Book Links

Giving Back to Bookselling

Posted by hughlh

Bookselling has been good to me as a career. Right now, I am on hiatus from selling as I closed my open shop and am transitioning to a catalogue only shop (Around the end of first quarter 2008- let me know if you want to get on the catalogue list).

I have learned a ton from other booksellers, both in person and from their catalogue descriptions. That is why I started this blog (and the one before it) and why I have decided to make my archives available to the whole world on the internet.

Yes, that’s right. I will make archives of my past catalogue descriptions available on this site (they will be found here). I know that I am taking several risks here.

• People might steal my descriptions verbatim. Yep, it could happen, and probably will. But, I decided long ago to err on the side of generosity and assume everyone is good until proven otherwise. For the record, this site is copyright with all rights reserved. I want you to read it, link to it and tell your friends about it, but you may NOT copy any part of it and claim it is yours (yes, this even means on eBay).
• People will criticize my descriptions. Yep, that will happen too, and honestly, some of it will be warranted. My early descriptions are horrible and you may find a few “good condition for its age” scattered around. We learn and we progress, or we die. If a description is with no redeeming merit at all, I will not list it. Some have no use but to serve as a bad example.

Overall, I feel it is worthwhile; there are some descriptions there that took hours to write, the research behind some of them took weeks. Others I knocked out in about two minutes.

Because of image theft, I have decided to NOT put corresponding pictures with the descriptions.

This is a work in progress, and it involves a layout change and a site redesign. Because I am screening and posting each description one at a time, it is a labor that will take some time… probably months. In the end, however I hope to have a resource that will be of benefit to the community. You will be able to search the archives by keyword, so if you input “wormholes” into the search box, out will come a list of descriptions with that term in the description. Hopefully, a new generation of bookseller will learn to describe and use terms and elevate the Trade… Or maybe not.

We will see.

Book Conservation Links

Posted by hughlh

A quick post today, as I am  still trying to recover from my moving across the country last month, sell some books and post on about 6 blogs, but this one was too good to pass up.

The unstoppable Joyce Godsey over at the bullpen shared some very cool conservation links on her blog yesterday. There are instructions for encapsulation enclosures,  false spines, full blown recasing and more. Highly recomended you check them out.

(Tell her Hugh said hi while you are over there!)

As Seen On The Internet 9-20-07

Posted by hughlh

Fellow blogger and all around good guy Steve has a post on his blog from his wife, Christine who is an online bookseller. She sells new and remaindered books but is on track to gross $120,000 this year. The post has some great pictures of her workspace and shipping area ( I love seeing other peoples work space!). She blogged about her business before and promises to again. If you would, leave a comment or two over there so she knows we want more articles like this.

On my newest blog, Small Business Owner Insights, I talk about a free site to compare shipping options and print postage.

My favorite blogger Wendy at eMomsatHome has added a new blog to her portfolio about eBay selling for work at home Moms and Dads. It is authored by Megan Jordan of Velveteen Mind fame. I highly recommend you subscribe.

Over on The Politically Incorrect Entrepreneur, I am writing an ongoing series about how traditional businesses can use eBay… might be worth a look.

Also, a note of thanks to all of you who subscribe to book-links; as you can see from the little button on the right, we are hovering just under 100 subscribers. You can subscribe by email (just put your email address in that form and hit subscribe me and follow the directions) or by RSS. I would really like us to break 100 soon..

Book Hunter’s Holiday Sacramento Book Fair Report

Posted by hughlh

The awesome and exuberant Chris Lowenstein “did” her first fair over the wekend and she tells you all about it with two posts on her blog; First with a colorful metaphor and then with brilliant pictures of her very impressive booth.

Go over to her blog and say hi. It is hard to believe she has been at this less than a year. I remember her tenative questions on my old blog. It does me good to see I did not scare her off!

I tell you, if she does not burn herself out, we will hear big things from this lady.

Handy Tool Helps You Find Offline Auctions

Posted by hughlh

Buying at auctions has consistently been one of my better sources. There are several reasons for this, among them a big one is lack of competition. In a thrift store, say, you are competing against not only all the other dealers who stop by, but also the general public, the lady who puts the books out and who knows who else. At most traditional auctions, you might have 3-4 people who are interested in the same lot you are (at most), you usually can get a list of the items in advance so you can do your research in advance and you can schedule your buying time in advance and know the “good books” will not sell before you get there.

One problem with most traditional houses (barring the biggies like Swanns and Pacific Book Auctions) is finding out about them. Some of the better ones are almost in-house secrets.

Enter Auction Zip. Just enter your zip code, drill down through some parameters and you are set. You can even have them send you updates based on the criteria you select. Oh; and it is FREE (free is good).

Baltimore Antique Show - A Collector’s Report

Posted by hughlh

Jed Birmingham, a Burroughs collector of some note, gave a stirring write up on his blog of the Baltimore Antique Show. He mentioned several booksellers of note, including Between The Covers, Lux Mentis and Royal Books.

He goes into tremendous detail and waxes so nicely about Ian at Lux Mentis, you would swear he is being paid.
Thanks to Ian for pointing it out.

Root Out Bad Feedback on eBay

Posted by hughlh

If you are buying from (or selling to) someone on eBay with tons of feedback, there is no easy system in place to only see the negative feedback. If someone has 500 feedback but 10 negatives, I want to see what those negatives were. If they have trouble shipping in a timely manner, if they pack everything in a shopping bag, if they are going to ship me my book in a Count Chocula cereal box, I want to know about it.

That is why I use the feedback tool at Toolhaus. If you enter the seller ID of the eBayer in question, they will root out the bad feedback and put it all in one place, saving you from scrolling through pages and pages.

Basic HTML For eBay and Other Places

Posted by hughlh

If you sell on eBay, have your own website or just want to post in your favorite web forum, it helps to know some HTML.

Most of what I know about HTML, I learned by cutting and pasting. Here is a good list of cut and paste HTML tags.

If you want to write your own, here is a practice board where you can try your code.

If, however, you are too lazy or just can’t be bothered, you can always use this online HTML editor to write your own code.

How Much Does PayPal Cost?

Posted by hughlh

A while back I wrote about a very simple tool that would allow you to determine the cost of doing business on eBay. I thought at the time (and still do) that it is a neat tool; the problem comes up when I just need to figure out my PayPal fees.

To just determine your PayPal fees, there is this nifty tool. I like it especially because If I want you to receive $50, say, it is nice to know that I should send you $51.80 for you to net $50 after fees.

Book Terms, or Learning Proper Terminology

Posted by hughlh

It matters what you call things, especially at the higher levels. Your customers expect you to know the difference between a hinge and a joint, between unopened and uncut.

If you do not know, or you are not sure, now would be a good time to brush up on your terminology. Two good links are:

http://www.ioba.org/terms.html

http://www.abaa.org/cgi-bin/abaa/abaapages/glossary

The best all around book on the subject is Carter’s ABC for Book Collectors. Currently in it’s 8th edition, it is still the best in the business.

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