Brick and Motor Stores pricing their items based on Ebay ..BOO!

[bargainbookscanada]

yes. I know it's a free market and you can price items the way you want. ...It's just a pet peeve I suppose.

Several stores in Toronto do it.  The most notorious is BMV bookstore, which is Toronto's largest used bookstore but also carries numerous other items such as Cd's DVDs VHS Magazines, small toys, comics etc.

I went to a swap shop  looking for inventory to resell.  Behind a small glass display case are video games priced at $25.00 and up...so 1 student complains and asks "isn't that a little expensive?".  To which the owner replied "you should see their prices on Ebay".  

However, those were the rarer and harder to find video games...the store also sold hundreds of games at 6-10.00 each.  On Ebay those plentiful games sometimes sell at lots that average no more than 1 or 2 dollars each game. Where is the Ebay pricing then? Also sometimes items that were formally out of print get re-issued.  The prices come crashing way down.  Where is the will to change the price back down again?

IF you are a Brick and Motor store, then you are a brick and motor store.  Store owners should not confuse the two. They might as well open an Ebay store of their own and refrain from displaying their best inventory behind glass cases.

Ultimately, this leads to less profit for the stores that do it for many reasons.  First, many of those items sit around forver, taking up precious room for inventory that may be turned over.  Second, some people like myself, go looking for the goodies to resell on Ebay but often buy items for their own personal use.  I have looked for rare video games only to be brought into nostalgic grace and decided to buy many old games just to the sentimental visual of their box cover.  Third, they "clue in" some perspective customers about the possibilities of reselling online...making it harder for these stores to buy inventory cheaply. 

[cumos55]

It used to be that you can do as described... Walk in, buy at your price  and then resell on eBay.

That all changed within the last 3 to 5 years.

The B & M stores got smart.

If you can sell it for $25 on eBay... then you can sell it for $25 at the B & M.... maybe not quite that high.

What I usually find is that the price in the B& M is high enough... not that $25 , but high enough that I cannot buy and make a good profit  after eBay fees.

That is when one has to find other sources of inventory... effectively going to the same sales the B & M sellers go to.... or find those places where they do not go...

One has to find inventory to sell on eBay that does not necessarily sell well locally.

The B &M store, the thrift store, the estate sales, the garage sales,. the box lots at auction sales  do not always  sell  at the same price,  and do not price the same from month to month.   I can wait out the auction sales as well as elsewhere   until  I get it at my price... and I have done so, and have done very well

I used to sell a lot of Canadian made art glass and pottery....  but then everyone caught up to eBay pricing... and many times  I may get eBay prices quoted at a garage sale ..... and many times the thrift store prices approach eBay prices.... or their price is high enough that I cannot buy and resell  on eBay...... The big profits of many years ago are gone....

eBay has become a standard.... that is a reality,  learn to live with it.

The best way to adjust  is to find something new to sell... I did,  and find those unique places to get your new inventory.

I may spend some extra money for some books,  but if one averages those higher prices in with all purchases ... it only adds one penny to the average of all books bought in one year.... But they do sell for good value on eBay

The overall average for all books purchased to sell on eBay is still quite low.

Many local book stores do list on the internet..... not necessarily eBay....  but when they do it is select inventory  that they also sell  in the B & M.

I am constantly reminded that we all can go to the same charity or estate sale... we each buy what we want... and we all are happy....I do have my competition  for inventory...  but for many of the local book sellers  who sell what I do.... it is they who have to keep up to me or get lost...

An example of me outdoing my local competition is for a local book seller to dump inventory he cannot sell  into a local thrift store.

I almost buy out the store  for this inventory, and then this inventory sells well on eBay...

The reverse also occurs...  I can delivery inventory I cannot sell to a local book store  and it will sell for them....  It is either deliver the books at no cost to this store or to a charity sale.... Only... do not go to the charity sale and buy that book that you donated.

The best thing to do is not be unhappy... but to learn how to find your inventory,  and outdo, outbid,  and then outsell the local store  when you sell on eBay.

It an be done.... I am always on the go looking for new inventory......  and I know where to find books for $1 and $2... so that I can pay up to $10  and sometimes more per book at other sales.  I also know which books sell for those higher prices... books that I can pay $10  and sometimes even $20 each.... and sell at close to $100 each...

Years of experience  has helped... and sometimes  you just have to listen to the books as they do call out ... Come buy me....... because those really good high value books are there.... or is it the years of experience  that are the major factor to consider.

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I have never complained about someone finding a good book...  I ask to see  the book, because  within six month I may find atleast one copy to sell on eBay....  and many times  I have found a book for a non bookseller at a local charity sale... and then at the next sale,  they sometimes find something for me....

People will buy that $25 item... because they know that they cannot do better....    Let them travel with you looking for new inventory, let them spend lots of dollars on gas.... and very quickly that $10 item  with gas thrown in becomes $25  and more.....

They are looking for one item... while you the dealer buys lots and lots to sell  to others who do not travel looking for that one item....

The economics for both you as an eBay seller and them as a B & M are there....  

Make it so that they are chasing you for inventory... not the reverse.

[femmefan1946]

Your B&M seller may also be your online competitor. Rather than being just a local destination, many small collectibles dealers have added eBay and their own websites to their business.

Our family business has been online since around 1990, with a full fledged website since 1995. We were doing online auctions before eBay existed.

Goodwill USA has been a very large online presence for more than a decade.

When we look at the total cost of a product, we have to take in the shipping and handling that buyers pay. Those $1 games have $4 handling (USA domestic, media mail, with shipping cap) more to Canada. So to the customer/end user, the B&M price is the same as the eBay price.

My personal favourite B&M used bookseller here is Bytown Books. I don't think he sells on eBay, but he certainly is a presence on Adlibris and Addall. He also tells me he has three storage lockers full of vintage SF paperbacks not yet uploaded.

My best sources nowadays are church rummage sales, the local school Book Fair, and the Great Glebe Garage Sale, a square mile of sales tables every May.

Goodwill charges a percentage of original cost. Saint Vincent has raised book prices to $1-$5. Salvation Army the same.Neighbourhood Services are still cheap , but they keep moving their store. So unless I hit the days when the thrifts are selling $2 bags to clear the shelves, those are not going to be my sources.

[tobyshitzu]

You expect a retail store who is incurring all the costs of operating and marketing to source the inventory, to sell to you low enough that you can turn around and sell it here with enough margin to cover fees, shipping and enough profit to make it worthwhile??

An independent store is likely using a subscription or free online price guide like videogames.pricecharting.com that is pulling data from ebay anyway. 

Small independent one here that has grown to ottawa, Kingston, Belleville, Peterborourgh locations will never ever have anything an ebay seller could turn around and make money from.  There is a better chance finding something at a big national store, I sure miss Blockbusters inept pricing

[cumos55]

There are times when I visit Chapters  and wonder....

I look at their deeply discounted book...  their last one in stock....  and even there the prices are too high for me  to deal with.

The discounted books are there for a reason....  but not my price.

I have visited a bookseller of  previously owned books,  and have picked up some books at half price  or at two for one....  and even there, one has to be careful...  The  price paid is important... However, my selling  price is what make that reduced price book valuable for me....

In such an instance it is my knowledge that tells me which books to buy at a reduced price...Buy at $5 sell at $50... buy at $10  and sell at $65....  or even buy at $5  and sell at $25

 I can buy at these prices  because they add very little to my low average for all books purchased in a year ... or I know that they will sell quickly...  and I get a relatively quick turnover.

Profit in made on the purchase price not the selling price.

Sometimes  it is the predicted different between the purchase price and the selling price....or how quickly  a specific book will sell.

Experience and knowledge are also a part of the process.

[cumos55]

What surprises me, at times, is how much of my inventory on eBay is the same as that found at a local Chapters bookstore.

In turn,  my visit to Chapters lets me know of the new releases I should be looking for in my search for books to sell on eBay

[reallynicestamps]

I'm constantly surprised at where my titles go.

I sell books on Parliamentary Rules to the former Soviet Union pretty steadily.

And all sorts of books to Fort MacMurray. I just googled bookstores there and there seem to be only two "real" bookstores, a Coles and a used book dealer/coffeeshop who is not online, at least not under that name.

There are other booksellers, but they seem all to be businesses with other primary interests. Oddly two of them are framing shops.