Drinking the Alibris Kool-aid

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djclausewitz	Drinking the Alibris Kool-aid	Lead	[-]
Posts: 25 (05/14/08 08:37:14) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None I am thinking about giving in to the Alibris urgings to use them as my bookselling portal to the internet. For many years I have run a very part time (5-10 hrs) a week using Alibris and all their other channels except Amazon - nothing else. I have been marginally profitable virtually the whole time despite many mistakes and foregone opportunities to stop doing everything "by hand" and start using technology. I recently retired from my day job and have moved to 20-25 hours a week and am uploading more books and making more sales. (recently 8000 books listed and a turn rate of about 25% a year as opposed to 6-7,000 books and 10-12% previously) However, I feel the need to add Amazon and improve the speed of my data entry/uploading. I know I would be paying more than by signing up directly for Amazon but I am not sure it would be much more than I would pay to one of the services like Booktrakker for coordinated record updating. I would also be giving up Abe, all the small sites, and my own store site but based on discussions on this board I don't feel I would be giving up much. Basically this would be a decision to (1) sign up for Amazon through Alibris and (2) start using the Alibris internet based uploading system (periodically backing up my inventory to a database program). Is there anyone out there who, based on their own experience or that of close associates, thinks this is a particularly good or bad move for me to take? Thanks for any feedback you are able to provide.
whiteunicorna		#1	[-]
Posts: 362 (05/14/08 14:29:40) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	First, BookTrakker is not a "service" in the usual sense. There is a one time charge for the program (although there may be, over time, charge for major updates) and that is it. At the present time, "pre - release) Grabit (a lookup program based on Amazon data) is available for free. If you were to use something like BookTrakker, you would have an automatic upload system (what BT calls OneClick) which would let you upload to many services like ABE, Alibris, Amazon, Biblio, etc. as easily as uploading to one of them. You might want to look at the July 16, 2007 entry at http://www.whiteunicornbooks.com/home/ramblingandotherstuff.html for a discussion of some of the inventory programs available. Next, I think it would be a mistake to take the route you mentioned. 'Twer me, I would make an investigation of the inventory programs available and make sure the ones I considered would upload to the sites I wanted to use including Amazon and had the equivelent of the OneClick upload feature. I would open my Amazon Pro Merchant account, then purchase one of inventory programs and upload to Amazon myself. Although you may want to give up ABE and/or Alibris and/or your own store and/or ... as not being cost effective, you could keep sites like Biblio, Biblion, Choose, ... as these are sites who charge only if you sell and it would take no more effort to upload to them in addition to Amazon (and you could also upload to ABE and/or Alibris for the same effort). BTW: If you do decide to try BookTrakker, I would appreciate your giving our affliate number, AC-678-YPv-148, if you are asked "how you heard about BookTrakker".
MSager46		#2	[-]
Posts: 426 (05/14/08 15:06:35) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	With 8000 books listed, you need to take a good long look at what you want from this business and how much time and effort you want to devote to it. I would certainly invest in a data base ( I also use Booktrakker) for ease of listing and for control of stock. If you go with Booktrakker, Andy can guide you on downloading your existing inventory into the data base. If you don't want to make the investment, at the very least you should be using the free program, Home Base, from ABE. Booktrakker is a one time fee (so far) and is more sophisticated than Home Base. Next, make a listing of the sites you are on and the fees required. If all it takes is a click of the mouse to upload directly to Amazon, do it. Amazon remains the best-selling site for most dealers. Then look at the commission only sites of Biblio, Choosebooks, B&N, Half.com. Then and only then consider Alibris and ABE, monthly-fee sites. If you have a web site (internet store) do not abandon it. Rather, work at promoting it. Read the boards at Alibris and ABE to see how. Your question brings out the fact that you do not have a business plan in place. No matter what, you should start to develop one, either formally or informally by making notes, setting goals. It helps you to stay on track and to set priorities, and in the case of more advanced plans, to obtain financing. I review my plan every 6 months in order to keep it current and to keep focused on goals.
DrZilboorg		#3	[-]
Posts: 98 (05/15/08 06:40:32) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Check out Art of Books as an alternative to Booktrakker, and form your own opinion. I use Homebase, and upload where I want to, cut and paste to Amazon as I list in real time. I'm working on a spread sheet converter for half.com and ecrater and it might be able to work with Amazon, too. That's just me, I'm small time, only 4000 books or so, and my way works for me right now. To be honest, I'm working on the spreadsheet mostly because I need a project at work to mess with between busy times.
MSager46	Home base/Amazon	#4	[-]
Posts: 429 (05/15/08 09:33:42) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	You can upload directly to Amazon from Home Base in UIEE format. I did for a number of years before Booktrakker.
DrZilboorg		#5	[-]
Posts: 99 (05/15/08 11:31:28) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Really, I didn't know that. Who changes the grading system, and moves BCE and no jacket from one field to the other?
djclausewitz	Thanks for all the feedback	#6	[-]
Posts: 26 (05/15/08 12:03:05) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Thanks to everyone. This is all helpful. Whiteunicorn - great website, informative and entertaining. I'll give you credit if I end up using Booktrakker. Dr Z - I'll also check out Art of Books. MSager- (Marilyn?) I believe it was you who expressed the goal of having 10,000 books on Alibris with a minimum price of $25.00 each. My goal is to have 10,000 books on Alibris by 7/30 (currently 8,200). However they will have an average price of around $10.00 and include large numbers of inexpensive paperbacks and my "clearance sale" hardbacks and trade paperbacks. Currently, perhaps 1,000 of my books are competitively priced at $25.00 or higher. Another 4,000 are perennial sellers, hardback or paperback, that are scarce enough or popular enough that their value has not been destroyed. The other 3,000 or so need to be sold cheap or donated and never purchased again. After 7/30 I plan to continue to upgrade the stock (my buying has continued to improve with experience and now that I have retired from my former day job I can hit the standing book sales right after the new books are usually set out.). The goal there is by the end of 2008 to be on a pace that projects as avg. sale price per book =12.00; turn rate in the mid 30s (percent per annum) My query here was intended to get advice on achieving my related but somewhat conflicting goal of how to achieve this with as little cost and effort as possible so I can keep this a part time enterprise with an optimal level of profitability within that limit. To do this I need to minimize administrative burden (e.g. I don't want to process my own credit cards); improve the efficiency of my uploading (hence the curiosity about the Alibris online system) and avoid all but essential customer contact (I fix problems promptly and enjoy positive feedback but don't need any more anxious (or worse yet paranoid) "where's my book, it's been a week?" emails or B&N lending library returns than absolutely necessary.) I recognize that I need to get on Amazon even if the customers thre are a bit more rowdy than the Alibris customers. I would still like to hear from anyone who is on Amazon via Alibris because they think it is a good idea. If there is no such person I suppose that tells me something. Also is there anyone out there who uses the Alibris online based upload system?
Joyful Alternative	Alibris portal	#7	[-]
Posts: 69 (05/16/08 04:55:16) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I use Alibris as a portal to Amazon, mainly because my bookselling work is episodic---when my main income work is slow---and I want things as easy as possible. This way I just fill orders first thing in the morning when I'm not quite awake and then proceed to my main business. Eventually, I want to expand to my own website and some of the other possibilities; eventually, I'd like to gradually retire from the other business and do mostly bookselling. However, I just bought a new house, with a new mortgage, so it's full steam ahead, at least for a while. One supposed bedroom in my new house is filled with boxes of books to list; two other rooms are shelves with my 2,600 listed books (down from 3,000 at my peak).
djclausewitz	Sounds just like me a few years ago	#8	[-]
Posts: 28 (05/16/08 06:04:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	At one particularly intense period for my former day job my inventory dropped from a then peak of 7,000 to 6,300. I have always had a big backlog of books to be listed - which is what I have started tackling now. In my case I have some new projects that I want to preserve some time for. So it appears you are using the Alibris to Amazon route for reasons very similar to my own intentions. Good luck with your future plans to migrate to more book selling and thanks for chiming in.
losninos	ecrater	#9	[-]
Posts: 335 (06/02/09 11:34:56) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Dr Z: Can you use a software program, e.g., HomeBase to upload to ecrater? I've been searching for an hour but can't find an answer. Thanks!
Joyful Alternative	Good question, losninos	#10	[-]
Posts: 120 (06/07/09 02:56:01) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Reading through this, before coming across my own 2008 comment (before I figured out that my no-ISBN books weren't getting to amazon), I wondered about ecrater, too. My husband gave up on eBay's constantly rising fees and changing rules and listed some stock on ecrater, and it actually does sell, and I've been wondering about books there.
whiteunicorna		#11	[-]
Posts: 489 (06/10/09 09:24:05) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	losninos wrote: Dr Z: Can you use a software program, e.g., HomeBase to upload to ecrater? I've been searching for an hour but can't find an answer. Thanks! Not Dr. Z but all I've been able to find for bulk uploads is the tab delimited file. I've tried several times but it keeps coming out wrong. I might go back to it one of these days. De DeWayne White http://www.alibris.com/stores/WhiteUnicornBooks A proud member of the IOBA - http://www.IOBA.org.

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