From The Editor by Craig Stark #133, 9 March 2009

I saw an article in my local paper the other day that reported on a recent phenomenon: People are looking back in time for ideas to cut expenses. An example in the article: Drop your broadband service and return to dial-up. Apparently many are doing this. NetZero reported a significant increase in revenue last year. Or drop your cable/satellite service and mount an antenna on your roof (and watch programs you can't get locally online). Or drop your XM/Sirius radio and go back, well, to radio itself and/or, additionally, dust off that turntable you've been storing for years and play some vinyl. If get out to sales much, records can be had for next to nothing, and many of us are rediscovering the authenticity and depth vinyl clearly excels at.

Anyway, I began to think about this approach in terms of bookselling, and today's feature article is the result. Also today, we have a guest writer who offers some cost-cutting ideas of his own that, if you're presently using Multi-D boxes, could cut your expenses significantly both in packaging materials and postage.

Finally, a few reminders:

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.

Issue #37 of BookThink's Gold Edition is also available for purchase. If you've ever wondered if those Christie's and Sotheby's auction catalogs are worth grabbing, you'll have a lot better idea after reading this issue. There's a list of over 400 titles to look for that should sell north of $50 and some suggestions for locating many more. Purchase it here.

The complete Gold Edition and 50/50 back issues package is still on sale for $99.99. Purchase it here. If you've purchased any issues previously that would be duplicated by purchasing the complete package, email me at editor@bookthink.com and we'll subtract the full amount you've spent from the package price.