The BookThinker Newsletter ISSN 1547-9501 132, 2 February 2009

BookThink Special Report
2 March 2009>>>

An announcement: Issue #6 of BookThink's Quarterly Market Report is now available for purchase. This issue lists and annotates in detail 100 books that typically sell for $30 and up online and includes only those books that surface with some regularity at sales and other viable venues for purchasing inventory. Also, the commentary portions of this report have been expanded to provide an even clearer explanation why these books have value and in some cases also point you to related books that have similar value. Purchase it here.

Reminder: The complete Gold Edition and 50/50 back issues package is still on sale for $99.99. Purchase it here.

Finally, have you noticed? Bookseller forum traffic has been down everywhere, probably for many and various reasons, most of which are likely related to one thing, the economy; but I'm telling you, THIS is the time for booksellers who still want to be booksellers after the downturn to come together and start discussing survival and/or new profit-making strategies. BookThink's forum, if you haven't visited it, can be a serious tool for bookselling - and for this issue specifically. There's a hoop or two to jump through to get registered, but to sidestep all that and make this a clean, one-step process, email Pam at Pamela@bookthink.com with a word or two that will at least give her some reason to believe that you are either a bookseller or somebody interested in books (and not spamming the masses), and she'll usher you in.

BookThink Special Report The Great Depression Why History Matters in Bookselling There's no question that a comprehensive knowledge of history is a great asset for a bookseller. There are many reasons why, but perhaps one of the more important (and obvious) ones is that it empowers your instincts when scouting, enabling you to snag books that have value because they address or are contemporaneous with important historical events, people, periods, etc. [Read the complete article here.]

BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books Issue #6 Issue #6 of BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books is now available for purchase. Purchase now.

BookThink Special Report
23 February 2009>>>

An announcement: BookThink's Quarterly Market Report will be delivered Sunday, February 22 starting at 10 pm EST. This issue lists and annotates in detail 100 books that typically sell for $30 and up online and includes only those books that surface with some regularity at sales and other viable venues for purchasing inventory. Also, the commentary portions of this report have been expanded to provide an even clearer explanation why these books have value and in some cases also point you to related books that have similar value.

As most of you know, we are presently eliminating the QMR subscriber base by attrition. If you still have a portion of your subscription and don't receive your issue by Monday morning, email me at editor@bookthink.com and I'll re-send it. For those of you who are not subscribers, issues can only be purchased individually. Go here to get it done.

BookThink Special Report The Top 100 Money Making Authors If you poke around online much, you've probably noticed that there's no shortage of "best" or "greatest" books lists - and no two alike, of course. These are fine (and fun) as far as they go, but their purpose really points to readers, not booksellers. What we, as booksellers, need to know is where the dang money is, and, though the money may be in some of these so-called "best" books, in many it's just not. In the past month or so I've been investigating just where the money is - compiling a list of 100 authors who consistently bring it home, and do it often. [Read the complete article here.]

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BookThink Special Report
16 February 2009>>>

BookThink Special Report Selling a Signed First Edition on eBay One Way to Do It Not surprisingly, I get lots of questions about how to identify first editions, how to authenticate signatures - and perhaps even more often, how to market collectible signed first editions. [Read the complete article here.]

BookThink Update
9 February 2009>>>

Update Announcements

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay January 2009 Life at the top isn't easy these days. Maybe it never was. By chance I noticed that 2 of BookThink's Top 5 antiquarian books sold by the familiar German seller in December were relisted in January. The buyers' names were private and there was no indication of non-paying buyers. In both cases, the January sales amounts topped those of the same item in December. One was $500 higher and the other increased by app. 50% over the December closing price to sell at $18,000. With 25 and 37 December bids, it seems that the seller opted for relisting rather than offering the items to the next highest bidder. Have you ever calculated the listing and final value fees on a $26,0000 eBay sale?

Buying and Selling Catalogs Part I: An Introduction and Primer on Department Store Catalogs Issue #56 There may be a more profitable bookselling niche than catalogs, but I can't think of one. Not only are catalogs everywhere, but also, for every conceivable collected item that has ever been manufactured and sold, there most likely was a catalog published that featured it - and often it was the catalog itself that got it sold. And catalogs, no matter when they were published, continue to get things sold in the sense that they function as a resource for collectors, providing prices, illustrations, descriptions, dates and other information that assist in the collecting game.

From the Editor

Selling on eBay How to Revive Your Business? Don't know about you, but my December sales were nothing to write home about - nor write about here. For the first time ever, my total sales for December were down from a previous year. Growth had not only stopped; it had declined as well. Even though it would've been easy to point my finger at a troubled economy, it wouldn't have helped matters. Something needed to be done to turn things around personally. I needed to increase my sales. [Read the complete article here.]

Previous BookThink Update >>>>>>> BookThink Special Report
16 February 2009>>>

BookThink Special Report An Overview of Historical Pricing Resources Three Resources at the Right Price Among booksellers, pricing is more often regarded as an art than a science. And yet never before in the history of bookselling have booksellers had such ready access to so much pricing data. Granted, most of this data pertains to books that haven't sold yet, but, increasingly, historical pricing data is becoming more and more available as well.

BookThink Update
19 January 2009>>>

Update Announcements

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay December 2008 December 2008 was a good month for relative novices on eBay. Four of the 18 sellers (2 sellers sold 2 books each) had feedback in the single digits. The fiction top 10 included 3 copies of Twilight and 2 books by Haruki Murakami. Classic science fiction was represented by 1st editions of Ray Bradbury's Dark Carnival published by Arkham House and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The non-fiction top 10 included 3 1st editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. Beyond that it was diverse - from a pre-revolutionary history of St. Petersburg, Russia and Barack Obama to Mark Twain and Daytona Cobra coupes.

QMR Book of the Week How To Survive & Thrive in the Coming Wave of Deflation In investment circles, there are forecasters who get it right sometimes and wrong other times - as we would expect. Occasionally, however, there are those who get it right a lot. Such a case could be made for investment advisor A. Gary Shilling. In 1999, Shilling published How to Survive & Thrive in the Coming Wave of Deflation. Essentially, it's a how-to on investing in anticipation of the onset of a deflationary cycle. Well, in 1999, almost nobody was talking about the possibility of deflation, and there weren't many buyers for this book. Today, few aren't talking about it. (And, for that matter, Shilling had been talking about for years previous to the publication of this book.) [Read the complete article here.]

How to Buy and Sell Photobooks Issues #32, #33 & #34 - I've made a lot of money on photobooks over the years, and I must tell you that this is one of the easier genres to make money in. Here's why: Close your eyes and toss a brick into a room full of photobooks, and chances are you'll hit something of value - and there's a pretty good chance you'll hit something of significant value. Reasons are several. [Read the complete article here.]