Finding books to sell on amazon can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. I prefer to make it simple, and to make it simple you have to understand the ecosystem of which books move around. Understanding the ins and outs of the book trade will help you find more books, and ultimately make more money. I will cover some aspects of the book trade and places that you will be able to find more books for your amazon business.
Where Do Books Come From?
Once an author has completed writing a book, they turn to a publisher to get the book published and distributed. The books get sent to distributors, wholesalers, and retailers to be sold to the consumer. in addition, a large amount of books get bought by libraries all over the country. In some cases, the books that do not sell and end up going to closeout sellers and liquidators. They can end up in some discount stores like Ollies. Consumers all over the country probably have a bookshelf, and most of these books have just been sitting for years. That's books for you.
What Happens To Books When People Don't Want Them Anymore?
People will let books sit on their shelves for years and may never crack that book. In most cases, people are getting rid of their books to make more space, and in some cases to make money. Some convenient places that people will take their books and donate them to are thrift stores, and libraries. These are the most common places for books to get dumped from people who no longer want them. In some cases, people will try to sell their books or offer them for free online on places like facebook, or craigslist.
What's The Best Place To Find Books?
While saying one place is better than another might be what you wanted from me, but it is really determined by what is in your area or lack thereof. For many cities, the library is the best place, in other places, it's a small hole in the wall thrift store. Regardless of where you live, this is a list of some of the best places to find books.
Thrift Stores And Second-hand Stores
The Thrift store is a great place to find books to resell on amazon. Depending on where you live you may have a few thrift stores near you that you should at least go and check out. It's no secret that thrift stores are a great place to find items worth reselling, but the books category can be quite lucrative depending on if your stores sell online or you have other resellers in the area. You may have a Goodwill, or a Salvation Army that could be full of treasure just waiting to be scanned.
Your Local Libraries
Your local library is a great resource for you to check out. Granted most books at the library are not for sale and are property of library. Everyday, libraries discard books that they no longer need, usually to make room for new books. When this happens the library may have a small section of books for sale or sometimes even free. Also nearly all libraries have a friends of the library, a group dedicated to raising money for the library. This group is usually the entity that handles hosting book sales or a bookstore. Be sure to check your local library out because you do not want to miss a library sale, especially if you dont have many near you.
Used Book Stores
Used book stores can be great options if the prices are reasonable. Some book stores know the value of books on internet prices, these are the ones you want to stay away from. Other book stores use the cover price as a way to determine the price usually 25% to 50% of the cover price. In some cases, the book stores just have general prices like $4.00 for hardcovers, and $3.00 for paperbacks. It really just depends on the book store, but these are usually hubs for loads of books. I have many good finds come from used book stores.
Yard Sales And Garage Sales
I love a good yard sale, and it's no surprise that you can find some really good stuff for cheap. Yard sales and garage sales are not my favorite way to find books specifically, but I do come across them. Garage sales and yard sales are better for more experienced sellers that have an eye for stuff other than books.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook marketplace is a good way for you to find inventory without ever leaving your house, or driving to nearby places to meet up and do deals. Just search stuff like book sales, books, or you can even take it a step further by being more specific such as textbook, or biology book. I promise you if you search long enough you will find stuff worth looking into and can sometimes end up with treasures.
Estate Sales
I love a good estate sale. This is definitely a faster paced environment but can have loads of treasures. Typically you can find estate sales at estatesales.net in your local area, especially if you live near a metropolitan city. They can be pretty relaxed on the last day of the sale, or if they didn't have many good pictures listed, but usually, the first couple of hours at a big estate sale can be madness, and you must be quick to the punch to find good stuff to resell.
Craigslist
Craigslist is like the wild west of selling stuff online and it can be sketchy, but there are a lot of people that still use craigslist and there are tons of treasures to be found on there. One of the down sides is that most listings are using craigslist safe anonymous email and can make conducting transactions very slow. In some cases you are able to get the sellers information like a cryptic written phone number. These can be some of the fastest leads to get especially if you are seeing the most recent listings.
In Conclusion
Overall, there are tons of places that you can find books to sell on amazon, you just have to pick a place and start. I encourage you to start finding books to resell from any of the places mentioned above and take your amazon book business to the next level. if you have any place that you like to find books not mentioned, tell me in the comments below!