Your Discards May Be Somebody's Treasure

One library's adventures with selling old books on eBay--and how you can get in on it, too

By Kathleen Baxter

THE ANOKA COUNTY Library in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul sold one discarded book for over $100 recently. We sold a discarded Oxford English Dictionary set for $400. We get phone calls regularly from around the country asking about our book sales. We're in the used book business.

The impetus began about five years ago, when I joined a listserv dedicated to my favorite author, Maud Hart Lovelace. (Anna Quindien once said, ``I reread only three authors: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Maud Hart Lovelace.'') There were only about 40 fans then; now there are more than 450. From the beginning, list members held virtual book sales. They would describe and give bibliographic information for their books; their prices were sometimes reasonable and sometimes surprisingly high.

Many books, it turned out, were ex-library copies. As the listserv grew, so did the number of book sales and the number of list members who started seeking out sales at libraries. A few book dealers joined the list. Listmembers also found it a good place to buy books, as many sellers kept their prices reasonable out of friendship for the other listren (as we called ourselves).

It became obvious that money was to be made on discarded library books. And that bothered me. Why should any private individual make money on our excess materials? I was also disturbed that librarians were unaware that some books they placed in local sales, as discards or from donations, were valuable on the secondary market. Lovelace's Carney's House Party has been out of print for over 40 years and is very hard to locate. A friend found a copy for 50¢ in a local library's bookstore. She sold it less than a month later for $650.

Determining value
It used to be very difficult to find out the market values of old books. Looking up titles in reference books is time-consuming and unwieldy, and most prices are out-of-date, as the surge in value of the Lovelace books has proven. I once brought a pile of books we thought valuable to a local used-book store, and the proprietor gave us a check for $75. Not much of an incentive.

And then came the Internet, notably eBay (www.ebay.com) and specialized book sites like Bibliofind (www.bibliofind.com) and BookFinder (www.bookfinder. com). (The latter searches a range of book sites, including Bibliofind.) eBay's the largest Internet auction site, with some three million items for sale, divided into categories. About one tenth of the items are books.

I brooded about eBay for months, and then I asked the director of our associate library at Columbia Heights if I could try to sell some Lenora Mattingly Weber novels (mostly from the 1950s) I knew the library was discarding. The four discards brought in over $130; eBay costs were $8. And the buyers were thrilled to pay a public library rather than an individual.

Now I wanted to sell some of our discards. Our director, Bev Flaherty, approved of the idea, as did our library board. The next hurdle was the Anoka County internal auditor, who ultimately agreed that it would be appropriate to pay for eBay charges on our corporate charge card. Our library system does not have a Friends group, which in many libraries is in charge of book sales.

For months, I had been pulling out books I thought would sell well. We set aside space on our web site, and Sherry Oaks, a skilled computer assistant, scanned in the covers. She wrote some fine descriptions and an excellent ``About Me'' eBay page describing our library. (Go to ``Find Members'' at eBay and search for ACLBOSS, our User ID. The acronym stands for Anoka County Library Books Online Sales Service.)

We began our sales in November 1999. Though we are proceeding slowly, we've already taken in several hundred dollars. We've even sold several books outside of the eBay system, avoiding fees altogether.

All of the materials we are selling were either donations or discards. Our materials selectors determine which books will be discarded. Whether they will sell on eBay is not a consideration!

The first steps
To follow our lead, browse eBay for at least a few days to become familiar with it. Look at the various book categories, or pick out a particular title that, you wish to sell. Type in your title in the homepage Find It box, which will reveal whether other copies are for sale. Then, click the Search Completed Items hyperlink below the Search box and find out how much your item has been worth to past buyers. It may be a lot more valuable than you had thought--or perhaps less. Sellers who insist on getting the "book" price (found in reference books for rare titles) may not do well on eBay.

Because not everyone includes the title and author in their 45-character item listing, click back and check off the "Search items and descriptions" option on the search page. This digs through all the words in the much-longer item descriptions and usually provides a much longer list.

Also, go to Bookfinder or Bibliofind and see if the title you are investigating is for sale. If so, what price are dealers asking? Bear in mind that those on ebay want a better deal.

Once you have a sense of price, get comfortable using the ebay system. Check the site map, which links to instructions for such things as adding an item and how to find out about a user's track record as buyer or seller.

Note where the items you want to sell would best fit. I've placed most of our books in the General category. Under Books, there are 12 subcategories, including General, and, within those sub-categories, even more sections. Yes, people browsing in subcategories might miss your book, but there are so many book auctions on eBay that your best hope is that buyers will search by author or title.

``Search Completed Items'' not only provides prices, it can lead to buyers. We had a donated copy of Peter Pan and Wendy by James Barrie. It was leatherbound, with moiré endpapers, a ribbon bookmark, and tissue protection over the color plates--by Mabel Lucie Atwell, currently a very popular illustrator. A completed copy-in worse condition, and in Spanish--had sold for $62. We emailed the second-highest bidder and told him about our copy. He offered us $100, which seemed fair, and promptly sent us a check. We paid no fees at all, as this transaction occurred outside of ebay. This is also great if you have multiple identical items, as we did with The Duchess Bakes a Cake, which doesn't circulate much but which is wildly popular with homeschooling parents.

You can check on our current sales by clicking on the "Search" feature, then going to "By Seller" and typing in ACLBoss. We published our user ID information in our staff newsletter so that everyone is aware. We also asked the staff to flag any discarded items that they felt might be worth selling.

Getting ready to sell
Before you go into business, you must register and create a user ID. This also allows you to create an ``About Me'' page to explain that you're a library.

You should have a photograph of your merchandise, as items without photos get weak bids. You will need a scanner or a digital carnera for the photo. Put it on a page on your library web site, then attach the URL for that web site to the item description on eBay, and that photo will open up automatically.

eBay fees are on a reasonable sliding scale--under five percent. You can check the fee schedule--a nonrefundable listing fee, plus a percentage of selling price--in the Help section of the Seller Guide. It only costs 25¢ to list an item that starts or has a reserve price of $10 or less.

If a title identical to yours is already for sale, hold off, or your sale will drive both prices down. See what the other item sells for.

Then, if the price seems low, you might want to wait and see if the market changes. It can change like crazy, because some people get caught up in the auction frenzy.

Set a minimum price. eBay asks for a price to start the bidding and gives sellers a reserve price option. A seller may ask for a $3 minimum bid but set a $25 reserve price--meaning it won't sell for less than that. The reserve price is kept secret from bidders until one meets the reserve price. We think it's simpler to start the bidding at our library's minimum price.

Describe your wares honestly. Mention flaws openly and completely. If not, a seller may claim you misrepresented your merchandise and return it, at expense and hassle for you. Sometimes condition is less of an issue than you think.

Make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. If the item title is misspelled, it won't come up correctly in a search. An item title can have only 45 characters. Choose those characters wisely. Words like WOW and LOOK do nothing. NR, on the other hand, means No Reserve. DJ means dust jacket and improves value. Author, title, illustrator--try to get them all on that line, or at least the last names.

Include information in the item listing about shipping charges. Most eBayers, including us, charge only postage. Some people won't bid without knowing shipping charges. Keep your shipping charges low. The phrase ``Buyer pays actual shipping charges'' is helpful. (We offer Priority Mail or Book Rate, plus insurance.) Include the price of a bubble bag in which to ship the item.

Most auctions last for seven days, although you can make that longer or shorter. Be prepared to answer e-mail questions from would-be buyers and to e-mail them photos if necessary. Sometimes people's net browsers cannot down load the photo attached to your item.

Make sure your item description does not include long lists of rules and warnings about the sales process. If you sound like you expect to deal only with thieves, you scare away honest buyers.

Take personal checks. Most of us are honest. Do you want to use a money order when you buy something? eBay's elaborate feedback system--with links to buyers' comments on the item listing--helps keep people honest. Some sellers say in their item description that they will not accept bids from anyone with bad feedback.

Ask the buyer to leave feedback for you. eBay places the number of your feedback remarks after your user ID. Our feedback has been uniformly positive: ``Good books for a great cause! Libraries rule!'' and ``Very professional & courteous'' are two examples.

Make sure that you are organized. Your private ``My eBay'' page tells you what you have for sale and what you have sold and who bought it. We find that selling only a few items at a time keeps the process from getting too confusing.

We are just starting our program, but we are excited about its potential. When other librarians discuss the eBay project with our staff, they are at first surprised, then quickly turn thoughtful as they wonder whether they could do it, too. Several now plan to try the eBay approach, which Friends groups can adopt as well. Why resist an idea that could make libraries money?

Kathleen Baxter (kathyb@anoka.lib.mn.us) is Acquisitions Librarian and Supervisor of Youth Services, Anoka County Library, Blaine, MN