Q&A: What type of scanner do you recommend for booksellers?

QUESTION: Can you recommend a good source for a light/scanner pen? I use Homebase for my inventory on a Windows 2000 based-system. About 90 percent of the books I enter into Homebase have ISBNs and currently I key in all the numbers manually. It sure would save a lot of time and also help ensure accuracy if I could scan the barcode from the book with a light pen and have the ISBN appear in the appropriate field in Homebase.

ANSWER: I've tried two different scanners, one which didn't work well, and one that has worked just fine.

My first scanner was a Cuecat. You can still get these for a few dollars on eBay, but I don't recommend them. Often it took me three or four passes before the Cuecat would spit out the numbers. I could type the numbers faster than that.

After that experience I decided to get a more reliable piece of equipment -- a presentation scanner, which sits on a base. Since you wave the barcode in front of the scanner, you have a free hand, since you don't have to point the scanner.

The one pictured here is the one I use, it's a Metrologic Orbital, and has a powerful, reliable laser. I found somebody who had a good deal on them at an eBay Store and it was a great buy. It's been a few years so I can't remember the name of the store. But there are several Stores who have this type of equipment on eBay with excellent feedback. Another place to get scanners is POS Guys.

If you don't mind using a handheld scanner, you can get a used one for a song on eBay. You might want to get a used one on eBay just so you can try it out before spending a lot of money.

Just make sure you buy one that's set up as a "keyboard wedge" output. That simply means that it plugs into your computer's keyboard port, and the output appears just as if you typed it.