If you’re interested in starting to sell on Amazon, you’ll need some low-cost inventory to get you going. When I first started my Amazon FBA business, one of the places I found low-cost inventory was at the local library book sale. If you’re fast at scanning books (more on that in a minute), you can pick up some good bargains at these sales.
However, library book sales have their drawbacks, so I’m going to list the pros and cons of library book sales so you can decide whether or not they are right for you.
I also need to introduce one of the early competing characters you’ll face on your Amazon selling journey: the Library Book Sale Lifer. Hopefully I can show you why you should avoid becoming a Library Book Sale Lifer.
Let’s start with the good aspects of library book sales, starting with the most important thing when looking for your first inventory to sell on Amazon: price.
Book Sales Have Low-Cost Inventory
Library book sales are great for cheap inventory. Most sales price their books at $1 each, and if you can sell it for $12 or more on Amazon, you’ll profit several dollars per book. That gives you a return on investment of several hundred percent, which is exactly what you want if you’re just starting out.
Oftentimes, there will also be a room where you can fill a grocery bag with books, paying just $5 for the whole bag. That’s an even better deal, snagging you books for less than a dollar each.
Book Sales are Regularly Scheduled
Book sales are scheduled regularly throughout the year, typically once or twice a year, and usually on the weekends. You can find the dates and times at the library’s website, or you can use booksalefinder.com to browse upcoming book sales in any state you like. Since the sale dates are usually scheduled far in advance of the actual book sale, you’ll have plenty of advance notice to be ready to attend the sale itself.
Helping Libraries Is Good
When you visit and purchase from a library’s book sale, you’re directly supporting the library and its mission. Libraries are a local community resource, and usually offer programs that benefit the community directly, such as hosting a weekly story hour or summer reading program for kids. By purchasing books from a book sale, you’re supporting something good in the local community.
Books for Yourself
If you are a reader, this is one of the most obvious benefits of attending a library book sale. Even if you don’t find many books to sell on Amazon, you may come away with books worth reading yourself.
Also, at some book sales, there will be food or other homemade items available for sale. Since your purchase goes directly to supporting the library, why not buy some of these things while you’re there?
Now let’s take a look at the downsides of library book sales…
Book Sales are a Large Time Investment
Attending library book sales can be very time time-consuming. First, you have to drive to the sale itself. While it’s easy to drive to your local library, what if the sale is many miles away? You’ll be spending some time on the road just to reach the book sale location.
Also, since your goal is to buy as many books as possible, you’ll spend a lot of time listing individual books on Amazon once you get them home. The books you buy will be all different titles and conditions, so if you buy 30 or 40 books, it will take hours to list them all appropriately.
Book Sales are Infrequent
It takes time for libraries to accumulate donated books to sell, so they hold sales just once or twice per year. This means that a prime inventory sourcing location is infrequently available, so if for some reason you miss the sale, you will have to wait six months to a year to attend again.
Book Sales are Available to All
Another problem with library book sales is that they are open to the public. This means there will be lots of competing sellers trying to buy the same books that you are interested in. The website I mentioned before, booksalefinder.com, is accessible to anyone. That means any sale advertised on this website will most certainly be attended by your competition.
Speaking of your competition…
The Library Book Sale Lifer: A Study of Your Competition
If you attend at least a few library book sales, and especially if you attend them in the same geographic area, you’re going to notice the same people show up again and again. I call these people “Library Book Sale Lifers”.
The Library Book Sale Lifer is an interesting, although unfortunate, member of your competition. I titled this post “Library Book Sales: a Great Place to Start, a Terrible Place to Stay” specifically because of these people.
While I know sourcing inventory at library book sales is a great way to start your Amazon business, once you have achieved a little bit of success, you should be looking to move to more reliable inventory sources as soon as you can.
Unfortunately for the Library Book Sale Lifer, they either haven’t figured this out, or they are so attached to attending book sales that they don’t know they should be moving on.
How can you spot a Library Book Sale Lifer? Here’s what to look for:
- First, they will be scanning books at a furious rate. Their goal is to buy every good book available, so there won’t be any good books for you (or anyone else) to buy.
- They use ancient PDAs as their tool of choice, sometimes strapped to their arm in an armband, scanning through books looking like some kind of nerd soldier.
- They will not make eye contact or speak with anyone, because that decreases the speed at which they can scan books. They came to this book sale to dominate it, and being friendly or pleasant to anyone else is not part of their domination plan.
- They gather so many books they create a pile that blocks off part of the room, requiring library book sale staff (volunteers) to carry the stacks of books to another room for them.
- They will most definitely be at the next sale, whether or not it’s located a reasonable distance from their home. I’ve attended sales where people had driven from another state to attend it. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, it would have taken these people a minimum of two hours to drive to this sale, and possibly several more depending on exactly where they drove from. I doubt they made enough money to cover the cost of fuel to have made it worth their while, not to mention the minimum four hour round-trip time it would’ve taken them to drive there and back.
I Dominate All Book Sales
The most important thing to know about the Library Book Sale Lifer is that you don’t want to become one. Remember, a library book sale is a great place to start sourcing inventory, but it should be seen for what it is: an early steppingstone on your FBA journey.
Want to read about how my business has evolved since I stopped attending library book sales? See this post.
Do you have the tools necessary to sell on Amazon? Check my list here.