No increase in book and magazine listings

[leadhillsonline]

A few years ago I overheard in one of the bigger charity shops that the prices are set by the head office in London. So no matter where the shop is they have to charge London prices.

[Gothicina]

I don't think anybody expects charity shops to give stuff away, BUT, their items are donated, most of them don't have any staff wages to pay, & they pay reduced business rates, so their profit margins are high on everything that actually sells.

In this throw away society, aided & abbetted by the cry of declutter, & minimalism, from the TV, homestyle magazines & other media, most people seem to buy a book, read it, then dispose of it so the free supply to charity shops isn't likely to run out anytime soon.

Then it's down to the charity do they sell 10 x 50p books to make a fiver or 2 x £2.50? Considering the idea is supposed to be make as much money as possible, the second option doesn't make sense to me.

There are a lot of charity shops in this area, the busy ones, are the ones that don't go overboard on pricing, the others are like ghost towns.

I've seen reader copy ex library books priced at £2.00 in some of the large ones. I even saw a book with about 20 pages missing, & only a front cover for £1.50

Used to be if I looked at books ect in a charity shop, I never left empty handed, even if I bought something I didn't really want just to support the charity, (I still do for the reasonably priced ones).

Now the big ones are charging so much, I go in much less frequently, browse, & walk out again at least 95% of the time, I only buy from them if it's something I really want (more like a normal shop) so have they really gained?

[DevilsAdvocate]

I am currently posting about 35 items a day, but it *is* time consuming.. once I get through I will have added 2000 science fiction, fantasy, and horror first editions and about 5000 collectible comics... I hope I will be making at least a dent...
BY THE WAY OVERSEAS BUYERS.... for those who buy alot, I can ship by m-bag which is a closely guarded secret here in USA when I can ship ALOT of books very very cheaply - though it does take about 3 to 5 weeks to arrive UK - 2 to 4 weeks for Canada and probably 5 to 7 weeks for Australia - but if you buy a large quantity and have patience the price works out to like ONE DOLLAR A BOOK...

[cruellady]

I suspect m-bag might find some business on this side of the pond, Devils, although the Royal Mail do a printed paper rate (by boat and overland by camel), I don't think it works out less than a dollar per book.

As to the charity shops - I suspect all the image marketing and higher prices in the larger charity shops benefits the smaller, niche ones - we have a number of these, and I never leave them empty-handed :-)

Cru
x

[ukbargainbooks]

To help things along a bit, I've just listed over 24,000 auctions.

[klj]

To help things along a bit, I've just listed over 24,000 auctions.

Brilliant - hope you find a way to put a bit more info. on the book auctions soon. Any progress on the author column?

[Armstrongs]

Give me a couple of weeks folks an i'll add another 300 or so for charity.......all at sensible prices

Might list some job lots too, for collection

They've all been donated today.....and my car has been down on its axles

Yvonne x

[SalusLibrorum]

To be fair to the charity shops, the model that Oxfam is using is ensuring their survival in a very competitive environment. Yes they sell more expensive, but they're in prime positions (with the associated prime rents) and in well healed areas with customers used to paying a bit more for good stock. Oxfam are very picky about what goes in their shops, and expect good money for good quality books. So they are still in business and doing well, whilst another chain of bookshops for an equally large charity, which sold books cheap (RNIB) were losing money and closed all their shops down.

The thing is that they aren't looking at selling 10 books at 50p vs 2 at 2.50, they're looking at selling 10 books at 50p vs 5 books at 6.99 in the same length of time. The difference is rather larger than you might think, and the lower sales numbers are pulling in a lot more money for less storage volume (which is the other problem they have, that of limited floor space).

[DevilsAdvocate]

I too am posting as fast and furious as I can - LOTS OF SCIENCE-FICTION, HORROR, AND FANTASY FIRST EDITION HARDBACKS - ALSO COLLECTIBLE PAPERBACKS *VERY RARE SIGNED CHAPBOOKS* AND AUDIOBOOKS...
ABOUT 1/5 OF MY INVENTORY IS SIGNED AND IN NEAR MINT TO MINT CONDITION...
i HOPE TO MAKE A LITTLE DENT IN THE POSTINGS....

[DevilsAdvocate]

I AM hoping to find a market overseas in UK as alot of the UK hardbacks are usually later printings to the American first edition hardbacks... I hope to find some buyers to buy in large quantities and thus make the m-bag a cheap and profitable way to buy alot of my books, MY PRICES ARE SO low there should be LOTS of profit for bookdealers to buy and resell overseas if they can wait on the m-bag to arrive...
How can you beat like $1 a book or even far less for paperbacks... its all in the QUANTITY as just buying a book or two doesnt work as m-bags start at $20 and I can mail one or two books in a FIXED RATE GLOBAL PRIORITY MAILING ENVELOPE for $13 to UK - two books will fit as long as they are not the MASSIVE THICK FANTASY BOOKS... those I can only ship one per envelope...
anything else still is more expensive SINCE THE FRIGGIN POST OFFICES ABOLISHED OVERSEAS BOOKRATES... DARN THEM...