questions for you ebcfm&a groupies

[RainDog]

:hi:

I have some books that I want to sell. These are collectible books, and looking around and comparing alibris with abe (as far as similar content) abe's listings are more like the things I have.

alibris puts you on ebay and amazon, as far as I understand.

however, if you have something different, I was thinking it would be better to make an "event" out of it and auction things on my own ebay acct.

does anyone here have experience selling out-of-print and rare books on abe vs. ebay.. vs alibris too, I suppose. I'm talking about books that would now have asking prices of $200. ea, and others that are in the thousands.

as an aside, one thing that just absolutely irks me is people who do not know how to list books concerning standard definitions of condition - ala AAAB. They're everywhere. I've seen ex-library books listed as very good... sorry, pet peeve. And other books listed as firsts that I know are not firsts.

ebay also would seem to be a better site to sell a group of things... like 1950s/60s 1st ed. fiction with dust jackets, or modern libraries with dustjackets for those who collect them, or the earlier ones in leather... (some people do...)

if you do have an ebay store, what's the best way to get out the word that you have some interesting things to auction?

[grasswire]

1. are these books that book collectors would buy?

Or are they books that people with special interests would buy, such as early photography, radio, or something like that?

Hard core collectors of niche books don't miss much on eBay, IMO. But I have no idea how fiction books are doing there.

[RainDog]

2. book collectors

and I have some moon day landing newspapers and sheet music... ephemera here and there... I put about 3 boxes of arc's in my basement for a garage sale, along with 50+ other boxes of books or all sorts.

I have some other things that I'm putting together... related to one subject or another, or type of book.

So you think ebay is decent, considering the posts I've read here? I'd rather pay as little as possible to put the items online, so if I could just go with ebay, that would be nice.

[pipoman]

3. Just my limited experience with books

tells me it takes excellent condition first editions of classic books to get into the hundreds of dollars and signed firsts of decent titles/dead authors to get into the thousands. I may be wrong. If you have many books which will actually result in prices from $200 thru the thousands I would suggest contacting a live auction house. There are several who have periodic consignment auctions for individual items and small collections. The good ones are picky and will not accept just anything. It has been my experience that a good live specialty auction will almost always result in higher net prices for desirable, in demand items than eBay and faster than online stores. I would be happy to check out some of my sources, and give you names if you would like to contact a live auction company. Just my $.02.

[RainDog]

4. yes, decent firsts, some expensive books

I know this field because I studied at a rare books school and have done conservation work.

ABE, as I said, seems like the venue that also sales these same things. Auctions are not what I'm looking for. I saw the most antiquarian bookseller on ABE, so maybe I'll give them another look.

[InvisibleTouch]

5. Rare/collectible print items you definitely want to auction on Ebay...

...not list in an Ebay store. Auctions get much higher visibility. And if you only have a few items, it's not worth subscribing to a store, IMO, unless you're going to have a fair amount of long-term slow-moving inventory. In which case you use your higher-visibility auctions to draw attention to the stuff in your store.

I sell a lot of very common cheap books, and the place to do that is half.com. No insertion fees, and you can leave them listed indifinitely; they only charge a small commission when the item actually sells. After a few months I group the leftovers in lots and sell them on Ebay, where often the shipping price is higher than the winning bid. But at least it gets them out of my way, making room for new inventory.

But for collectible items, you definitely want to go with an auction. If it's something really sought-after, consider adding a "bold" or "highlight" feature to your listing title, to draw even more attention.