Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my area...

[BrotherBenny]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

On one end of the spectrum our (Omaha) Half-Price Books has two shelves of Trek books, mostly from the 90s to current, and not much churn from what I can tell. But for all I know, they sell them and then purchase more of the same titles from people bringing in books to sell. But then again, they don't give very much money for books and I have noticed people just tell them, "Thanks, anyway" and taking their books back to the car...I think they thought that just because the books sell for half cover price that they'd get at least quarter cover price for selling them, but it's more like $0.25 per book when the store makes their take-it-or-leave-it offer.

My local HPB (Fort Worth) offered me $13.50 for about 80 books. I was one of those "Thanks anyway" people

 

[ares93]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

The sad thing is that around here, there isnt even a primary market. Not to mention a secondary. There are maybe, two stores, tops, in a 100-150km radius who sells ST and other sci fi books in english. And there are no translations to swedish either.

To tell the truth, its not very strange. People can't speak english for shit over here. Hell, the town i live in, people cant even speak swedish. Nonetheless, its still depressing.

My town: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25004140

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

To add to what SicOne said, we have very few used bookstores left in town. Besides Half Price Books, there is Pageturners on Dodge St, and I can only think of two others. Backshelf Books and Friendly Used Books. Those two are within one block of each other, on Maple St, and both are in the process of closing. One has everything 50% off, the other is 75% off, and is selling the light fixtures and everything else.

We used to have the Antiquarium, a HUGE used book store with two or three stories downtown, but the owner closed up shop and moved it a few hours away.

Then again, we also used to have Mary's, but she lost her lease and moved to a new location, then lost it again and last I heard, she hadn't found a new location. So this market pretty much sucks for used books now.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

There are maybe, two stores, tops, in a 100-150km radius who sells ST and other sci fi books in english.

But most book stores will still do special orders for you - or... you make use of facilities to assist you to get the things you want: ie. Amazon. Frustrating if you insist on browsing before reading, but Amazon even lets you do that (online).

 

[ares93]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

There are maybe, two stores, tops, in a 100-150km radius who sells ST and other sci fi books in english.

But most book stores will still do special orders for you - or... you make use of facilities to assist you to get the things you want: ie. Amazon. Frustrating if you insist on browsing before reading, but Amazon even lets you do that (online).

Seriously, Therin. If the local book store did special orders. Dont you think that i'd buy from them instead of ordering from amazon as you said? And I've checked not just the locals, but the others as well. And i do order most of my books from amazon. Even if i get robbed in the process. (book $7.99 shipping: $15-20...)

Thing is, there is no market for english books here in Sweden.

 

[Corran Horn]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

Our local Half Price Books still has a lot of Trek material. I usually pick up the paperback versions of books there and then donate the hardcover to our local library.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

Seriously, Therin. If the local book store did special orders. Dont you think that i'd buy from them instead of ordering from amazon as you said?

Well, you tell me. Why do Swedish stores refuse to order in books for customers? They choose not to provide a service? (Of course, they'd probably order via Amazon if there was no local distributor. That's what Borders do here: order from Amazon and absorb some of the airfreight postage to keep customers happy.)

Even if i get robbed in the process. (book $7.99 shipping: $15-20...)

But it's not robbery. You are paying for a service. You just happen to live somewhere that you need to pay for that service. As do I. (I pay double to triple US cover price for US books imported into Australia; been doing so since 1980.)

Thing is, there is no market for english books here in Sweden.

Sure, but I still don't understand Swedish stores refusing to assist with special orders. (I could walk into any large Australian book store and, so long as I provided an ISBN for the title I wanted, they would order in - or at least attempt to order - any book, even in a foreign language. A few times I'll be told there were not rights to import certain titles, but this should not be the case with Simon & Schuster books.

I used to know some Swedish fans in the 80s. They used to run small, regular ST conventions and even had a nearby sympathetic bookstore that would do small bulk orders of ST novels and comics for them.

Do you have other ST friends locally? Maybe you could do your own bulk orders direct from S&S? Have you considered fostering a friendship with a US fan who could post you each book as it comes out? Perhaps swap them for Swedish or other European material that they collect?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

One look at those shipping prices tells me that ebooks might be the way to go in Sweden. It's not as good as holding a real book (at least IMO), but it'll save a ton of money in the long run.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

One look at those shipping prices tells me that ebooks might be the way to go in Sweden. It's not as good as holding a real book (at least IMO), but it'll save a ton of money in the long run.

"real book"?

 

[TheAlmanac]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

Winnipeg has plenty of secondhand bookstores, and all of them have at least a small selection of Star Trek titles in stock, so I guess I'm pretty lucky--and one store downtown recently added to their (already healthy) collection with a whole lot of books in virtually-new condition.

Someone clearly unloaded their own collection all at once, but I'm not complaining. I plan to pick up some older titles there soon...with this addition, they have just about every paperback novel Pocket's put out, from the beginning.

 

[Angstromdweller]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

There are maybe, two stores, tops, in a 100-150km radius who sells ST and other sci fi books in english.

But most book stores will still do special orders for you - or... you make use of facilities to assist you to get the things you want: ie. Amazon. Frustrating if you insist on browsing before reading, but Amazon even lets you do that (online).

Seriously, Therin. If the local book store did special orders. Dont you think that i'd buy from them instead of ordering from amazon as you said? And I've checked not just the locals, but the others as well. And i do order most of my books from amazon. Even if i get robbed in the process. (book $7.99 shipping: $15-20...)

Thing is, there is no market for english books here in Sweden.

The shipping cost isn't that bad if you buy several things at once. But if you want a single book or two at reasonable cost, I've found that Bokus is quite good.

 

[ares93]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

The shipping cost isn't that bad if you buy several things at once. But if you want a single book or two at reasonable cost, I've found that Bokus is quite good.

You're kidding, right? Since when do they do special orders? Dunno where you live, but here they wont.
The only good alternative is SFbok.se, but they have only some books in at the time.

Well, you tell me. Why do Swedish stores refuse to order in books for customers? They choose not to provide a service? (Of course, they'd probably order via Amazon if there was no local distributor. That's what Borders do here: order from Amazon and absorb some of the airfreight postage to keep customers happy.)

Listen, i have no intention of starting to psychoanalyze the swedish bookstores. They simply don't. I have no idea why. That's the way it is and i have to live with it.

But it's not robbery. You are paying for a service. You just happen to live somewhere that you need to pay for that service. As do I. (I pay double to triple US cover price for US books imported into Australia; been doing so since 1980.)

I'm very much aware of that. Now, my english might be flawed, but i believe it was obvious that i was ironic. It isnt robbery per se, but it feels like robbery. Opposed to buying pocket books (non trek) here in Sweden which ends up on roughly 80-85 SEK (8 euros) with shipping.

Sure, but I still don't understand Swedish stores refusing to assist with special orders. (I could walk into any large Australian book store and, so long as I provided an ISBN for the title I wanted, they would order in - or at least attempt to order - any book, even in a foreign language. A few times I'll be told there were not rights to import certain titles, but this should not be the case with Simon & Schuster books.

They don't refuse. They politely say that they don't take special orders. Last store said that their reason was that the price goes up with a special order and that damages their image as a "cheap" bookstore. Stupid, but thats pretty much what the seller told me yesterday.

I used to know some Swedish fans in the 80s. They used to run small, regular ST conventions and even had a nearby sympathetic bookstore that would do small bulk orders of ST novels and comics for them.

Yes, those pretty much died out in the 90's. As a said before, Trek isn't so big over here.

Do you have other ST friends locally? Maybe you could do your own bulk orders direct from S&S? Have you considered fostering a friendship with a US fan who could post you each book as it comes out? Perhaps swap them for Swedish or other European material that they collect?

I'm investigating the possibility of contacting a few friends in the states for ST books and such. Don't think it'll be a problem but that wasn't the point. I can get a hold of the books one way or another, but its just annoyingly hard. I just wanted to point out that a bad secondary market isn't the worst thing in the world when you look at the big picture.

 

[Angstromdweller]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

The shipping cost isn't that bad if you buy several things at once. But if you want a single book or two at reasonable cost, I've found that Bokus is quite good.

You're kidding, right? Since when do they do special orders? Dunno where you live, but here they wont.
The only good alternative is SFbok.se, but they have only some books in at the time.

I meant the online store, compared to Amazon. Delivery is quite cheap if not free, and the selection is good. May take a few days longer, though.

 

[Defcon]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

And i do order most of my books from amazon. Even if i get robbed in the process. (book $7.99 shipping: $15-20...)

Which amazon do you use, since you mention $ i assume .com?

Maybe you could try amzon.de. If I'm not misreading this, shipping costs to Sweden there are 6,00 € + VAT per shipment. Still high, but not quite as high as the 15-20 $ you mentioned, so might worth a look.

 

[ares93]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

And i do order most of my books from amazon. Even if i get robbed in the process. (book $7.99 shipping: $15-20...)

Which amazon do you use, since you mention $ i assume .com?

Maybe you could try amzon.de. If I'm not misreading this, shipping costs to Sweden there are 6,00 € + VAT per shipment. Still high, but not quite as high as the 15-20 $ you mentioned, so might worth a look.

Yup, i use amazon.com. Hmm, you're right. I might switch to amazon.de now. My german is a bit rusty though, but it really seems cheaper. Thanks!

I meant the online store, compared to Amazon. Delivery is quite cheap if not free, and the selection is good. May take a few days longer, though.

Yes, for Swedish or other English books. I use them for most of my swedish books, but they don't do special orders. So were back to square one regarding Trek. Otherwise its a good store, but not for trekkies.

 

[SicOne]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

To add to what SicOne said, we have very few used bookstores left in town. Besides Half Price Books, there is Pageturners on Dodge St, and I can only think of two others. Backshelf Books and Friendly Used Books. Those two are within one block of each other, on Maple St, and both are in the process of closing. One has everything 50% off, the other is 75% off, and is selling the light fixtures and everything else.

We used to have the Antiquarium, a HUGE used book store with two or three stories downtown, but the owner closed up shop and moved it a few hours away.

Then again, we also used to have Mary's, but she lost her lease and moved to a new location, then lost it again and last I heard, she hadn't found a new location. So this market pretty much sucks for used books now.

Mary's is still over on Maple, the north side, up by that pharmacy just west of 72nd Street. Or at least she was a few months back.

I miss the Antiquarium. I remember when Tom had racks upon racks of 70s and 80s porn in the basement. Good times.

Did not know Friendly's and Backshelf were closing. Then again, Capes Comics vanished in the night last year, right across the street. I think that's becoming a bad area again.

The dusty place I referenced is Kanesville's in CB. Lots o' books, but damp and dusty and musty.

There is a place just east of Dragon's Lair on Blondo, in the same building but a door east, that has a lot of books in the back, and fairly reasonable. Treasure Mart, or something like that. Call ahead, for they had weird hours.

The other two used bookstores in town, Judy's in Bellevue and Polly's in La Vista, are both closed.

Do you remember Star Realm in La Vista? Or was that before your time?

If you get down to Lincoln, there are a few decent ones down there, and I go to Kansas City a few times a year and always drop a hundred in the Half-Price Books down in Olathe.

 

[SicOne]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

On one end of the spectrum our (Omaha) Half-Price Books has two shelves of Trek books, mostly from the 90s to current, and not much churn from what I can tell. But for all I know, they sell them and then purchase more of the same titles from people bringing in books to sell. But then again, they don't give very much money for books and I have noticed people just tell them, "Thanks, anyway" and taking their books back to the car...I think they thought that just because the books sell for half cover price that they'd get at least quarter cover price for selling them, but it's more like $0.25 per book when the store makes their take-it-or-leave-it offer.

My local HPB (Fort Worth) offered me $13.50 for about 80 books. I was one of those "Thanks anyway" people

I was going in to sell some when this guy barged out of the Omaha HPB with a handcart filled with several totes of neatly organized rows of decent quality paperbacks going, F&@k this place! $ (can't remember the specific amount, but it was ludicrously low for all the books he had stacked) dollars? Are you f&*king kidding me? They gave me $15 for three milk crates full of old Stuff and Maxim magazines which I took, for I was going to pitch them in the neighboring dumpster if they didn't take 'em.

 

[SicOne]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

Our local Half Price Books still has a lot of Trek material. I usually pick up the paperback versions of books there and then donate the hardcover to our local library.

Where is your HPB? From your location under your avatar, I would guess Illinois?

 

[milo bloom]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

I'm in the Chicago suburbs and there's several Half-price books. I've been picking up the Strange New Worlds books there (how did I miss these?! And what's with the condescending introduction? "These aren't stories by 'real' writers, just some stuff we allowed you amateur schmucks to bang out in an afternoon... Harrumph! Anyways...) and HPB always has a lot of Trek novels. A while back they even had some in their bargain section and I cleaned them out.

Years ago, I purged my personal collection of "so-so" titles, but I've since regretted it and may someday actually attempt to re-collect all of printed Trek.

And in general, there don't seem to be as many used bookstores around as there used to be, even within the last 5 years or so. I know I buy and sell off of half.com, so I guess I'm part of the problem, but I'd rather get a little more instead of dumping them for pennies at a bookstore myself.

 

[SicOne]

Re: Discovered something disturbing about "secondary market" in my are

I live in Omaha but I'm from Geneseo, IL myself, but never seem to get time to hit used bookstores when I come home to visit. If you ever get out this way, hit Kanesville Kollectibles in Council Bluffs, IA and you can probably walk away with a ton of titles once you blow the dust bunnies off of them.