Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2002 Issue
The Means of Book Trading That Dares Not Speak Its Name: eBay
Dealer Y: “Other worries: the lack of professionalism common on eBay. The fear that the person you’re dealing with is not honorable or trustworthy, that they’re potentially scamming you. Also with eBay often you don’t get your material for awhile – you have to wait for that check to clear and for the item to be shipped. This takes away some of the ‘instant gratification’ that usually comes with auction purchases and can handicap a dealer whose customer is waiting for a book you’ve bought on eBay.”
Dealer Y: “I would never spend more than $5000 on eBay. There’s just too much of a sense of uncertainty about the people who trade on eBay to go above that amount.”
HOW EBAY HAS CHANGED THE BOOK TRADING LANDSCAPE
Librarian X: “I have a lot of admiration for eBay. It has freed up the marketplace. It allows people to buy and sell fast and at reasonable prices.”
Librarian X: “eBay is just another element in the great internet revolution. Big book search engines like abe or alibris are another. To me as a librarian another extraordinary way the internet has opened up the market, another thing that eBay has brought up of interest, is the ephemera market, the bits and pieces of history that would otherwise get lost, otherwise turn to ash. eBay aids the material in living its own life, makes sure it gets into the hands of people who want and will treasure it.”
Zubal: “I love eBay. I think it’s a wonderful place for buying and selling on the internet. It has tremendous potential as a marketplace. My business has done very well by eBay.”
Barlow: “I think that eBay has changed life for the players in the book trade. I think it’s the book scout who is being most hurt by eBay. He would traditionally serve as a middleman, as the person who scoured the flea markets and odd estate sales and brought the items of value to the book dealer. Book scouts are being phased out of the picture by eBay, as there’s no need for this middleman. And eBay bridges the problem of physical distance between the initial buyer and the ultimate seller.”
Barlow: “Also eBay has changed book pricing – dealers tend to think down, I think both up and down. With eBay this works two ways: sometimes on the one hand a book that you think should be available isn’t, and that will drive up the price. A dealer may not know that the thing [book] is rare, and on eBay they find out. On the other hand, This is because you can have a book that people think is rare and suddenly 10 or 15 copies appear. This is especially true with modern firsts and ephemera. People think they’re rare just because they don’t know they’re out there. It’s a matter of communication.
Barlow: “Dealers think that eBay has lowered book pricing because eBay can sometimes drive the prices down – all of a sudden, things you thought were scarce are or seem common. This kind of logic that depends on a dealer stating scarcity is no longer valid when you can go on eBay or Bookfinder and find prices realized for cheaper books than the dealers are quoting you. For cheaper books, eBay is a better source of prices than are most auction houses and American Book Prices Current, who don’t even deal in or list some of the fields reflected on eBay.”
