Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2004 Issue
Searching the Old Book Sites:<br>Something Old, Something New
Choosebooks provides a convenient search.
Of course this doesn't answer the even bigger question: why would I know to look for old books in something called "zShops" What does the "z" in "zShops" stand for, anyway? Bookz, shortened to ''''z' You would almost think Amazon is trying to hide it. Sure, they only charge 5% or less for sales in zShops versus 15% for books listed through their regular search, but that wouldn't lead them to sort of hide zShops, would it? Certainly I can understand why Amazon would want to emphasize the listings which pay them the most. I could see them placing those books on the top of their list, in bold, in red, flashing lights, whatever. But, it seems to me that if you are going to offer something called "zShops" as a means to sell old books, people looking for old books should be able to figure it out. If they don't want people to buy this way, then Amazon shouldn't offer the service. Don't offer something but then make it hard to find and difficult to understand.
I also had several sites recommended to me that I had not reviewed before. These were not nearly as large as the major booksellers, but were worth a look. First off there was A1 Books. A1 is a bookseller that has been around the web for many years (since 1995 according to their site) but is now beginning to sell books on behalf of others. I've heard they have been doing some fairly aggressive promotion to online booksellers to encourage them to place their books on the A1 site. They offer dealers the option to list their books at no charge, and their 12% commission on books that are sold is 3% less than Amazon (4% more than Abebooks, but Abe also has a monthly listing fee).
Strictly from a consumer's point of view, the major problem I had with A1 is that I couldn't see any compelling reason to move from the more familiar sites. They say they have one million books in stock, which sounds like a lot, but not when compared with an Abebooks with a claimed 50 million titles. While they seem to have a reasonable site for specific, more recent books (or reprints), it is not yet a place to find older or rare books. I checked a couple of old titles. First, Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, not his most popular title (though it once was). I found a dozen copies, all recent reprints. I then tried Rudyard Kipling's With the Night Mail, a century old book with virtually no recent reprints. A1 had no copies to offer, though many first editions are available on the larger sites.
I was not fond of A1's "Advanced Search," as it allowed only searching by author, title, ISBN, and price. No searches were available of the description, by date, or by publisher. Those are search fields I regularly find helpful.
My conclusion was that A1 has to come up with a reason for people to use their site. "Me too" is not likely to cut it in a world of major powerhouses like Amazon, Abe, Barnes and Noble, and Alibris. A1 needs to come up with something different.
