Home › Forums › Hello, Who Are You? › Craig from New Hampshire
- This topic has 7 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 5 months ago by Jay.
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
05/23/2020 at 12:02 pm #77708
Hello fellow Scavengers! My name is Craig and I’m from New Hampshire. I’ve been selling online for about 8 years and specialize in antiquarian/vintage books – the old, dusty kind you find in a basement or attic 🙂 There are 815 items in my store (it’s been very hard to source during this time). I love living in New England because of the history here…there are colonial homesteads and Victorian houses everywhere, each with the potential to be hiding away some real treasures. I’m a regular listener to the podcast and enjoy hearing about “what sells”…I’m so “niched-down” (selling only books and a bit of ephemera) and have been considering branching out to include other items (like old sports memorabilia). When at an estate sale, auction or antique store I’m exposed to so many different items, yet my focus is typically only on books…so much to learn! Thank you Jay and Ryanne for putting this community together…I look forward to learning lots from this group!
-
05/23/2020 at 5:59 pm #77716
Hi CraigNH, I grew up in NH, near Keene, and do occasionally get back that way. Good niche you have there, I used to do books and ran all around from NH to CT for stock. Do you deal with all older books?
-
05/23/2020 at 6:34 pm #77721
Welcome Craig. I was on a book kick for a while when we were doing our Amazon FBA experiment. Assuming you dont do book scanning but just sell antique books? How long does it take to sell those really old books?
-
05/24/2020 at 8:16 am #77729
Hi Scott – Keene’s a beautiful area! (Ironically, I wanted to go to “Eagle Books” in Keene yesterday, but they’re open by appointment only right now.) I do like this niche…there are some of us “regulars” who I know and see frequently at the sales, but not too many. Most book sellers here use scanners and aren’t looking for the antiquarian books. Yes, I deal exclusively with the older books. It sounds like our book scavenging experiences are similar…I haven’t ventured outside of New England yet, but certainly any opportunity from ME to CT is within reach.
-
05/24/2020 at 8:34 am #77730
Hi Jay – yup, I only sell the antique books…I don’t think there’s one book in my store right now with an ISBN/barcode. This niche is 100% “set it and forget it”…very long-tail. Some timeless classics like Walden and Alice in Wonderland can move quickly…for example, I listed a vintage copy of Peter Pan yesterday afternoon and it sold a few hours later. But many books are much more obscure and are waiting for that one particular buyer…for example I had an 1860’s book about the history of Haiti (obscure!) which took over a couple of years to sell, but when it did it went for a few hundred dollars so it was worth the wait. But it’s just as you talk about…creating a pipeline and things will sell consistently over time. When you were on your book kick, did you ever consider antique books?
-
05/24/2020 at 8:39 am #77731
When you were on your book kick, did you ever consider antique books?
The issue is just my knowledge. I see lots of old books at auctions, but I do know that just because something is old dest mean its valuable.
I will sometimes look up an old book and see it has a high price on Amazon or Abe books. Difficult to sell if its a real price that sells. I dont know how to tell if an old book has value or not.
We probably have about 300 books in our inventory. They sell VERY slowly. Probably one of our slowest sellers. We’re okay with being patient, but when book sales are this slow it make us less likely to keep buying them.
-
-
05/24/2020 at 10:04 am #77738
“The issue is just my knowledge.”
Yes, knowledge is key with this niche…but once you acquire it, it’s certainly to your advantage. As an example…I was once near the back of the line at a book sale (not where you want to be) and figured I had little shot at finding anything of much quality. However, the majority of book sellers in front of me were using scanners…lo and behold, all of them missed a 1st edition of an F. Scott Fitzgerald book called “Tales of the Jazz Age” that I bought for $1 and sold for $450. The book wasn’t on their radar since it didn’t have a barcode. Mind you, I’m not at all minimizing the book scanning side of the business…no doubt there have been valuable books that I’ve overlooked because I don’t use a scanner…I’m just illustrating a difference between knowledge-based scavenging and technology-based scavenging.
-
05/24/2020 at 10:15 am #77741
Agreed. Sounds like you have a real passion for older books. I think having that passion is also important. Not sure I have the passion to wait in line at book sales to find the gems.
-
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.