Alibris will provide third-party selling on Borders

The Alibris bookselling network will enable sellers to upload their inventory to Borders after that bookstore chain breaks its relationship with Amazon this year. For six years, the Borders Web site has been a branded version of Amazon.com, but Borders is striking out on its own to try to generate more profits.

The company is recruiting new small- and medium-sized sellers with a new "Alibris Basic" service, which will enable "anyone to sell their new and used books, used textbooks, as well as their rare and out-of-print books."

With one upload, sellers will be able to Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Borders, and Chapters/Indigo.

Here's the entire announcement.

Here's the terms from the signup page:

You can list up to 1,000 items for sale, and you only pay $1 plus a small commission for each one that you sell. If you don't sell anything, you don't pay anything except the annual subscription charge of $19.99.

I guess it will all depend on how much traffic Borders is able to drive to its Web site, but there's no way to separate it from Amazon at the moment.

Borders is the second-largest bookstore chain in the U.S. after Barnes & Noble. The fact that there's going to be third-party selling on its site is a healthy sign, I think. What do you think?

Borders will bail from its Amazon contract

Amazon has been handling Borders' online operation for five years, but now Borders wants out.

Will Borders launch its own third-party bookselling site? Let's hope so.

In my humble opinion, one of the reasons Amazon has made things so unfavorable to its Marketplace sellers in the past few months is it has no real competition for online used book sales. Amazon has a virtual monopoly, and in that unhealthy atmosphere, it has the freedom to squeeze its third-party sellers.

However, we should all remember that things change fast on the Internet.

My thinking is, Amazon has forgotten that its two main sources of profits are:

1. Book sales

2. Pro-Merchant sellers

Right now, it seems bookselling and Marketplace (the only things it's gotten right yet) are Amazon's last priority. Amazon should be trying to enhance what works, rather than kill the goose that laid its golden egg.

Anyway, here's to competition!