Old Skool Vs. New Skool Used Books Retailing
Used Books Retailing Technology has changed the way used books are being sold. Check out this NY Times article on the upheaval. Here’s an excerpt:
“The new strategy involves a selective embrace of e-commerce, focused mainly on a category of book that scarcely existed before the Internet — books you might call “rare but not collectible.” These are books sought after not as artifacts or for resale value, but for their content — often concerning subjects with appeal to fervent communities of interest. If you absolutely have to have Joseph C. Lisiewski’s “Kabbalistic Handbook for the Practicing Magician” right away, what else can you do but shell out the $149.50 for the cheapest of the three paperback copies available on Amazon? (The other two are priced at $349.19 and $349.89.) Before the Internet, a magic aficionado would almost certainly not have found that copy of the “Kabbalistic Handbook” in his local store, nor would the seller have known to set the book’s price so high.”
Used books players in the brick-and-mortar business need to pay heed of these changes and adjust their strategies. Maybe if they “can’t beat them, join them” or maybe they need to find a new model - maybe they can come together as one vertical market and start selling exclusively amongst themselves.
posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo
