An Ace in the Hole, Part II

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Finally, be sure that your customers are getting educated along with yourself as you continue in the business. Being bargain hunters, as most of your customers will be, they may have to be enlightened to the importance of the services that you are providing. I had a first-time visitor to my shop last summer who arrived knowing exactly the book he was looking for. Armed with the title and the author, I was able to go directly to the fiction section and have the book in front of him within a minute. He was delighted to see the book, but much to my surprise balked at purchase when he discovered that the price was $5.

"Well there is just no way I can justify paying that much for a used book," he said. "I'm sure, I can find it at a yard sale for about 50¢."

All of my efforts to patiently and politely explain to him the amount of time and money that goes into seeking out, pricing, cataloging, and shelving each book fell on deaf ears. Out the door he went and back to its slot went my fairly common, but out-of-print novel. But not for long. Within a week my reluctant buyer was back, admitting he'd had no luck in his independent search. He decided that he was interested in buying my copy after all. Alas, it had already been sold, but I told my newly educated friend that I would be glad to put his name and the book on my want list. I assured him he would get a call the next time a copy shown up.

As luck would have it, that turned out to be within the next few days. I called the customer, he came in for the book and willingly parted with $5 he had felt was so exorbitant just days before.

With a new appreciation of the usedbook business, he is now a weekly visitor and regular buyer at my store. Sometimes he just comes in for coffee and a homemade doughnut and sometimes he leaves with a bag of books. But he is definitely hooked on the idea of visiting regularly and seeing what new treasures have showed up on my shelves.

As a matter of fact, he seems to stay a little longer each time and the frequency of his visits continues to increase. I think I may have even noticed that faraway look in his eye that tells me the legion of used booksellers may soon be gaining a new member.

I f you decide that starting your book business at home is the best route, you will have to begin by deciding what type of I selling you are going to do.

If you plan to build a customer list and sell mostly through the mail, you will probably find it a fairly easy route as far as your town or city officials are concerned. Even if you are in an area zoned as residential, you should be able to get an exception for a home business without much difficulty.

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