Car Boot sales - why don't books sell?

WeAreGhosts

i took three sack loads of books to a car boot sale over the weekend and only sold about 30 of them. why don't they sell? i was asking 20p per paperback and doing deals if people bought multiples - charity shops sell them for £1 upwards, £2.50 in many cases!!

they are all really decent quality, mostly fiction and lots of teen fiction.

how else can i sell them [apart from ebay - hate selling on there]?

i used to work in a library and on sale days some dealers would fill bags full - why don't they go to car boot sales?

thepedestrian

Lot of Charity shops Ive been in ,sell books at 3 or even 4 for a pound - lots of people use Ebooks now as well on Ipads , Kindles , Kobos , generic tablets and even smart phones - Libraries will be a thing of the past soon:(

pinkshoes

What what sort of teen books?? Suitable for 12/13 year olds?

WeAreGhosts

thepedestrian wrote: »

Lot of Charity shops Ive been in ,sell books at 3 or even 4 for a pound(

goodness. that doesnt happen where i live

pinkshoes wrote: »

What what sort of teen books?? Suitable for 12/13 year olds?

maybe 9-13
but they are old 1990s Goosebumps, Point Horror, Mystery Club, Sweet Valley, Babysitters club etc. the horror ones are quite timeless, i suppose, even though they were written in the 90s
and actually they were the ones i sold the most of. the more recent stuff wasn't touched!

pinkshoes

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

maybe 9-13
but they are old 1990s Goosebumps, Point Horror, Mystery Club, Sweet Valley, Babysitters club etc. the horror ones are quite timeless, i suppose, even though they were written in the 90s
and actually they were the ones i sold the most of. the more recent stuff wasn't touched!

Ahhh shame, was looking for age 13+ for my tutor group to read for silent reading in tutor time as they are rubbish at bringing their books!

soolin

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

goodness. that doesnt happen where i live



maybe 9-13
but they are old 1990s Goosebumps, Point Horror, Mystery Club, Sweet Valley, Babysitters club etc. the horror ones are quite timeless, i suppose, even though they were written in the 90s
and actually they were the ones i sold the most of. the more recent stuff wasn't touched!

Several of my local charity shops have actually got notices up politely asking people to not donate books at this time as they have too many.

I used to deal in books, had stock running into thousands and used to buy at charity shops . As a dealer they charged me between 2-5p a book as they have always been overwhelmed. So although they might be selling one or two books at high mark ups, in reality the vast majority of the books donated to charity make as little as 2p per book.

bartelbe

I have volunteered in a charity shop. The thing to realise is the stock is heavily filtered, tatty books don't get near the shelves. Neither does anything that won't sell.

Frankly I have seen lots of 30p books at car boot sales, and they tend to be the same worn out mass market thillers, microwave cookbooks, and travel guides that are 10 years out of date. No price will shift those.

If you have decent stuff, it will shift at those prices. If it is tat, it will never go how ever low the price.

RFW

Media products also have a built in self destruct as far as reselling goes. The most popular books have been read by more people and therefore have more in circulation that no one wants to read as they've already read them. The rarer books with less availability no one has heard of so doesn't want.
There's a middle ground of some rare high editions and previously obscure books that suddenly become popular.

There's a new tv programme that has just started and is tied in to some books that are ten years old and fairly obscure. Some of those are going for £25-£50 second hand, when they were £5 books. They won't last long though, as new editions are being released over the next month.

ukjoel

I don't think people read as much.

These days they will spend time on a Ipad or if they are readers they will use a kindle or other ebook.

I listen to a lot of audio books in the car, read on my kindle, and download magazines.

Am going away for a week and a few years back took out 25 books to last me the week. This time its 1 kindle with 75 books on.

Bag weighs a lot less.

The only books I tend to buy now at boot sales are gardening, cookery, and anything obscure that catches my eye. And only if they are very cheap.

suse*

Depending how common they are it might be worth trying ziffit, amazon trade in or webuybooks. I just sold a few on ziffit and made 35 quid. It shows you the price so you can compare that to other similar sites. Some of them they only buy for pence but if you sell a certain amount they send someone to pick them up as well so no standing about for hours.

kalsha

pinkshoes wrote: »

Ahhh shame, was looking for age 13+ for my tutor group to read for silent reading in tutor time as they are rubbish at bringing their books!

Pinkshoes, what sort of books are you looking for? Any titles that you have in mind?