Used book business idea.

[Sig99]

Hi, just a passing idea I had- no idea of the full ins and outs, so please don't shoot me down!

Just wondered about buying/renting a place for free book donations from people that I can then resell.

I've been collecting some from gumtree etc and using Amazon and ziffit to sell, but wondered if having a set place people could drop them off would work?

Any insights on this/legalities?

Cheers

Sig

 

[DWS]

Hi, just a passing idea I had- no idea of the full ins and outs, so please don't shoot me down!

Just wondered about buying/renting a place for free book donations from people that I can then resell.

I've been collecting some from gumtree etc and using Amazon and ziffit to sell, but wondered if having a set place people could drop them off would work?

Any insights on this/legalities?

Cheers

Sig

Why do you think people would give books to you for free rather than giving to a charity shop where the charity can benefit from the sale.

 

[Mark T Jones]

It's a tough gig

First, as @DWS Says, getting donations of any quality, and then getting the right stuff to sell

You can sell paperback tat for £1.50 a pop

Classics maybe a bit more

Then you go into the field of non-fiction, which can become pretty specialist, needs a keen buyers eye and a good understanding of the niches

 

[zomex]

Hello,

Just out of interest are old books big business? I'm sure there are some books that are but what is the average value of a second hand book?

 

[Lisa Thomas]

Second hand books are so cheap. I'm not sure you would be able to make enough profit to cover any overheads.

 

[HFE Signs]

This is more of a hobby than a business, there just isn't enough money in it to make it worth while, although I do like the idea.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Why do you think people would give books to you for free rather than giving to a charity shop where the charity can benefit from the sale.

I know a number of charity shops near me won't accept books, or periodically won't anyway, as they have too many of them and people don't buy them.

Which could be good for the OP, as it gives somewhere for people to get rid of them. But also bad for the OP, if it proves there's no market for second hand books!

 

[Mark T Jones]

I know a number of charity shops near me won't accept books, or periodically won't anyway, as they have too many of them and people don't buy them.

Which could be good for the OP, as it gives somewhere for people to get rid of them. But also bad for the OP, if it proves there's no market for second hand books!

Popular fiction. You'll get them by the container full, but at £1.50 a pop - and slow moving - you'll struggle to pay the rent.

 

[Lisa Thomas]

People have free book stalls, libraries, kindles, and audio books nowadays. Sadly, it's a dying trade imo.

 

[Mister B]

I agree with pretty much all of the above, in that the days of second hand paperbacks are long gone.

However, if you find a niche that involves older, hardbacks that are more than likely non fiction, then there is money to be made. That being said though the effort involved to try and find these books is immense, and the amount that you would have to invest in storage would be too much. For these reasons alone I don't think it worthwhile.

 

[fisicx]

Collectable books and comics however is very lucrative.

 

[ethical PR]

Hi, just a passing idea I had- no idea of the full ins and outs, so please don't shoot me down!

Just wondered about buying/renting a place for free book donations from people that I can then resell.

I've been collecting some from gumtree etc and using Amazon and ziffit to sell, but wondered if having a set place people could drop them off would work?

Any insights on this/legalities?

Cheers

Sig

If I had books I wanted to donate I would give them to charity why would I give them to you to make a profit from ??

 

[Picture Bute]

I know a number of charity shops near me won't accept books, or periodically won't anyway, as they have too many of them and people don't buy them.

Which could be good for the OP, as it gives somewhere for people to get rid of them. But also bad for the OP, if it proves there's no market for second hand books!

^^ This. All of my local charity shops have days when you come in and 'take as many books as you want free' becuase people just don't buy them.

 

[Fagin2021]

There's something about books - any books, no matter how rubbish - that makes people (including me) reluctant to throw them in the bin or on the bonfire. It's one of those things you feel that civilised people just don't do.

Hence the plethora of cheap paperbacks handed in to charity shops and anywhere else that'll take them. The problem, as has been pointed out, is that no-one wants to buy them.

 

[Sig99]

Thanks for the responses. I've been making an ok profit from the free ones I've managed to pick up. Just thought it was worth asking. Cheers

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I know a number of charity shops near me won't accept books, or periodically won't anyway, as they have too many of them and people don't buy them.

One of the charities round here would take all you could give them, for sale on a very good Ebay shop. They done well pre and during the Covid lockdown but struggled to get any consistency. Decent Cookery books would sell like hot cakes (pun fully intended), but they inherited too much rubbish along the way.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I've been collecting some from gumtree etc and using Amazon and ziffit to sell, but wondered if having a set place people could drop them off would work?

Thanks for the responses. I've been making an ok profit from the free ones I've managed to pick up. Just thought it was worth asking. Cheers

Don't give up at the first hurdle....

The one reason some folk don't drop off at charity shops is because it's inconvenient, too far to drive etc., A single drop off point would have the same disadvantages.

Your advantage in sourcing from Gumtree gives you the chance to buy what you think can sell. If you get some you can't sell, donate them to charity!

 

[Mark T Jones]

I always advise people starting bricks and mortar businesses to start with a cashflow projection - it injects a big dose of reality into things.

You may find an angle, but you need to sell a lot of fiction just to pay the leccy bills

 

[NickGrogan]

Find an angle like this and you could be sorted.

Rental unit in Wigtown · ★4.92 · 1 bedroom · 2 beds · 1 bathroom

The Open Book - a bookshop holiday!

www.airbnb.co.uk

 

[DoolallyTap]

Presumably you have researched used book sellers like 'world of books, and 'awesome books' and others and looked at their accounts to see the volumes of sales, no pun intended.