Q&A: What's the quickest way to look up used book prices online?

QUESTION: I recently learned about using ScoutPal for book scouting, but I'm not sure whether I need a barcode scanner plugged into my phone to input the ISBNs. My initial take is that a scanner is unnecessary, just because there are many books without barcodes. So which is better: using a scanner, or just keying in the ISBNs?

ANSWER: You're right, a lot of valuable books (especially older out-of-print scarce books) don't have a barcode, and some don't even have an ISBN. So to check these, you'll need to type in the title and author name.

I've always used a T-Mobile Sidekick phone that doesn't support a scanner, although I understand the newer Sidekicks have a working USB port. It's not a big deal for me to key in the ISBNs with my thumbs (although if you had really big thumbs it would be a problem). I have seen guys at book sales using scanners, so that they could go through whole stacks of books in a few minutes.

To tell you the truth, checking book prices via cellphone takes some of the fun out of book hunting. If you deal with books long enough you can start recognizing a book that is worth money just by looking at it -- or at least you can recognize those books that are likely to be valuable. When books are cheap enough, say $1 or $2 apiece, I don't even bother looking up the prices. I know that my winners will vastly outnumber the losers, and overall the more books I buy, the more money I'll be making. And you can't dawdle when you're at a busy library sale. While you're waiting for your cellphone to return the prices, most of the cream can be skimmed from the book sale.

But this trial-and-error method works well only if you have a big selection of books to choose from at low prices. If you're shopping in a used bookstore you'd definitely need to look up prices on Amazon Marketplace.