10-11-2010, 11:16 PM
In my quest for gothics, I've been learning quite a lot about book sellers and their gothics. They're a peculiar bunch -- the sellers, not the gothics.
A few sellers don't even know what a gothic romance is (I didn't know either until just a few months ago, but then I'm not working in a book store either!). I get so frustrated with them when I give them an example name of one they must surely know, like Holt, Whitney, Coffman, etc., and a light goes on in the seller's mind and all of a sudden they think they were the only ones that wrote gothic romance.
I've had some sellers tell me -- when I show them a few sample covers of gothic romance, "Oh, when I get those, I just throw them in the recycling bin, because I used to carry them and tried to sell them and kept marking them all the way down to a quarter, and finally I'd have to throw them out because nobody wants them." Can you believe that? So I actually did find one gothic in one of the stores where a seller told me that, and she still charged me! I thought, didn't you just tell me that you throw these books out?
At the other end of the spectrum, you have those sellers that will not bend with their prices. What I do is, because I'm collecting them, I'll check out local bookstores and if they have a substantial collection of gothics, I'll ask if they would be willing to sell them at a bulk price if I took most of them. One lady said, in her own words: "Nope! $2.50 minimum!" I thought, lady, nobody is going to buy these old books for $2.50 each! Unless they're a more obsessive collector than I am, that is.
I called another seller on the phone to save me a trip. I'd been to his store already and because he had a huge overstock of books, he kept his vintage paperbacks on an upper floor of the building. This room was almost like an attic, full of other junk, so understand, unless a customer specifically asked for a older title, they would have no idea the room existed because it was not "part" of the store. There must have been thousands of vintage titles in that room, and I'm sure gothics were plentiful.
So I called this guy and after I made my proposal, he turned me down flat. Now, what in the world is he planning to do with all those books? If he is not willing to sell them to me at a reduced price, how is he going to sell them at the regular price if nobody knows about them? I know that it is his business, what he does with them, and I know that a seller wants to gain a profit on their books -- at the very least, get their money back (maybe they shouldn't pay so much for their gothics!)-- but really, you know as well as I do that most people are not going to pay a lot of money for an older book (many people are turned off by the smell, I personally love it).
So now, in conclusion, I'm convinced that in those stores where the sellers won't work with me, their gothics are going to remain unpurchased for a long, long time. They'll probably ultimately end up in the recycling bin.
I'm sorry to have gone on so long, but I've been away from the forum for a while, and I've had a lot of experiences in my quest for gothics.
By the way, do you have any idea why the guy with the hidden books would want to know where I was from and my name? Odd. . . odd. . . these sellers.
A few sellers don't even know what a gothic romance is (I didn't know either until just a few months ago, but then I'm not working in a book store either!). I get so frustrated with them when I give them an example name of one they must surely know, like Holt, Whitney, Coffman, etc., and a light goes on in the seller's mind and all of a sudden they think they were the only ones that wrote gothic romance.
I've had some sellers tell me -- when I show them a few sample covers of gothic romance, "Oh, when I get those, I just throw them in the recycling bin, because I used to carry them and tried to sell them and kept marking them all the way down to a quarter, and finally I'd have to throw them out because nobody wants them." Can you believe that? So I actually did find one gothic in one of the stores where a seller told me that, and she still charged me! I thought, didn't you just tell me that you throw these books out?
At the other end of the spectrum, you have those sellers that will not bend with their prices. What I do is, because I'm collecting them, I'll check out local bookstores and if they have a substantial collection of gothics, I'll ask if they would be willing to sell them at a bulk price if I took most of them. One lady said, in her own words: "Nope! $2.50 minimum!" I thought, lady, nobody is going to buy these old books for $2.50 each! Unless they're a more obsessive collector than I am, that is.
I called another seller on the phone to save me a trip. I'd been to his store already and because he had a huge overstock of books, he kept his vintage paperbacks on an upper floor of the building. This room was almost like an attic, full of other junk, so understand, unless a customer specifically asked for a older title, they would have no idea the room existed because it was not "part" of the store. There must have been thousands of vintage titles in that room, and I'm sure gothics were plentiful.
So I called this guy and after I made my proposal, he turned me down flat. Now, what in the world is he planning to do with all those books? If he is not willing to sell them to me at a reduced price, how is he going to sell them at the regular price if nobody knows about them? I know that it is his business, what he does with them, and I know that a seller wants to gain a profit on their books -- at the very least, get their money back (maybe they shouldn't pay so much for their gothics!)-- but really, you know as well as I do that most people are not going to pay a lot of money for an older book (many people are turned off by the smell, I personally love it).
So now, in conclusion, I'm convinced that in those stores where the sellers won't work with me, their gothics are going to remain unpurchased for a long, long time. They'll probably ultimately end up in the recycling bin.
I'm sorry to have gone on so long, but I've been away from the forum for a while, and I've had a lot of experiences in my quest for gothics.
By the way, do you have any idea why the guy with the hidden books would want to know where I was from and my name? Odd. . . odd. . . these sellers.
