The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site

With almost 150 reviews on this work the potential reader and user should have a pretty good idea if this book meets their needs or not. As far as new information on this publication is concerned, I would find it difficult to add much information which has not already been covered. I can share with you some thoughts and observations.First let me say that I like this book and I did find it useful. I have been buying and selling books for well over 40 years now. In the early days I only dealt with rare and collectable works. As the availability and easy of selling on-line developed and became available I branched out into "used books." The potential dealer should realize and note right from the start that selling rare and collectable books is a complete different game than selling used books. The former requires much specialized information and specialized skills. The later require common sense, a nose for business and a bit of pure luck. I need to strongly warn you right now that dealing with rare book collectors is a world unto its own. No single set of individuals I know of are as picky and neurotic as rare book collectors...be forewarned! One thing that both categories have in common though is that they both require a tremendous amount of very hard word to be successful. This is one of the few points in the work being reviewed here that may have failed just a bit in...it ain't as easy as it looks.I have been selling books on-line for about 10 years now and over the past seven years have turned to Amazon almost exclusively. I am what is considered a "hobby" seller and I never let my inventory go much over 500 books. I am extremely picky in what I sell and consider the occupation more of a game or hobby than I do as a money making venture. That is not to say that I do not make money and that is not to say that I do not like making money - actually I do pretty well for the size of my operation.Now that being said....Even though I do probably know my share of information concerning the selling of used books on-line, I never-the-less picked up some very good information and tips from reading this work. It caused me to do some re-evaluation in the way I was handling things and it supplied some very nice tips that has made my life easier. The author knows his subject and know it quite well.There is one thing to remember though when reading this work! No one single book or one single source can supply the potential seller with ALL the information needed. To be quite frank, once you start selling books on-line you will run across situations almost daily that you have never encountered before and you will find little to no information published to help you out. You have to learn this stuff as you go.There were a couple of what I would consider weak areas in this work...not horrible omission, but simply weak. The first of these was "how to find books to sell." The author is pretty vague here and not overly specific, and rightfully so, as this is one of the most difficult problems you will encounter. You just have to learn this stuff for yourself and much depends upon your geographical location. As an example, the author states that "yard sales" are not your best choice. I have found the opposite to be true. The author has not put enough emphasis on Estate Auctions. Both of these sources have been two of my major sources for books and I have been rather successful at it.The second area in which I felt the author was weak was in what sells and what does not sell, i.e. categories or genre of books. I found myself it total disagreement in this area. This is information you will simply have to ferret out for yourself as you go along.The book is well written and too the point. The author does not offer the reader "pie in the sky" and is quite pragmatic in his assessment of the business. All in all this is a useful and informative work. It is completely appropriate for the new seller and old sellers can learn much...or at least be given much food for thought.Selling books is fun if you make it fun and attempt to please your customers while still making a pretty good living from it. It is not for everyone - for sure, but for those that like this sort of thing, it is great. I will tell you that the more successful sellers are those that truly love books and take their trade to a level surpassing just treating books as "just another product." You have to love and believe in what you sell!Don BlankenshipThe Ozarks

Lots of very good information covering a wide verity of related subjects. If you are looking for a clear cut, step by step "how to" this is not your book. If you want the whole picture, all the nuts, bolts and options, it definitely is. That's not saying that I didn't like it. I do. I had just wanted a more focused approach to startup. Something like "Selling for Dummies". There is a lot of helpful information about the various market places, tools for inventory control and countless options. He gives advice on pricing that might work if you have a choice list of books to sell. He discusses price wars and time elements in detail. It's definitely worth buying if you want to set up an online book store. Had he added a linear set of how to proceed in steps, it would have been a "ten star" to me. The options could have been plugged in to the formula for a startup by the reader. By the time you deduct all of the expenses, from the actual book like, shipping and your "cyber landlord's" fees you better not be forced to unload stock for pennies. He goes into detail regarding packing, shipping, tracking, ratings, difficult customers returns, and the list goes on forever. There is a lot more to it than I had been thinking. To sum it up, it's a great book but the cover to cover information might discourage those not really motivated to make the commitment.

I knew I was going to like this book when after a short treatise on "Why Online Bookselling?" the author immediately launched into the nitty gritting of what every aspiring book seller wants to know: "Where to Find Books," beginning on page 13, followed by "What Books to Buy." One by one he not only lists his most successful sources for finding valuable books for resale, he goes into depth to explain how to extract the maximum benefit from each source.No minced words, no fluff, just hard-hitting facts that smacks you between the eyes with the realities of online bookselling. What a superb job Steve Weber does of explaining with crystal clarity the day-to-day operations of the business. The book is short; just 158 pages. But they're 158 information packed pages. I'm often disappointed with books of this length claiming to provide useful "how to" information about a subject. Typically, what you'll get is a string of superficial generalizations and unsubstantiated claims of supposedly successful transactions.However, Weber's book delivers the goods when he names hard-to-find sources of supply, guides the reader through real-life examples of the intricacies of inventory management, the nuances of dealing in collectable books, making your operation more efficient, saving on postage, and negotiating with wholesalers and distributors. Next he gives you his advice on giving outstanding customer service and how to establish a professional fulfillment system. He then wraps it all up with a few insightful comments about the future of bookselling.In short, this book is a concise, to-the-point, bullet-styled information warehouse about online bookselling. If you want to sell books over the internet, don't do it without reading this book first! You'll give yourself a much needed edge in today's competitive marketplace while avoiding many of the pitfalls associated with starting a new business.Joe Waynick, Author"Internet Bookselling Made Easy!" series[...]

Excellent service highly recommended

there is some good information in the book if you no absolutely nothing about bookselling online but it is full of outdated dead links and it is identical to the book "Online Bookselling: A Practical Guide With Detailed Explanations And Insightful" by Michael Mould. the two books are so close that it is obvious that one of them just completely copied the other. So buy one of them but not both.

I haven't read the book yet, however, the quality/condition of the book itself was excellent....from browsing through the pages briefly I'm excited and looking forward to reading this book; it seems very promising...can't wait to read!

I gave this book 4 stars...It is a good informative book on how to sell on-line used books selling business and while a lot of information is geared to the American Markets...the information it contains can be used in the UK and many parts of the EU.

This is my next book