Publishers Expand Retail Online Sales
In an attempt to take advantage of the online market, publisher’s are beginning to increase retail sales efforts on their own websites. (Link)
Need to look-up books at sales?
Every bookseller has, at some point or another, said to him or herself, “Man I wish I could look that up.” Third party services and technology have made doing so much easier, but what about the non-technie or when your battery isn’t cooperating? In these cases I suggest you find the MBS Wholesale Textbook Buying Guide. These guides are sent to MBS stores (university bookstores) at the end of each semester and serve as a guide to book buyback (that is to say, it really only works for academic books). It does give you a great idea as to which books are likely to be used next semester and which books are dogs. I find it most useful for actual textbook buying (not books used as college texts, but those pesky 9th edition $100 books). The wholesale guide will tell you which edition is the latest, allowing you to cash-in with huge margins in an otherwise difficult niche. The hard part is finding a copy of the guide. Most college bookstores will have a copy and after book buyback probably let you have it.
FEOC: Pricing- Harvard University Press
Books: Harvard University Press, 50 books, half front list, half back list, chosen at random
Data Analyzed: 18 October 2005
Site used: Addall.com
Other: Cheapest book = lowest price after shipping. Purpose of the test is not to evaluate customer service, quality, or reliability - SIMPLY PRICE!
Percentage of queries that returned the cheapest book at
Amazon marketplace: 24%
Half.com: 14%
Abebooks: 12%
Buy.com: 12%
Barnes and Noble*: 10%
Alibris: 8%
Overstock: 6%
Ecampus: 4%
Textbookx: 4%
Amazon: 2%
BAMM: 2%
Classbook: 2%
*- B&N price is the standard site price, not the price for club members.
