Q&A: Is selling books on consignment a good idea?

QUESTION: I've had success selling cookbooks. In your book you discourage consignment selling, but I ran into a situation where it's appropriate for me -- I'm just starting out, and I don't want to borrow money for inventory. At a garage sale yesterday I picked up a few cookbooks, and was pleasantly surprised when they listed for considerable money -- I paid 50 cents for the books, and listed them on Amazon for $12.99 and up. The dear, sweet little old lady holding the sale noticed my interest in cookbooks, and mentioned that she was a collector. She's moving into a retirement village soon, and needs to downsize. She asked me if I'd help her sell her cookbooks, and took my card.

What is the normal percentage I should take for selling her books on consignment?

ANSWER: Since I wrote "The Home-Based Bookstore" consignment selling has gotten a lot more popular, especially with eBay sellers. And there's a new book about it, "How to Start and Run an eBay Consignment Business" by McGrath. The book is targeted at eBay sellers, but I think anyone thinking about a consignment business -- on eBay, Amazon, or even offline -- would benefit tremendously from reading it.

Here's a "customer review" I wrote about McGrath's book on Amazon.

So maybe I was too hasty in dismissing consignment selling. Perhaps when I revise "The Home Based Bookstore" in a year or two, I'll give some more attention to it. I'm still not sure it would work for me personally. But, if a bookseller can make it work, and they can get access to lots more inventory that way, then by all means it's a good idea for them.

As for the percentage of commission that's appropriate -- I think McGrath suggests a commission of around 20 percent. The thing about books, though, is if you put a lot of effort into selling a collection of lower-priced books, a commission of 20 percent might not be enough compensation for the time. To account for this, you might consider a sliding scale of fees. Say, if total sales for a collection were over $500, you'd charge 20 percent, and if they were under that, you'd charge 25 percent.

Once you developed a track record of successfully selling on consignment, it would probably be much easier to "sell" your service, based on this: You could show people that they'd get a much better price for their books by letting you sell them, rather than trading them in at a used bookshop, etc. They can probably double the amount they get for their books even after paying your commission, plus everything's taken care of -- no effort on their part.