Is There Any Way to Get Large Lots of Books to Resell Online?

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Author: Michael Mould

I was recently asked if there was any way to buy a large lot of books that could be resold profitably online and the answer is yes, but be careful, not all sellers of large book lots are reputable and if you buy a large lot unseen, or unresearched on ebay, you may end up with an expensive cord of firewood.

In my book I provided the most exhaustive list of wholesale and remainder book distributors that I am aware of in any book on this subject. Since then I have learned of a few more that have even better deals and larger lots of unsorted books. One in particular sells books by the gaylord or truckload. A gaylord is one of those bins, typically metal, that allows for loading on a truck by forklift. You can buy a single gaylord or an entire truckload of them and have it shipped directly to your door. If you buy a truckload, you might be expected to have a forklift ready to unload them, so be sure you understand the shipping terms before making final arrangements.

Recently, I was contacted by a closeout distributor and told of an auction they were holding for a lot of 18,000+ books. This was the notice for the first of three such auctions they plan over the next couple months. I browsed through the spreadsheet of books that were included in the auction, and the buyer will be lucky if he/she can pick up this lot for $150,000, but they can still triple their investment as these were some really nice books for an online seller.

While I was attending the 2006 Independent Amazon Booksellers' Convention last month, I was told by one of my customers about a source for free books. All you have to do is register and when you get notified of free books being available you call and arrange to pick them up.

There are many sources for buying books in large quantities that can be resold profitably through the online marketplaces, it is just a matter of research to find them. I have spent the last five years compiling just such a list of reputable wholesale and remainder book distributors and included the entire list in my book.

As a means of saying thank you to all the customers of my book, I even started a free newsletter that is distributed monthly. It includes updates to the online bookselling marketplaces and new resources for wholesale and remainder book distributors, new third-party service providers for online booksellers, and anything else that my readers and I seem worthwhile to pass along to other online booksellers.