL sale. My bookselling competitors won’t know what hit ‘em.

Rating: 4 / 5

Selling stuff online has been a profitable way to make money for those who want that extra bit of cash to those who actually want to make it into a legitimate business. Steve Weber fits into the latter category, having made over $1 million selling books and having moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a house proper. A definite measure of success is the fact that his book, The Home-Based Bookstore, is published under his own imprint.

According to Weber, books are the most profitable commodity (as opposed to CDs or DVDs I imagine) to sell because of their relative inexpensiveness and their weight when it comes to shipping. And the Internet has made it possible for those who didn’t have substantial capital to start their own business from home. Why hassle with high rent, advertising in the Yellow Pages, hiring employees-some who may be unreliable or dishonest-and going through the headaches of payroll taxes? Those who took a Small Business Accounting course will know what I’m talking about. It of course wouldn’t hurt to take an intro business and accounting course so one can do one’s own bookkeeping with Microsoft Excel and organize the business as a small proprietorship, or better still, an S-Corp or something else with limited liability.

Buyer relations are important here, and he uses Amazon’s Marketplace as an example, fitting as it is user friendly, and what he humorously refers to as the “800 pound gorilla of online bookselling,” plus I’ve used it myself for buying and selling. Weber emphasizes the importance of feedback in maintaining an online business, and has some great ideas on economic and efficient shipping, such as online postage, not to mention the URL links one can use to send customers their delivery confirmation numbers. I’ve always wanted to figure that out-now I know! That leads to dissatisfied customers who claim to have not received their book, where delivery confirmation is proof that one sent it. Yet again, another effect of the Net is at work, where customers expect their book within the week instead of the four to six weeks via snail mail. Weber advises the seller not to take things personally, to use courtesy in email responses, and just move on, chalking things up to experience.

He lists certain categories as being profitable sellers, and those that don’t. The best ones are rare and esoteric titles, much of them nonfiction, given that there isn’t the ridiculous mass production of those titles as there is in fiction. And avoid introductory textbooks, as those undergo so many editions. Sure enough, when I needed some extra money, I found that the texts used in my upper division courses sold quickly.

As a regular peruser of Amazon, I was astounded to see the many mass market paperbacks that were selling at one cent. And hardback remainders on the bargain tables, i.e. publisher overstocks aren’t worth it due to their reduction of cost-I should know, as I work at Waldenbooks. And having gone to frequent second-hand bookstores to see what ends up being dead weight as well as the treasures one unexpectedly finds, I can see a lot of truth in what’s being written, as I was overjoyed when finding the out-of-print novel of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and a copy of Jimmy Carter’s first memoirs, Keeping Faith, at a cheaper price.

A list of wholesalers, online postage services, advanced automation services, is also included. Thus, Weber’s book is a very helpful guide for those wanting to start on their own. And a big thanks to Steve for sending me a copy of his book to review.

PS. Despite working retail for nearly nine years, I never found out what SKU meant. I do now thru this book-Stock keeping unit. Thanks!

Rating: 5 / 5