Inflated prices for old children’s books via the OP market

Inflated prices for old children’s books via the OP market
Posted Mon, 11/23/2009 - 14:17
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It turns out that our Teaching Resources Center has been holding back a select number of deaccessioned children’s books that they have checked availability and prices for on the OP market via the Internet, and have (what I believe) a mistaken belief that these books have some kind of commercial value. I asked for a sample and found that indeed, there are listings out there for some of these books that really are out of sight. (At least one title has a copy available going for $900+ .)

I would like to convince my colleagues that they are not sitting on a gold mine. Even if some of their ex-library copies are valuable, we are not allowed by our state to sell these materials directly.

But really, the main point I want to get across to them is that usually there are many other copies available at lower prices and that dealers offering high priced items are simply hoping for some sucker to come by and buy at the higher price because they are looking for something special. Ex-library copies have no business being at the high end unless there is simply nothing else available, and most of time this is not the case.

I would appreciate it those from the trade would be willing to weigh in on this situation.

Even those within our own ranks need educating about these matters at times!

Thanks,
Eleanor

Eleanor I. Cook
Assistant Director for Collections & Technical Services
Academic Library Services -- Joyner Library
East Carolina University
East Fifth Street
Greenville, NC 27858
252-328-2598
252-328-4834 fax
cooke@ecu.edu

All that glitters....

Wed, 11/25/2009 - 12:55 — Narda Tafuri

I have a couple of observations on this topic:
1. Just because you put something out there with a high price tag does not mean it is going to sell. I know this because my husband (Peter Tafuri) has almost 10K titles listed, some of them for hundreds of dollars, yet they can sit on the shelves for YEARS (or forever) before anyone wants to buy them.
2. It takes time, attention, and space to list and sell books. If your staff has time to sell books what part of their "regular" jobs are they sacrificing to do this? For my husband, this is his business and he spends literally hours every day doing it.
3. The price of out-of-print books have declined over time. Significantly. A book that may be worth a great deal today, may be worth very little a year (or even less) from now. Inventory will need to be reviewed and repriced regularly.

However, after saying all of this -- books can be sold and money made from donations (and possibly deaccessions). The way to do this would be if your library has an active Friends group that could take on the task. Since your state does not allow the Library to do this directly, this might be a good workaround.

There is a list on Friends of Libraries U.S.A. of groups that are doing this: http://www.folusa.org/resources/friends-selling-online.php

Thanks,
Narda Tafuri
Acquisitions & Continuing Resources Librarian
University of Scranton
Scranton, PA tafurin1@scranton.edu