The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) has a great article posted that reviews all of the listings services in detail. The best part of this article are the tables which are immensely helpful, especially in comparing the sites. This is a great resource for anyone starting to sell books online or looking to expand/constrict those sites where he or she lists books.
Books: Top 3 from each category in BookFinder’s annual report, 30 books
Date analyzed: 24 October 2005
Site used: http://used.addall.com
Other: Purpose of the test is only to gather where one could find the lowest price for each book in Good or better condition. Further condition characteristics, reliability, etc are not taken into consideration.
Percentage of queries that returned the cheapest book at:
Abebooks: 33%
Biblio: 27%
Alibris: 23%
ILAB: 10%
Powell’s: 7%
I love Biblio. I think it is a great listings service that provides the best all-around services, flexibility, and support in the industry. However, it seems sales are lagging way behind the growth in listings on the site. One thing that I have always wondered about is, why not add Biblio results to the main Addall new book metasearch? Of course, Biblio is primarily a resource for used and out-of-print titles, but I did some research and was surprised to see a large amount of New/Like new books listed. Why not arrange to have the listings adding like Alibris/Abebooks that show up on the main Addall search as New/Used? I’d love to see it.
