On Feb. 15, 2007
a customer, Patti L., wrote me to ask about
a book she had found. She was new to online
bookselling and on her first book-scouting
trip she found a book with a value she could
not believe. She asked me if the price she
found for it was real and what she should do
to sell the book.
She had purchased, "Margin of Safety" by
Seth A. Klarman
from the fund raising shelves of her local
public library, and her own research
had indicated a value of $1,323. I am sure
that like me, most online booksellers have
run across a book that was listed for a few
thousand dollars, either by mistake or
because there were few copies available and
some seller just wants to see if someone
will pay a ridiculous price for it. That is,
most of us have seen books listed for prices
like this that are not justified.
After my customer sent me the specifics of
the book she had found, I researched it for
her. I found the book listed by different
sellers all over the world for prices
ranging from $600 to $1,400 with an Amazon
Sales Rank of about 150,000. These two
things in combination with a lowest Amazon
selling price of about $1,200 told me she
had found quite a gem.
Now came the difficult part for me, advising
her about what she should ask for her copy.
It was difficult for me because I did not
want her to be upset if she felt she could
have gotten more than I suggested asking.
At the same time, I did not want to suggest
a price that was too high because it might
lead to her chasing prices down as others
become available and she might end up
getting much less when her copy did finally
sell.
Instead of suggesting what she should do, I
told her what I would do. I would price my
copy such that my copy was in the middle
price for all copies listed on Amazon with
the same condition as mine. I said that I
would check the price of this particular
book regularly to make sure my copy was
priced in the middle of similar condition
books and that I would sit on such a pricing
philosophy for a couple months before trying
something different.
She did exactly what I suggested and within
"13" days she got $1,395 for her copy of the
book. She was ecstatic and very grateful
for both my advice and for all she had
learned about identifying gems from my book.
In her words:
"I HAVE
YOU TO THANK FOR THIS GOOD FORTUNE!!"
The only negative aspect of this sale is
that because she is a new seller on
Amazon.com, they have suspended her account
for about 30 days while they verify that the
sale was not fraudulent. While I do think a
company with Amazon's resources should be
able to conduct their investigation in a lot
less than 30 days and turn her account back
on, I also understand Amazon wanting to
check out such a sale for a new account.
Fortunately, in this case the bookseller is
taking advantage of the situation and using
the time to find more inventory. She is
also spending some time on our "customer
only" message board, learning as much as she
can from other sellers.
I do not want anyone to think this is the
norm, but gems just like this are found
every day by online booksellers.
Personally, I have never sold a book and
made that much profit on a single sale, but
I have found many books for a dollar that
have sold for over $200.
Congratulations Patti, and you are very
welcome! I suspect this experience will
give you a lot of motivation to grow your
online bookselling business. While your
story is exceptional, I hear similar stories
almost every day about the gems that
customers of my book are finding for a
dollar or two and selling for a hundred to
two hundred dollars. It is personally very
satisfying to me when I hear these stories
and know that my book provided some
inspiration to my readers, which allowed
them to experience such sales. So, THANK
YOU PATTI for having the confidence to buy
my book and give online bookselling a try. I
hope you experience many such sales in the
future.
