Treat Your Business Like A Business And Get Serious About It!
Even if you’re doing this as a hobby my opinion is that you should treat it as a business. Make all your dealings in a business like way. Don’t get personally involved with anyone you are buying books from. That’s my advice. Take it or leave it as you wish. But here’s why I mention and suggest adopting this attitude: To really hit gold you have to act like a business person and market, market and market your services continually. What services? You’re ‘book buying services’. We already know there is a huge demand for used, OP and rare books on the Internet. Finding the best books to sell is a large part of the job of dealing in books.
Order business cards that say you pay cash for “used” books. Use the word “USED” in your materials, never use “OLD”. Also, if your volume really picks up and it make economic sense, use an “800″ number. Why?
Well if you operate in an area outside of your local calling area most people are not going to pick up the phone and call you if it’s a long distance number to them. It’s that simple. With an “800″ number you take the initial risk out of it for them.
You’re acting like a business person. You WANT people to call you. Before making the trip ask them what kinds of books they have. Ask them to pick up a couple of titles and tell you what they’ve got. Tell them you might be interested but you need to see them first. Make an appointment to see them and be sure to go on time.
Think about this for a minute. To most people, having those books in their houses is a burden. They take up room, they have to dust them. Now you come along and say you’ll give them cash for those dusty books! Not only are you paying cash but you’re also paying the 12.5 cents it costs to call you. You’re a prince of a guy or princess of a girl! Yes you are!
Why would they call you? For somebody who only considers those books to be taking up room in their house and has been wanting to donate them to the Salvation Army or something for a long time now but hasn’t because they weigh too much and they don’t want to hurt their back- you, my friend, are a Godsend!
Besides business cards you can also make up flyers and post them in the “Community Corner” bulletin board at the local Wegman’s or Top’s or whatever grocery chain is in every neighborhood.
You can get the list of homeowners in any neighborhood in your area by contacting a local list broker or by calling American Business Lists at 1-800-336-8349. Send your flyer to homeowners in a certain neighborhoods. Send out 1,000 at a time and watch the phone ring off the hook. Use a letter mailing service for larger mailings.
Visit your local public library and ask them if it’s OK to put your card next to their check out counters.
Put an ad in the classified section of your local family weekly newspaper like I mentioned earlier. You don’t have to use my ad- make one up. Usually these are pretty cheap places to advertise. The one in my area costs about $16 to reach 55,000 people. Forget about advertising in the big city dailies- they’ll cost you an arm and a leg and the response will be about the same as the weeklies. Try it once, though, maybe your area will be more responsive.
Anyway, I think you get the point. Promote yourself as someone who buys books and people will call you begging you to take those dusty old books off their hands. Heck, they should be paying you for the favor.
In most cases none of the books your purchase from the little old lady next door will be worth more than $30. And, after all you have expenses and you are in business- so you deserve- you more than deserve, you have to have- a healthy profit margin. You need a healthy profit margin to stay in business or you won’t be in business very long. Even if you’re only doing this as a part-time venture be sure to set a minimum margin on each sale so you can at least cover your expenses and make a profit, even if it’s small.
Once in a while you will buy a box of books with a gem in it. I mean, you didn’t know it at the time you bought the books. You never really get to examine the books you buy in any depth at the time you purchase them and setting values in a situation like that is tricky. But when you get home and start shorting them out, making notations of their condition, edition, etc… you get a surprise. Maybe a 1955 first edition, first issue of Ian Flemmings’ Moonraker, inscribed by the author, valued at $11,590 which you bought for .50 cents. So profits can come quickly, at times.
Remember, you are the one who is out there hustling every day for business, you’re the one who has to study and learn all there is to know about used books, you’re the one taking the business risks and incurring all the expenses, you’re the one who found a market for the book and made the sale happen. For that you deserve the rewards.
Here are a few additional “secrets” to buying used books that will guarantee even more profits.
This one my brother uses and has graciously allowed me to include it here:
Every day he looks in the classified section of your local newspaper. Look under the heading of “Merchandise” for sale or “Household Goods”, etc. Look at the listings. Most of the listings will be for used furniture, appliances, etc. Also, they will have a phone number listed to call about the items they have advertised. Call them. Say that you saw their ad and that you noticed they are selling household items. State that you are interested in buying used books and was wondering if they had any they would like to sell?
The reason this works is:
1) they were going to throw them out anyway and;
2) if they are in a ’selling’ mode, they either want to get rid of some junk in their house which you can help them do or they are trying to scrape enough money together for some reason (maybe a trip to Disney World or something) and they will be happy to let you have their used books for some extra cash. Just remember I’m not talking about taking advantage of anyone here. If you find a truly valuable book in their collection, pay a good and fair price for it.
Anyway, these are most of the ways that I know of to buy used books at dirt cheap prices. The important thing to remember is that if you bought right you will be able to sell right and make substantial profits.
© 2009, Work At Home Covert Opps!. All rights reserved.
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