Q&A: Can I sell my unwanted books in a bulk lot on eBay?

QUESTION: I'm considering selling my deadwood books on eBay as a bulk lot. Do you have any insight on this practice?

ANSWER: I tried this once a few years ago and didn't get a single bid, so I haven't tried it since. However, I've bought several dozen bulk lots of used books on eBay, and there's even a separate category for it: Books, Wholesale, Bulk Lots.

This has never been a primary way of finding stock for me, and I haven't bought this way for a couple of years. I decided it wasn't worth the time because I had a few bad experiences -- some crummy merchandise and one seller who never shipped at all. But if you're patient enough to keep looking for bargains, I'm sure it can pay off.

As far as unloading your books, I think there are two ways for you to approach it:

1. Maximum disclosure. Take a bunch of pictures, and include a list of every title and ISBN in your eBay listing. Otherwise you'll probably get pestered to death with questions, like "Can you give me a list of the titles?"

2. Just say up front, it's pot luck. You don't know what's in there, you just want to get rid of it.

The big disadvantage for buyers and sellers of book bulk lots is the enormous shipping costs that can be involved. So another way you might approach this is by advertising on Craig's List.

If you've never heard of it, Craig's List is a classified ad service, just like a newspaper, except it's online and free. (eBay bought the company a couple of years ago, but hasn't done anything to screw it up -- yet.)

So by using Craig's List, you can eliminate the two big sticking points of getting rid of a bulk lot -- shipping fees, and the advertising costs of placing a classified in your local paper. (Be sure to click through to your nearest metro area on Craig's List, otherwise all the ads you see will be from Craig's Lists' home base, San Francisco.)

You can use Craig's List the other way around, too, as a prospecting tool. For example, you could advertise: "Cash paid for your used books." It's time-consuming and involves a lot of e-mailing back and forth, but it's another way of getting stock that you wouldn't have found otherwise.