Rare Book Monthly
Articles - November - 2003 Issue
The Price is Wrong -- How Much is that Book Really Worth?
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So, one more time, what is that book offered for prices between $20 and $200 worth? My answer is $20. Tops. Until someone is willing to spend even $20, it is worth no more. We are still at the final edge of an era when people were less aware of comparative prices. Perhaps the dealer will still be able to sell it for $100 in his shop to someone who hasn’t yet heard of places like Abebooks. There are still a quite a few of these people. Some buyers will continue to buy as they have all of their lives. My mother was loyal to her grocer until the bitter end (that being when a lack of sufficient customers forced him to close shop). The old model will continue to work for awhile, but it is in decline. The reality, I believe, is the dealer who will be most successful in the years ahead is the one who can find a way to sell that book for $20 and still make a nice profit.
I take no joy in these changes. Whether they are good or bad is irrelevant. They simply are. Some dealers will adjust. A few will lead. Others will be left behind. This is what always happens in a period of change. Some will be unhappy with people like me for even saying these things, but I don’t wish them, let alone make them happen. I’ve never been a bookseller, but I have been in other businesses and seen what happens in changing times. Those who evolve and change survive; those who don’t, don’t.
I do not know what the successful bookseller of the future will look like. I don’t know what practices will enable him or her to sell that book for $20 profitably. Will they succeed through volume like Wal-Mart? Will they became middlemen between buyers and sellers without ever owning the inventory? Will they succeed through lowered expenses, operating on the web out of their homes or industrial warehouses with no storefront? Will those who hold onto their storefronts through tougher times eventually become more successful when the number of such “hands-on” competitors decline? If I knew, I’d become a bookseller instead of writing articles like this. But I don’t know. What I do know is that the times they are a-changin’, so you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone.
