Bargain Hunting for Books, and Being Confused About It

The New York Times over the holidays published a marvelously muddled piece about the book business titled “Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It.”

The point of the article was that the sale of used books over the web was the death knell for bookstores and for book publishers. As proof of this idea, the author, David Streitfeld, recounted his experience buying a used copy of a book called “Room for Doubt” through the web site ViaLibri.net. There he purchased the book for twenty five cents (the book sells new in paperback for $13.95) from a woman in California.

Streitfeld makes much of the availability of used books on the web for next to nothing. He even recounts finding copies of “Room for Doubt” being offered for as little as one cent! Books for a penny! Books for a quarter! It sounds almost too good to be true.

And of course it is. And maybe Streitfeld knew this was the case when he told us the title of the book he ordered.

The rub here is that Streitfeld gives exact figures for the new price of the book and the two astonishingly low used prices he finds on the web. But he glosses over how much he actually paid for the book, saying he “bought a copy for 25 cents from someone who called herself Heather Blue plus a few bucks for shipping.”

“Plus a few bucks for shipping” indeed. If Streitfeld really paid so little to get this book, why doesn’t he tell us what the bill really came to? Probably because if he did, he would be feeling sheepish about his whole article.

The standard internet charge for shipping a book these days is $3.99. This is for postal service book rate shipping; arrival in 5 to 14 business days. Some places charge $4.50 or $5.00 for this standard shipping. So Streitfeld almost certainly paid a minimum of $4.24 for his book, and he had to wait 5 to 14 business days for his purchase to arrive.

Paying $4.24 for this book is a decent bargain, but it certainly doesn’t rise to the level of the industry-changing phenomenon that Mr. Streitfeld claims. And talk about twisted economies--Streitfeld likely paid 16 times more in shipping charges than the supposed value of the item he purchased. To put this in perspective, let’s apply this ratio to the purchase of something that you might actually need to have delivered to your home. I’ve got a great deal for Streitfeld on a new refrigerator--$500, plus a few bucks—say $8,000--for delivery!

The seller’s side of this transaction is stranger yet. When contacted by Streitfeld, Heather Blue said she sold the book “because she had too many books and wanted to raise money to buy more.” But how can selling a book for 25 cents, when it will cost her at least $4.00 to get a similar book, be a smart move? Of course, she probably made an actual profit of about $1.25, since the post office charges $2.23, book rate, to ship most books. (And she would also have paid something for packing and shipping materials).

But going through all the work of posting a book on the web, accepting an offer, packing and shipping this book for a net of $1.25? It’s hard to see how this is a good use of anyone’s time or energy.

Why didn’t she gather this book together with others she wanted to sell and bring them to a local bookstore? At The Regulator she could have received $2.00 in store credit for her copy of “Room for Doubt,” and more (than selling on the web) for her other books as well. In just one short trip, she could have gotten a bunch of credit that she could spend in our store on used books, new books, remainders, cards, gift items, magazines, etc. Compare this to the effort of selling, packing and shipping her books one book at a time to folks like Mr. Streitfeld, with each transaction netting a smaller profit on each item.

What’s going on here? My guess is that both the buyer and seller in this transaction have fallen prey to the thrall of the internet. Many folks these days operate under the assumption—usually unspoken and almost always unexamined—that if you can do it on the net, most especially if you can do it peer to peer on the net, that’s the best way to do everything and anything. As this case shows, this is not always so, particularly when there’s a reasonably close-by local alternative.

There’s one more thing David Streitfeld should really feel sheepish about. That’s the carbon footprint/global warming impact of his method of buying books. Even without a carbon tax—which we should all hope gets put in place soon—the huge imbalance between the price of his book and the cost of shipping should have tipped him off that something wasn’t quite right with this way of buying things. Shipping a single book, with all its packaging, hundreds or thousands of miles is a global warming nightmare. Buying (and selling) locally is a greener way to go.

When we finally do get a carbon tax, some ways of doing business may no longer be viable. Selling small items one at a time over the net could well be one of these. Sell your amazon stock now?

Read Streitfeld’s original article at this link

Lied about any good books lately?

Nearly half of all men and one-third of women have lied about what they have read to try to impress friends or potential partners, a British survey suggests.

Men were most likely to do this to appear intellectual or romantic.

About four in 10 of the 1,500 people surveyed said they had lied about what they had read to impress friends or potential partners - 46% of men and 33% of women.

Among teenagers, the figure rose to 74%.

74%! The old saying was "never trust anyone over thirty." But when it comes to reading, "never trust anyone under 20" is closer to the mark.

All this lying must mean, in England at least, people still think that reading is important. After all, you don't lie about something you don't care about.

Well, its back to the final volume of "Remembrance of Things Past" for me. Only 20 pages to go before I'm finished. What an amazing novel! (As I'm sure you'll agree..).
Tom

A quote whose time has come (back)?

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."
--Austin Phelps, 1820-1890, a Congregational minister and educator from New England.

Subtitle this story the Subtitles You Regret.

Using the example of A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win by Shelby Steele, which was published by the Free Press late last year, the New York Times notes that "many an author has come to incorrect conclusions, but only a few have had the courage to make a prediction in a title that could be directly contradicted."

Steele told the Times, "My feeling is that I stand by every word of the analysis--what is between the covers of the book." He chose the subtitle, he said, when Obama was trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls.

The subtitle will change when the book appears in paperback.

The Regulator gets crafty (and foodie!) with our LOCAL CRAFTS AND FOODS WEEKENDS

Every weekend from November 22 until Christmas local craftspeople and artisan food makers will be exhibiting and selling their wares in our old cafe space downstairs. We're hoping we can support our local craft and food makers, while making it all the easier for our customers to Shop Local First! this holiday season. Of course we won't object if people want to buy a book along with their chocolate, cheese, pottery, or jewelry...

Here's the schedule of the folks that will be in the bookshop during these special weekends.

SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS
NOVEMBER 22-DECEMBER 21
NOON - 5:00 P.M.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22
-Dolly Mama Handmade Chocolates
-Jewelry by Hendey Designs
-Molloy Rogers, Bull City Fiber Loft (with spinning demonstration)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23
-Dolly Mama Handmade Chocolates
-Jewelry by Hendey Designs
-Kat Benz(basketry)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29
-Chapel Hill Creamery (cheese)
-Jewelry by Kate Loughlin
-Molloy Rogers, Bull City Fiber Loft (with spinning demonstration)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30
-George Danser (fused glass art sculptures, bowls, jewelry)
-Molloy Rogers, Bull City Fiber Loft (with spinning demonstration)
-Jewelry by Kate Loughlin

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6
-Chapel Hill Creamery
-Julie Olson, White Oak Pottery
-Karen Casey Fused Glass Designs
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7
-George Danser (fused glass art sculptures, bowls, jewelry)
-Julie Olson, White Oak Pottery
-Karen Casey Fused Glass Designs

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13
-Chapel Hill Creamery
-Locopops
-Ninth St. Bakery
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14
-Artisan Cupcakes
-Dolly Mama Handmade Chocolates
-George Danser (fused glass sculpture, bowls, jewelry)
-Ninth St. Bakery

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20
-Dolly Mama Handmade Chocolates
-Julie Olson, White Oak Pottery
-Cecilia Henaine de Davis, Beadazzled (beaded jewelry)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21
-Dolly Mama Handmade Chocolates
-Julie Olson, White Oak Pottery
-Cecilia Henaine de Davis, Beadazzled (beaded jewelry)

The Ten Percent Solution

We've sent this out in an email, and we started handing it out in the store on Saturday. After mulling it over for a couple of days, the stock market responded today with its biggest one day rise ever. Who know we had so much power?

Now is the time for all good men, women, children, dogs and cats to come to the aid of their local economy!

These are the times that try men's (women's, children's etc) souls. And pocketbooks.

But we say it is a time for change! Change--that will create 800 new jobs in Durham! Change--that will add more than $20 million a year in wages and contribute more than $60 million a year in total, positive economic impact for Durham County! Change--that will improve our whole community!

No, we're not mixing up business and fantasy, like those folks up on Wall Street have been doing. We're talking about a simple plan for a better local economy. We call it:

The Ten Percent Solution
If there was just a 10% shift from shopping at chain and on-line stores to shopping at locally owned, independent businesses, Durham would get those 800 new jobs and tens of millions of dollars in increased economic activity.*

Why?

Because a lot more of the money you spend at a locally owned business stays (and re-circulates) in the local community. Take The Regulator for example. All of our employees live here. Our back office is in the back of the store, not in New York or New Delhi. We buy almost all of our supplies locally. Most of the taxes we pay stay in Durham and North Carolina. We bank locally. And we don't send dividend checks or inflated CEO salaries off to another state, where they're likely to end up invested in risky "new financial instruments" (a.k.a. play money).

Now, more than ever, where you shop makes a difference. Strike a blow for independence! Support locally owned, independent businesses! You'll be supporting our local economy as well as our local culture and our whole sense of community.

Remember the Ten Percent Solution:
Keep Your Dough in Durham!
a not so modest proposal from The Regulator Bookshop

*(The figures quoted here come from a study done earlier this year for the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan by an economic consultant called Civic Economics. The results of that study have been adjusted to reflect Durham's lower population and average income. See http://news.bookweb.org/news/6306.html for more).

Supporting Local Business: Give a Listen!

Last spring I was interviewed by a smart young teenager named Martin Krzywy about the joys, thrills, trials and tribulations of running an independent bookstore. Martin aired the interview on the Youth Noise Network (broadcast on WXDU, 88.7). The interview is now available on the web at http://youthnoisenetwork.blogspot.com/. You can find it by scrolling down a little way on the site to “Supporting Local Business by Martin Krzywy.”
It doesn’t last long....

Tom Campbell