“What fun is there in clicking… compared to the pleasure of handling a fine copy of a rare book?”
Mick Sussman examines used-book selling in the internet age for the New York Times:
[T]he state of the art in used-book selling these days seems to be less about connoisseurship than about database management. With the help of software tools, so-called megalisters stock millions of books and sell tens of thousands a week through Amazon, AbeBooks and other online marketplaces.
But, it’s not all bad news for the small dealer:
“Though the rise of the megalisters has hurt many mom-and-pop operations, the toll has been less than catastrophic. A database maintained by Susan Siegel of Book Hunter Press lists 3,968 “open shops” — as brick-and-mortar outlets are known — across the United States today, down from 4,119 in 2002. A 4 percent drop over six years might not be something to cheer about, but it would seem downright enviable to record or video store owners.”
What are smaller used-book sellers doing to survive? Using their experience, sharing “alchemical trade wisdom” in online forums, focusing on books that are rare–if not exactly collectible–and combining labour-intensive hand-selling with the selective use of e-commerce:
After the great wave of creative destruction set off by e-commerce, the more adaptable breed of used-book seller seems to have survived… Chris Volk, a store owner and the vice president of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, says her colleagues are frustrated but undaunted by the megalisters. “In the long run,” she said, “people who know what they’re doing will win out.”
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