The Wiki Man | 14 February 2009

Two years ago my father decided to try selling books on the internet. Since he had spent much of my childhood expatiating his theory that computers involved more work than they saved, this was something of a U-turn. But he quickly opened a seller’s account on Amazon where he listed for sale the 1,500 of his books he was least likely to miss before sitting back and waiting for the orders to come in.

Rather to the surprise of his sceptical sons, orders did come in — and have kept on coming. Two years on, along with a few neighbours who are eBay sellers, he has turned the village post office into a hub for global commerce, parcels being sent out every week to almost anywhere. His copy of Birds of the Sudan, for instance, went to someone in Sudan (sensible, really, since my father lives in a part of Wales notoriously light in tropical bird-life).

By allowing people to trade in this way, the internet lets you obtain better prices than by selling through booksellers (who often aren’t interested unless you’re offering a first folio for £10). It works best for unusual titles (so don’t expect much from your Harold Robbins collection) although with smaller, lighter books you do make a profit on the postage charge.  

Yet it’s not only that there’s more to gain; there’s also less to lose. As my father explains, 15 years ago you were reluctant to sell your copy of Birds of the Sudan since, if you later regretted it, you might have to spend months tracking down a replacement. No longer: online book-search sites (such as Amazon, alibris.co.uk and abebooks.com) will find ten available copies in seconds.

This is an important insight, and it applies to more than just books.