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Welcome back to another episode of the Resellers Mindset Podcast.

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My name is Mike, also known as the used book guy on YouTube,

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along with my friend and fellow full-time reseller, Johnny B.

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We help people start and grow their reselling businesses from the ground up.

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We also have a weekly zoom call and private discord for all YouTube members.

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Head on over to youtube.com backslash use book guy to join the channel and gain

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access to the full length podcast zoom call and private discord today.

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Let's get into this week's episode.

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What is up everybody? Welcome into episode 28, Resellers Mindset Podcast.

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Special guest today, Caleb Antique Book Collective.

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We're going to talk everything related to selling antique books, basically books

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that, you know, don't have a scannable barcode.

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As we know, my whole business revolves basically around going in, scanning

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a barcode of an item, a software telling me whether or not it's worth it.

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With Caleb down here, you know, he kind of has an eye, a knowledge base where

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he can go in and take a look at a shelf and kind of say, Hey, let me check this one out.

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Let me check this one out.

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You know, he's not looking up every single book, so we're kind of going

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to just throw it over to him.

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He's going to introduce himself and we'll, me and JB will just, you know,

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roll with it, ask him some questions and, you know, see, see where he's got to today.

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Let's go.

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So, hi, as he said, I'm Caleb, Antique Book Collective.

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I do antique books and, um, you did say I have an expertise.

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I call it being a nerd.

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I'm a nerd for antique books, but yeah, I've been doing this for quite a few years now.

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I started out with Amazon KDP, uh, doing the entire, sorry, not KDP, Amazon

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FBA and started out with that whole thing and then, uh, slowly progressed.

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And I kept on seeing, Oh, antique books, antique books, let's see how they do.

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And eventually I decided antique books are my entire business.

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So that's where I am now.

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It's pretty funny to think about like antique books.

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When I, uh, when I first was doing books and I was doing bulk buys, I can honestly

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admit that if it didn't have a barcode, it was going into the donation pile.

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I didn't even think twice about looking up a single one of those books.

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I know, I know it pains both of you.

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Sorry.

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I know it, I know it hurts, but listen, there's really, there's not a huge, like,

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you know, a huge following out there for antique books.

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There is because there's a lot of money in it, but it's not as I guess,

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mainstream as just scanning barcodes and having a business that way.

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No, absolutely.

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And we're going to set the record straight here.

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Cause I spoke out of turn because I mentioned you in the last episode,

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Caleb and specifically how old you were.

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And I probably misspoke.

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I said you were 19, maybe 24 somewhere in there, but the comments, I noticed that a lot.

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Oh my God, he's only 19.

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So how old are you?

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So I'm 24 now, but I did start around when I was 19.

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So I was right on all accounts.

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I'm just saying.

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Um, so you're, you're fairly young.

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What got you into this at an early age?

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Outside the moment.

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Yeah.

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Well, outside the money, I mean, why'd I get in?

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So for me, I'm a, I'm a history nerd.

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I've always liked history.

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That's sort of my thing.

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And, um, antique books.

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I mean, I've always had a couple of things.

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And, uh, one of my first antique things that I got that was like paper related was we

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lived in a really old house and back in the day, the house was renovated.

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And when we were re renovating it, we were tearing down the walls.

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And back in the day, they actually used to use newspaper as installation.

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So I got all these old newspapers from, uh, world war two.

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And it's like, this is really stinking cool.

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So from that, I collected all those, keep them all.

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I actually have them in my room.

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I display them sometimes I used them for so many school projects, but one

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thing led to another, and I just learned how much I loved antique books.

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And that's one it's I'm here now.

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So, yeah,

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I'm a topic of a history in world war two.

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I even find in my vintage category, Mr.

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Difference folks, he's antiquarian.

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I'm vintage.

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Um, the world war two era era, it's history, fiction, nonfiction.

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Doesn't matter.

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It does fairly well for myself and I'm assuming it does fairly well for you.

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Yeah.

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World war two is sort of my cutoff point.

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Like after world war two, things get a little less valuable for me.

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So, I mean, I do buy some, but I try to keep it world war two and older.

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Right.

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And I've also found in the fiction category, everybody loves Nazis for whatever reason.

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It doesn't really matter if there's a swastika or a Nazi on it, it'll sell.

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Um, just for allies and fighting Nazis, that whole Captain America kind of vibe.

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People still love that.

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I don't know why, because that war is long gone.

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It's been a minute, but I guess the older guys are still digging it.

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So, yeah.

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Well, on the topic of Nazis, I don't know if you guys have heard this one yet,

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but I actually bought a copy of main comp Hitler's book, a first edition.

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Yeah.

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The first American edition.

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I got that.

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I actually got it over in a town called Beaverton, which is just south of the city.

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Which is just south of Portland.

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So let's see for you guys.

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So here's Portland Beaverton's like right here ish.

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So yeah, I got a copy of main comp there and I was like, really hope this does not go to

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any Nazis that try to murder anyone.

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Fingers crossed.

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Yeah.

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When it comes to that kind of stuff, I kind of put that out of my mind because I don't

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know who it actually is going to.

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Maybe it's a history person.

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Maybe it's a, well, I just want to learn about this period of time in general and

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read stuff from that period of time.

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But that's an interesting concern as well.

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I've thought about the same thing like that, but I just kind of put it out of my mind

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hoping it's going to a well-good person, I guess is the best way to put it and not Mike.

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Dude, I sell books about guns and making ammo and I don't think twice about it.

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Where's that going, right?

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I mean, I don't know.

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Listen, there's lots of hobbyists out there for different things.

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So I don't even think twice about just going to some lunatic out there.

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But I mean, I guess being passionate about books, you have a little bit of different

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mindset than I do.

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I just want to sell them and make money and collect maybe a specific set of 10 books my

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whole life.

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But it's a little different.

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I'm curious when it comes to sourcing, what does your sourcing look like?

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How much are you willing to pay per book?

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How much are you looking to make per book?

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And do you have like, are thrift stores good for you?

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Libraries good for you?

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Do you have a specific genre of thrifting style you like to do?

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Yeah.

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So for me, I like to spend like $2 and less per book.

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Obviously, less is better, but I like to go up to $2.

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Sometimes if I know the book's really, really good, I will go a little bit above that.

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But by and large, I try to keep it like $2 and under.

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For sourcing books themselves, I find that libraries are fan-stinking plastic, like Frenzel

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Library sales.

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I love those and I can get the books for really low prices.

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And then estate sales are my other big go-to.

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But I've said this in videos on my channel.

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The best book I've ever gotten was from Goodwill Outlet.

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So I do go to Goodwill Outlet every now and then.

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And the best book, guys, it was the first edition of The Time Machine.

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So $18.95, I want to say, which was totally awesome and it was worth thousands of dollars.

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So that was very cool.

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Now, for those who don't know, how often do you travel to source, like distance-wise and frequency?

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So I'm not doing the business quite as hardcore as I used to be doing it.

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Now I'm just more like the past year or so, I just go to like one or two really,

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really, really big sales and I buy a ton of things.

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But when I'm really doing this business in a hard, hardcore sort of way, I will drive

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800 miles plus and I would do that at least once a month, sometimes several times in a month,

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just to make sure that I have all the inventory I could want and need.

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So funny story.

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I watched a video of yours like three weeks after it aired.

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I was like, darn, because you were in my area.

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You were up in Mineola, Texas and I'm like 15 minutes away from there.

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Yeah.

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So I don't actually drive these places.

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I just check out all the estate sales around those areas and tell people what I would do

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if I actually go there.

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So I did not actually go in your area, I promise you.

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Well, fantasy is broken now.

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So on these eight-mile treks, are you shopping along the way or

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are you just going straight there to that particular sale?

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Not eight mile, 800 mile.

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And oftentimes for the really, really long ones, I'll go straight there, but there were times.

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So for one of the trips that I went down to Redding, so I have driven all the way down

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to Redding, 800 miles there and back a little over that, I think somewhere in there.

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But I actually went from Portland area, went down to Primeville, went over to Bend,

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and then I went all the way down.

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So I do hit a lot of places along the way just because it really helps me ensure that I'm making

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money the entire way.

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And in case that one spot doesn't make money, I still make money for the entire rest of the trip.

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So I like to cover my butt on stuff like that.

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But by and large, nowadays, I do just hit like one or two spots just because I get such a volume

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of books, it's not too hard to stay on top of things.

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So yeah, that would be my concern that I get there and they're all gone and I wasted 800 miles

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of gas money or 1,600 miles.

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So I think I would have to shop along the way too just to make sure I come back with something,

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right?

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Yeah, definitely is an issue.

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There's been one estate, sorry, not estate sale, there's been one Frenzel Library sale

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that I went to.

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So I went from Portland area all the way over to Milton Freewater and I went to one sale out

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there.

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And that was the closest I ever was to having nothing worth buying, which was a little bit

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like, oh, this is not good because I was going to hit another Frenzel Library sale in Pendleton

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that same week, that same day actually.

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And that one they decided to close down because of lockdowns and all that sort of stuff.

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I was like, oh, cool, thanks for not telling me here.

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But by and large, I have not had that be an issue, not even once because the places that

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I go to that I drive all this way for are places that have thousands of books.

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Otherwise, if they only have a couple of hundred books, then odds are I will end up high and dry

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and not have anything there.

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So I like to cover my bases there.

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So do you do private collections like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist?

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Do you go combing through those lists at all or just now?

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When I first started with the FBA business, I did check that out a little bit because I did hear

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that that worked pretty well for people.

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But at the end of the day, there was enough people that are book resellers in my area that

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those entire listings were all just flooded with people that actually knew the value of

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their books.

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So I just got to the point that I was like, that's not my business, not my niche in this

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area because again, there's just so many other people reselling around here.

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But it is something that I do check in on every now and then.

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But by and large, estate sales, friends of the library sales, more of the larger things

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and estate sales do very well for me though.

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Do we think there's more competition in antique books than scannable barcode books?

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I definitely think that there's a lot more competition in the scannable books because

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when I go to all these different sales, I get there and there's a huge line of other

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book sellers and I'm chatting with them because I always like talking to people.

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I like talking to people.

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I'm a people person, but I also am like, what's the competition?

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What are they doing?

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So I get in line.

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There's 20 of them.

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I'm like, hey, so what are you here for?

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And they're all scanners.

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Every single one of them.

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Maybe one of them might like vintage books like Johnny B over here.

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But I'm the only person that a lot of these sales that actually looks for the antique

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books themselves.

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So it's really nice.

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The guys that sell this stuff on eBay, they do it in lots.

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They don't do singles like I do that I found for the most part.

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So I'd say yes and no.

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I mean, yeah, they're selling the same stuff I am technically.

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So they're skipping that up too because they're in the buy it all bulk market like I am.

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But I don't think there's any competition when it comes to listing per listing, at least for me.

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All right.

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All right, Kale.

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We got to know.

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So you sell on eBay.

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People got to know what's your lowest, what's your minimum profit you're shooting for?

235
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What's the least amount you're going to list an antique book for?

236
00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:47,640
Is it $5, $10, $15?

237
00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:50,360
Or you're a 1999 person like myself on eBay?

238
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So for me, I'm actually incredibly picky now that I've done the business for so long.

239
00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:59,480
So if I have the book in my possession and it's actually worth something,

240
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I will probably list it almost no matter the price because it's like, I have it.

241
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I might as well.

242
00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:10,600
But when I'm actually shopping for books, when I'm doing the business like full scale,

243
00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:14,280
like I like to do the business my exact way, I like to shoot for a low end,

244
00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:17,880
absolute low end of 35 bucks now to $45.

245
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That's what I normally try to shoot for.

246
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,480
That's pretty healthy profit margin there.

247
00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:28,120
Now, when it comes to like, you sell antique books different than me,

248
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:32,840
you know, selling a book with a newer barcode and just throwing it in a poly bag.

249
00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:35,720
How do you package like all of your orders?

250
00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:41,880
So when I package my orders, a lot of these books, excuse me for a second,

251
00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:44,200
a lot of these books, I mean, they are older than everything.

252
00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:46,600
I mean, they show their age and because of that,

253
00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:48,360
sometimes they're pretty brittle, that sort of stuff.

254
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,440
So sometimes I even have like leather books that the leather is even cracking.

255
00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:54,520
So whenever I'm doing these sorts of things,

256
00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,440
I try to make sure that they are going to be as perfect as possible.

257
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:02,600
So I actually individually wrap all the different books, especially with antique books.

258
00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:06,440
When I sell mass market paperbacks, I normally just shove all those in a box,

259
00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,440
make sure they get there nice and pretty.

260
00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,400
But for the actual antique books, I will literally wrap them.

261
00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:13,800
I will do all that stuff, make them look real pretty.

262
00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:16,840
But for the ones, the books that have like the crumbly leather,

263
00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:20,920
actually, I actually have some card stock cardboard going on over there.

264
00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:22,840
And I actually cut that out around the shape of the book.

265
00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:26,040
And I actually use that as sort of like a hardcover for the book,

266
00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:27,720
just to make sure that it's super safe.

267
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,680
Because again, I mean, antique books, they can be quite brittle.

268
00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:34,520
I mean, I so far haven't had any issues with shipping and storage and that sort of stuff,

269
00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:35,640
because I am careful enough.

270
00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,760
But I have had some people complain on my YouTube videos of,

271
00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:39,800
oh, you're not careful enough.

272
00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:42,600
And it's like, I understand I'm not nearly careful enough for you guys,

273
00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,240
but trust me, I'm plenty careful.

274
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:46,360
Don't come to my channel.

275
00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:52,360
Yeah. I mean, so your buy cost is much like the East Coast buy cost.

276
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:54,680
You guys around the $2 mark these days.

277
00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:57,320
Over here, it's like 50 cents to a dollar still.

278
00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:02,280
I'm sure we're going to see that inflation on buy cost in my area within the next year or two,

279
00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:03,240
honestly.

280
00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:08,920
But on the note of buying goods, what's the most, because your sell cost is way higher.

281
00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,200
What's the most you're willing to pay up to for a single piece?

282
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:20,600
So what I will go like on the absolute high end for, for a single book is like maybe $10.

283
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,560
But that's if I know that I'm going to make like $800 on that book.

284
00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:29,000
So I did a recent video on a set of Shakespeare books that I sold, 650 bucks for that.

285
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,760
I paid $10, but that was for three books.

286
00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:36,440
So technically I paid 333 each, but I try to keep it as low as I can because at the end of the day,

287
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,040
I mean, I'm trying to make really, really good multiples of my money because there are just so

288
00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:41,640
many other things that I can put the money in.

289
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:43,640
I don't want it all sunk into one giant boat.

290
00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,680
Now, here's the interesting fact that a lot of people that do media don't do that.

291
00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:49,800
I know you do.

292
00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:55,080
You charge for shipping, which is a little different than most people can you see?

293
00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:56,040
He don't like it either.

294
00:14:56,040 --> 00:15:00,360
What, what can you explain your methodology on charging for shipping?

295
00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:06,520
So yeah, so for shipping, there are a lot of good reasons to not charge for shipping.

296
00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:11,400
I mean, a lot for a lot of the lower end buyers, sellers, sorry, no offense, Mike,

297
00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:12,360
can use book guy.

298
00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:15,080
A lot of the people selling lower end books though.

299
00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:20,600
I mean, it's you are expected to say it's worth $5 and that includes shipping because that's what

300
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:21,400
everyone else is doing.

301
00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:25,800
So you have to stay with the pack or else someone's going to be like, you're charging five bucks plus

302
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:26,360
shipping.

303
00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,360
I can get it for five bucks less from this other guy.

304
00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,360
So that's one of the reasons why I do it.

305
00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:34,120
I also charge a $1 handling fee on top of all that.

306
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:39,400
The $1, it helps cover the new stupid eBay fee where they charge you for the shipping expense.

307
00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:40,680
Because why not?

308
00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:45,400
But it also helps like in case I ever am like, oh, the book weighs one pound and actually comes out

309
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:47,720
weighing two, once I get in the box and all that sort of stuff.

310
00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:49,960
So that's why I charge all the stuff I do.

311
00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:52,680
Makes perfect sense.

312
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:55,720
And I think both models actually do work at the end of the day.

313
00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:59,960
I just know I'm a lot more volume heavy and the free shipping's whatever, especially when you're

314
00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:02,440
dealing with multi-quantity, it doesn't matter at the end of the day.

315
00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:07,080
It's just one of those, well, it's that's my bottom line, but my sell through is higher.

316
00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:12,440
So speaking of volume and non-volume, how much volume are you outputting on eBay on a weekly or

317
00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:13,480
monthly basis?

318
00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:20,200
So I don't quite do as much as I know I ought to because I have so many other businesses going on.

319
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:25,000
But the way that I'm normally trying to keep things going is I try, at least when I'm focusing

320
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:29,560
on the business to list, at least $100 to $200 worth of books every single day.

321
00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:33,320
So a lot of the times with the books I'm doing, that only equates to like one or two books.

322
00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:35,240
So on those days, I might add a little bit more.

323
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:38,920
Like one or two books, so on those days I might end up listing like 10 books, which is a good

324
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:39,480
amount.

325
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:44,280
So I list as much as I can as often as I can just to try to keep things spicy on the store,

326
00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:45,720
keep the store active.

327
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:52,360
But for sales volume, I get between a few hundred dollars, like 500 on the low end to a couple of

328
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:53,560
thousand dollars on my business.

329
00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,520
Obviously depends on how much work I'm putting into the business.

330
00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:00,840
So like when I'm totally laid back and I stopped listing, stop sourcing for a few months, it will

331
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:06,920
get down to the $500 range, but when I'm going hardcore, it's going to be 800, 900, 1000,

332
00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:07,960
1200.

333
00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:13,240
And in the case of the giant awesome book that I got, The Time Machine, I mean, when

334
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,360
you're selling one book for like six grand, that definitely does help your bottom line

335
00:17:16,360 --> 00:17:17,000
there.

336
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:17,480
So yeah.

337
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,720
Now, dealing with these high dollar books, do you have a insurance thing you do with

338
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:23,160
your shipping or signature?

339
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:24,440
Or how do you do that?

340
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:32,120
So I know someone's going to hate me for saying this, but 99.9% of the time, I don't do anything

341
00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:35,560
special for it because I've had no issues thus far.

342
00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:40,040
And end of the day, let's be honest, I'm putting $2 into the book.

343
00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:43,160
I'm paying $3 for shipping or whatever.

344
00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:44,520
I'm actually $3.

345
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,120
That's like three years ago.

346
00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:47,240
I'm sorry.

347
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:48,280
Doing five bucks now.

348
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,480
So it's like, okay, they lost it.

349
00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:52,440
That stinks.

350
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:53,720
Let me refund the buyer.

351
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:54,840
Do this, do this.

352
00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:56,840
At the end of the day, I'm out like six bucks.

353
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:00,440
So I'm not concerned about that.

354
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:04,600
But yeah, it is something that I'm like, maybe these really, really high end books, I might

355
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:05,560
do a thing or two for.

356
00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:08,760
Do they go out priority or do they go out media mail?

357
00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:10,120
Media mail.

358
00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:11,880
I'm with you.

359
00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,840
Yeah, I'll ship $300, $500 books and silly media mail.

360
00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:17,640
And I don't insure it.

361
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:18,840
I don't do signatures either.

362
00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:22,200
I've never had a book lost.

363
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:23,800
And even, well, I'll take that back.

364
00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:29,000
I've had two books hit the lost and found and never to be found from USPS.

365
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:30,280
Refunded the buyer.

366
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:32,040
They gave, it was fine.

367
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:37,160
Nobody's really mad at the federal government not doing their job.

368
00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:37,720
They really aren't.

369
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:39,880
That's just part of the course.

370
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:40,440
Pretty much.

371
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:47,960
So I don't think it's worth doing insuring or shipping up a higher mail class to have

372
00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:50,200
some kind of at least $100 insurance thing.

373
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:55,000
I think what priority mail does, but everybody's welcome to run their business how they see

374
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:55,320
fit.

375
00:18:55,320 --> 00:19:00,200
If you want to pay for fancy insurance and ship priority mail, more power to you, I guess.

376
00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:04,440
I'm going to run a YouTube poll next week.

377
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:09,320
It's going to say, I sold a book for $6,000 and I shipped it media mail.

378
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:10,280
Am I a criminal?

379
00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:15,400
And I guarantee you 95% of people say yes, but I do agree.

380
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:16,840
I do the same thing as you, Caleb.

381
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,840
I would ship it media mail and wash my hands of it.

382
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:22,840
Media mail, no insurance, no signature.

383
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:23,480
That was that one.

384
00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:28,840
Listen, that's why we look so young.

385
00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:30,360
We don't worry about that kind of stuff.

386
00:19:30,360 --> 00:19:35,160
We just keep doing our normal stuff and send it out the door and hey, you know, whatever

387
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:35,960
happens, happens.

388
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:37,320
That's pretty interesting.

389
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:38,040
I have a question though.

390
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:38,440
Sorry.

391
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:45,160
Is there like a certain book or maybe even like a certain set that you have sold multiple

392
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:45,560
of, right?

393
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:46,440
It's different for us.

394
00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:53,400
We kind of can see if we know we sold something for 50 bucks, we probably, I have items, I've

395
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,680
sold multiple CDs, the same CD for 50 plus dollars.

396
00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,520
And I know if I'm out and about and I see it, it's a little bit different with what you're

397
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,320
doing because there's different editions for the stuff you do.

398
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:05,960
And the edition makes a huge difference in the price.

399
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:07,000
So I'm curious.

400
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,240
Do you have any items, like any books that you have sold multiple of that were really

401
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,200
profitable that just somehow just keep turning up while you're outsourcing?

402
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:18,520
So it used to be the case that, yeah, I'd keep on finding the same book.

403
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:20,120
And I still do have a couple that I find.

404
00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:21,160
I'm like, oh, I know that book.

405
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:22,040
I'll grab that book.

406
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:23,640
I do have that happen quite often.

407
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:28,280
But when I first started my business, it was actually the Encyclopedia Britannica books.

408
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:32,760
If you guys know about those, the 30 set books that weigh like 80 pounds when you ship them

409
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:33,080
all out.

410
00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:37,080
When I first started my business, I actually just kept on finding those left and right

411
00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:38,360
and all over the board.

412
00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:39,480
So I'd keep on buying those.

413
00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:40,440
I keep on flipping those.

414
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:45,160
But for the past three years, I have not found a single set.

415
00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:48,360
I actually had my grandma, she was clearing out her library and was like, hey, you want

416
00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:49,240
an Encyclopedia set?

417
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:50,040
I'm like, sure.

418
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:51,480
I haven't had one of those forever.

419
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:56,040
But besides that, I don't get many of the same books that I used to, which is so funny

420
00:20:56,040 --> 00:21:00,120
because it's like what changed in the past three years that no one has this book anymore.

421
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:03,480
But besides that, I do have some books that I've sold several of.

422
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:07,560
But when you're doing antique books, antique books encompasses most of history.

423
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,520
And when you encompass most of history, that's a big variety of books.

424
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,080
So I come across some and I'm like, oh, I remember you.

425
00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:14,520
I'll take you and you and you.

426
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:18,840
But by and large, a lot of times it's like all foreign to me and it's all, oh, I've never

427
00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:19,400
seen you before.

428
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:20,280
What are you worth?

429
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:21,160
Nothing, nothing, nothing.

430
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:22,440
Oh, this one's worth $500.

431
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:22,940
OK.

432
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:27,000
So there's a particular boutique set.

433
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:28,040
I'm going to mention that.

434
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,760
Whenever I mention it, nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about.

435
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,000
But are you familiar with the limited edition club books, like their 20s on up?

436
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,080
How often do you find those?

437
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:40,040
Because me, I find them hardly ever, at least in my area.

438
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:45,080
So when I first started, again, this is something that's changed since I started.

439
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:47,880
And now when I first started, I saw like one or two.

440
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,160
But since then, I have actually gotten to the point that it's like a lot of places I

441
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:52,600
go to, I find a couple of them.

442
00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:54,600
So it's like, oh, I know this one and this one and this one.

443
00:21:54,600 --> 00:22:00,360
And it's fun because sometimes those limited edition book club edition books, sometimes

444
00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:01,160
they're worth a good chunk.

445
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,200
And other times it's like, this is worth 25 cents.

446
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:04,920
What's wrong with that?

447
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:05,400
What's wrong with this one?

448
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:06,360
Right.

449
00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:10,520
I've noticed that there's huge swing and they're from the same period, time period.

450
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,160
I think it would sell for more, but you're like you, it's like a quarter.

451
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:15,960
It's like, why?

452
00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:19,080
What happened to this book to be so not valuable?

453
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,440
Who hurt you as a child, Mr. Book?

454
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:23,000
Right.

455
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,040
What did you do wrong?

456
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:29,000
Just for those who aren't familiar, these are equivalent of Franklin Library, Easton

457
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,680
Press, but way on back, 20s on up probably, maybe even earlier.

458
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:38,680
They're highly collectible because people try to collect the more boutique type publishers,

459
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:39,720
I guess the best way to put it.

460
00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,960
And they like imported paper from Italy and they got gold from France and all this crazy

461
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,440
nonsense and they're really pretty.

462
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:49,960
They're really well done better.

463
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,760
Well, I'm going to say they're better than the Easton, the folio societies.

464
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:53,320
They really are.

465
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:59,480
So whenever I find one, I always pick them up, but unfortunately sometimes they're worth

466
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:00,040
a quarter.

467
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,840
Sometimes there were several hundred dollars.

468
00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:04,040
It's just kind of a dice roll.

469
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:08,440
But back to the eBay side of things.

470
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:14,760
So how long did it take you to really get in the swing of eBay?

471
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:19,480
Were you off and on kind of dabbling at it or did you just go balls to the wall with

472
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:20,680
it when you got into eBay?

473
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,720
A lot of the stuff I do when I do it, I try to do it as hardcore and as like thoroughly

474
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,760
as I can because if I'm trying something out, I want to make sure that I gave it the best

475
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:29,320
effort I could.

476
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:33,560
So when I started in on the eBay, I was like, okay, I'm not just going to buy one or two

477
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:33,800
books.

478
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:38,520
I'm going to buy most of the antique books, if not all the antique books from this first

479
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:41,080
Frenzel Library sale I hit and started buying antique books at.

480
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:43,560
So that's sort of how I like to do my business.

481
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:47,400
I like to be like, okay, if I'm going to test this out, I'm going to test out as hardcore

482
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:47,960
as I can.

483
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:49,720
And was there another part of your question?

484
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:50,040
Sorry.

485
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:57,320
Well, I guess the second part of my question was on the listing part, how long does it

486
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:58,360
take you to do a listing?

487
00:23:58,360 --> 00:24:01,320
Because I think you're like me and you put a lot more detail into your listings.

488
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:02,760
Yeah.

489
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:07,960
So as you said, I do put a little more detail into it than a lot of people actually recently

490
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:12,120
had a customer, not a customer, a YouTube viewer who was like, yeah, when I'm buying

491
00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:15,480
an antique book, a nice book, I'm not going to buy a book that has just one photo.

492
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:19,160
So for me, I know that I'm catering to that sort of crowd.

493
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,520
I mean, when you're selling an antique book, an antique book is not like a brand new book.

494
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,040
So Mike, I mean, you can take one photo and it's good because it's a new book.

495
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:30,040
It's not going to be like really terrible, but an antique book, just for an example,

496
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:32,200
let me just grab a random one.

497
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:37,320
You have special stains on the cover that are a little weird that someone might want

498
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:37,800
to know about.

499
00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:39,800
You have the sun bleaching on the cover.

500
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,400
So I mean, it's going to be a different color.

501
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,200
You have the, it might be an X library book.

502
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,360
It might have some writing in it, all that sort of stuff.

503
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:50,200
So I like to mention all those things that I can so people know what they're getting

504
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,200
in a lot of the times I am willing to do that.

505
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:56,840
I am capable of doing that with my whole time, put into it the time investment because a

506
00:24:56,840 --> 00:24:59,240
lot of these books are worth a good chunk more money.

507
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,320
So that's why I'm able to do that.

508
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:05,400
And in addition to all that, again, I just try to cater to the more boutique sort of

509
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:05,800
crowd.

510
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:07,400
And that's why I wrap all of my books.

511
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,520
That's why I ship them out in boxes as opposed to padded mailers.

512
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:14,200
I want people to feel like they are dealing with someone that is a little more prestigious,

513
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:14,680
if you will.

514
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,400
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't be talking about us, padded mailer people.

515
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,320
Like we live under the underpass or something.

516
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:21,800
All right.

517
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,040
You know, I got a question for you.

518
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,200
You just showed the book and it had like that sticker on the inside.

519
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:33,400
Now say like, say you have two copies of the same book and you're listed those and one

520
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,880
has the sticker inside or like a lot of the antique books I see, it'll have like the pencil

521
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,240
mark and like somebody is trying to sell it at an old bookstore and it'll have like a

522
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:42,280
dollar or whatever.

523
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:43,880
Does that affect the price?

524
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:45,640
Like, and if so, like how much?

525
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:50,600
So I find it really matters upon the book itself.

526
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:55,240
So there are some times that I will actually go in and erase the pencil marked in price

527
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:58,680
because a lot of the times people didn't press really hard on the paper, like a complete

528
00:25:58,680 --> 00:25:59,800
psychopath.

529
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:01,320
I press when I write really hard.

530
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:02,840
So I'm one of those psychopaths.

531
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,840
But a lot of times I will actually go in and erase it because people, if you can have the

532
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,920
difference between a brand spanking new almost looking book where it has no writing, people

533
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:12,520
generally will pay a premium for that.

534
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,840
But at the same time, with some of these books like this one, you might not have any other

535
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:21,320
copies like anywhere out there or if there are there's like one or two other ones.

536
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:22,200
So it can be really rare.

537
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,600
Like this one, there wasn't a whole lot of other copies.

538
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,760
In fact, I don't know if I could find any comps on this one.

539
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,520
So I just picked it up for like a buck.

540
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,560
But a lot of the times it just is all over the board.

541
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:32,360
It's like, okay.

542
00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:36,840
So I, when I first started, I thought because I was doing the Amazon FBA side of things,

543
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:39,320
you know, I thought, okay, it's an X library book.

544
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:39,880
Here you go.

545
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:41,000
It's only good condition.

546
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,600
No one wants a good condition book.

547
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,880
So I used to be a little more skeptical of these things.

548
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,720
But now that I've done it a long enough time, it's like, okay, this one might be X library.

549
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,400
And it actually is worth the same exact amount of money as this brand new book.

550
00:26:53,400 --> 00:27:00,120
So as another example, I actually just sold a book from 1791 for $30, which was absolutely

551
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:00,680
pitiful.

552
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:04,840
But there was only one other edition of that book anywhere out there that I could find.

553
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:09,640
And I actually priced my book basically the same price as them and it ended up selling.

554
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:11,720
So that's sort of all over the board like that.

555
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:14,760
You've sold a book without a cover, correct?

556
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:15,720
Yeah.

557
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:16,360
Yeah.

558
00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:18,840
I have quite a few books that sell without covers.

559
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:20,520
I don't sell them quite as often.

560
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,480
People are a little more particular on that because I mean, when you're buying a book,

561
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,000
you want it to look like a book, not like a random staple pamphlet.

562
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,320
Anyone can get that from the office, you know?

563
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:34,680
So I do find books without covers are a little harder to sell, but that doesn't mean that I

564
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:35,720
overlook them all the time.

565
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:40,760
I will still do all I can to look these books up because sometimes some of them can be worth

566
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:42,520
dozens or even hundreds of dollars.

567
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,560
I've not had any be worth in the thousands territory though.

568
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:48,040
So here's one question.

569
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,960
Even in my vintage area, I find nothing about the book, no pricing, whatever.

570
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:55,880
It's up to me to make up the own price.

571
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,560
I have a general idea of doing this for a minute of what it'll probably go for.

572
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:01,000
If it can go for more, whatever.

573
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,440
If it could go for less, whatever.

574
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:03,480
But there's none on there.

575
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,280
So scarcity methodology applies.

576
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:12,920
So for you on your price point, because it could be the only one in existence, right?

577
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:13,720
How do you do it?

578
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,400
You get to make up whatever price you want.

579
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,520
You can off-bass for a million dollars if you want it.

580
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,680
So how do you come in line with the market?

581
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,040
Is it kind of like me where you have just a general idea or do you have a different way

582
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:26,680
to go about it?

583
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,480
So for me, I deal with a lot like you.

584
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,760
It's like, okay, I have a general idea and then I also deal with some of the gut feeling

585
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:37,800
sort of thing and I do have a lot of people who are like, hey, you should price based on

586
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:41,400
this one website that has all the data that ever existed and usually doesn't have all

587
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,320
the data that ever existed and it's not worth the price in my opinion as well for a lot

588
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,440
of these things because at the end of the day, it's like, okay, this is a book from,

589
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:49,560
let me just open this one up.

590
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,160
This is here is a book from 1885.

591
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,720
It's a book on Christianity, which is one of my better selling things, my better profiting things.

592
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:02,440
Since it's so small, a lot of these smaller ones are worth less than say a full-size book.

593
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:06,520
So it's like, okay, this book right off the bat, just looking at it, if I can't find any

594
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,480
comps, I'd say this book's worth 40 bucks all day long.

595
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:14,680
So it's like, I do get the general idea and then sometimes, so like 90% of the time, I'd

596
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,920
say I do the entire thing of it's worth about 40 bucks and then sometimes though, there

597
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:22,440
will be the book that's like, it's got a little bit of a gut feeling going on.

598
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,080
So I'm actually going to ask like 260 for this one.

599
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:29,160
So it's a little all over the board, but once you do this long enough, you do get a little

600
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:33,800
bit of that bookseller gut and you get to the point that you're like, hold up, I think this

601
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:34,520
one's worth this.

602
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,600
Yeah, it's the same in my field except lower prices.

603
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:42,200
But yeah, it just comes naturally.

604
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:46,040
You've done it for a minute and you just have, okay, I should look this one up.

605
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:51,160
It has a lot of good points going for it versus nah, this is a dime a dozen kind of thing,

606
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:52,680
just generic price point it.

607
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:58,840
So on that, on your pricing point, do you charge more for the way you list things?

608
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:03,240
Are you above market, at market, below market with competitors in your field?

609
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:07,000
Again, that's one of those answers that I got to answer.

610
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:07,800
It depends.

611
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:12,680
By and large, I'd say 90% of the time right now, I'm trying to undercut everyone else,

612
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:14,840
especially with like recession fears, that sort of thing.

613
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:18,040
I'm trying to make sure that my stuff sells before all then because I'm like, I'm not

614
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:19,640
going to get stuck with bum steer here.

615
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,240
I want to make sure that I'm making good money.

616
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:27,080
But when I am doing the business, I really just base things on the book itself.

617
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:31,000
And when I want to get rid of that book, I think the book is worth $1,000 and no one

618
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:32,120
else is charging $1,000.

619
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,760
They might be charging $700, but my book is so much prettier.

620
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:38,200
I will happily charge more than the market because again, it is the entire scarcity sort

621
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:43,240
It's like, okay, I know that 15 other people have this edition of this book, but no one

622
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,080
has one that doesn't have any writing in it.

623
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:48,840
No one has one that doesn't have any like STDs rolling around in it because it just

624
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,560
looks nasty as everything you guys have seen some old books.

625
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,600
I mean, it's like, what did you do to this, sir?

626
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,360
So it does depend, but by and large, I do try to undercut people.

627
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:03,080
Now, I got asked this recently and I told him, no, I don't do it.

628
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:05,080
So I'm curious what you would say to this.

629
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:08,280
Do you look up every signature you find in a book?

630
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,480
It really depends on the signature itself.

631
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:13,480
It's a really fancy looking one.

632
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:15,480
And it's like, there's something special of this.

633
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:16,520
I will look it up.

634
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:21,960
So I'd say 50% of the time, I will actually get the signature actually being something

635
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:22,440
cool.

636
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,800
It doesn't really affect the value very much, but it is fun to be able to look these things

637
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:30,280
up and be like, is this person like important enough that this book's worth $7 million or

638
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,240
is that are they important enough that it's just like, that's cool.

639
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,480
So it's not really worth my time to look these things up, but I'm hoping eventually I will

640
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:42,040
find one by like Franklin Delano Roosevelt or something.

641
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,040
Be like, hey, look, it has this guy.

642
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:51,000
Now, when you have somebody of note, do you put in the listing that it's signed or do

643
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:52,120
you have it authenticated?

644
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:53,000
What's your process?

645
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:53,720
What do you find?

646
00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:55,960
Oh, somebody of note signed this.

647
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:56,520
They're important.

648
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,200
They're related to the book somehow, some way.

649
00:31:59,320 --> 00:31:59,560
Yeah.

650
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,880
So as you guys know, probably from the shipping side of things, since I'm not paying for

651
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,320
insurance on the shipping, since I'm not paying for the signature, I'm not going to pay for

652
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:11,560
the authentication, but I will go out and authenticate it as best I can on my own.

653
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,840
I mean, I will look up all the different variations of this person's signature.

654
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,080
If they are really important, I will mention it in the listing.

655
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:21,160
I'll even say like signed by Bob Ross, you know, and I'll be like that.

656
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,600
And then I'll make sure that I have a photo like of the whole page that the signature's

657
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:24,680
on.

658
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,840
Then I'll get like an up close shots and see the pin strokes, see that it actually is a

659
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:30,200
legit sort of thing going on.

660
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,480
But yeah, I'm not going to pay $300 for a certificate of office authenticity or anything

661
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:35,800
like that.

662
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:36,360
Sorry.

663
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:37,960
So that's just how I do it.

664
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,840
And I haven't had anyone complaining so far.

665
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:45,720
And one of the things about since I'm not charged, not sorry, since I'm not paying for

666
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,000
that certificate, I'm not going to charge them like $7 million for it.

667
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,480
Like if I'm charging $7 million, I might go out and do that.

668
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,600
But by and large, it is like, hey, this is signed by this person.

669
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:55,560
Here's this.

670
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,480
I'll charge 15 bucks more, 30 bucks more.

671
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:58,200
Depends on the book.

672
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:00,600
I might just charge 20% as a baseline more.

673
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:01,320
It really depends.

674
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:06,520
So for me, when I find somebody and I find a lot more artist signatures in my field

675
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:10,440
because of the cover arts and my paperbacks than I do author signatures.

676
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:15,000
But I always say in there, I presume it is signed by such individual.

677
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:17,320
Use your best judgment.

678
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,800
I don't even put in the, for those that don't know, there's an item specific where you can

679
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:22,440
say it's signed.

680
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:23,400
I don't do that.

681
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,280
I put it down in the description that, hey, it may be signed.

682
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:27,160
There's a photo of it.

683
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,840
See photo blah above for signature verification on your end.

684
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:37,960
I have this maybe crazy fear that I can get dinged and it's fake because forgery is whatever.

685
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:42,760
Or just some guy wrote it in just copying the name because whatever reason goes on human brains.

686
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:43,240
Who knows?

687
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,200
So I kind of play it safe when it comes to that.

688
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:53,320
I've thought about getting them validated before, but I found even in authors, it doesn't

689
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:55,640
affect the price that much.

690
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:57,480
Maybe an extra 15, 20 bucks.

691
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:03,400
Unless it's like somebody, the thing with signatures folks, they have to sign rarely

692
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:05,720
for it to really be valuable in most cases.

693
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,400
So the less they sign, the more valuable it can be kind of deal.

694
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:11,160
But that's just how I do it.

695
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,160
I got two signature stories.

696
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:13,640
Right?

697
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:18,120
So first one, dog, the bounty hunter.

698
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:18,920
I'm a fan.

699
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:19,320
All right.

700
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,840
Deb hates dog, the bounty hunter, but like whenever I have it on TV, she's like, turn

701
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:23,800
this off, whatever.

702
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:29,560
I actually found dog, the bounty hunter book signed and listen, whether a 10 year old signed

703
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,520
it or not in my heart, it's signed by dog, the bounty hunter.

704
00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:32,920
Right?

705
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:39,720
But then like what Jib is saying, I also found one of Trump's older books signed by him.

706
00:34:39,720 --> 00:34:45,160
And the book alone is like a $4 book, but with his signature, it's like, you know, close

707
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:46,360
to a $200 book.

708
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:48,920
But these are things that I don't really like.

709
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:50,840
I don't look for it was just by chance.

710
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,560
And I know some people like, oh, I checked books for autographs.

711
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:58,360
Well, if I'm sending stuff into Amazon, the last step is me flipping through the pages

712
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,440
before I put it in the box and send it off.

713
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,000
If it's signed, I don't care.

714
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,480
It's still good condition, still the same condition though.

715
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,440
I don't go back and change anything or try to target Primo.

716
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:12,040
So I've sold probably, you know, hundreds of books that were signed and it really has

717
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:12,760
no effect.

718
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:17,240
I mean, it would be cool to, you know, a book signed by like Ben Franklin or something,

719
00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:21,160
you know, that'd be like awesome to have, but think, I mean, I don't know.

720
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:23,800
I got some rapid fire questions for you, Caleb.

721
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:25,320
This is going to be the lightning round here.

722
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:25,880
All right.

723
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:31,560
Give me three tips, a person who never really, you know, a scanner like myself.

724
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:36,120
I walk into a bookstore, a thrift store, and there's a lot of antique books.

725
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:40,040
Give me three tips to kind of three newbie tips that are going to make my life a little

726
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:40,680
bit easier.

727
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:45,080
Maybe not easier, but it will help you with the selling of the antique books.

728
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,760
But the first thing, guys, I say this on my channel, look every single book up.

729
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:52,840
I know it sounds time consuming, but that's tip number one is look everything up.

730
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:57,400
Tip number two, to look it up, just title, author, and the year it was printed.

731
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:58,520
That's all you really have to do.

732
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:01,800
Some people get like off into the weeds and they save the edition, all these sorts of

733
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:05,400
things, but you get a good ballpark idea based on just the title, author, year.

734
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:06,680
That really is a good thing.

735
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:12,200
And the third thing, honestly, I would say if you are new to this whole thing and you're

736
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:17,720
trying to get into the business, don't just like scan one or two books and be like, oh,

737
00:36:17,720 --> 00:36:20,920
no, these antique books are worth anything or actually look it up, not scan it.

738
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:21,400
Sorry.

739
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,000
Don't just do one or two.

740
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:27,160
I find that I like to do at least 15 books before I'm like, okay, none of these books

741
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:28,040
here are worth anything.

742
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:33,000
So like I don't go through every single one and check every single one once I get through

743
00:36:33,720 --> 00:36:35,720
15 that are just all trash.

744
00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:41,160
But a lot of people I find do end up quitting after just going through like one or two books

745
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:42,600
and like none of it's worth anything.

746
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:43,960
I'm washing my hands of this.

747
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:44,840
It's not worth anything.

748
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:49,720
So I would recommend look everything up, do it as quick as you can, obviously, just type

749
00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:52,920
in the info that you really need and try to get through as many as you can before you

750
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,160
decide this is bum steer.

751
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:55,880
I don't want to do it.

752
00:36:57,080 --> 00:37:02,200
I definitely when I have my bulk buys and my bulk pickups from the library, I look up

753
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,640
every single one that doesn't have a barcode just because I know there's money in it.

754
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,840
And yeah, I mean, it's really we consider and say it's time consuming.

755
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:14,120
But once you have the app figured out eBay, like you said, it's so easy to just type it,

756
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,640
filter to sold listings, see if there's anything listed.

757
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,240
And you're making decisions basically within 30 seconds per book.

758
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:22,840
So really isn't that time consuming?

759
00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:27,480
Next one I got for you is, OK, antique book collective.

760
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:27,980
All right.

761
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:29,800
Are you a collector?

762
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:34,680
Is the room the rest of the room we can't see full with books from your collection or

763
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:38,680
do you sell primarily and collect secondary or is it vice versa?

764
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:45,560
Yeah, so I actually chose the name collective instead of collector for my channel name,

765
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:51,560
not only because I wanted it to be ABC and be funny, but collective is not really a collection

766
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,360
of books. It's actually supposed to be like a collective of people.

767
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:58,040
So I'm trying to find all the other booksellers I can out there and all the people that want to

768
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:02,520
be booksellers. So that's where collective came from was I just want to make sure that I get as

769
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,960
many people as I want. That way we can get as many books as we want.

770
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:10,840
As for collections myself for books, I don't really collect a lot of the antique books that I

771
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:15,320
have. I know I sound like even for doing that. I mean, I'm selling all these antique books that are

772
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,880
so collectible, but at the end of the day, it's my business.

773
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:22,680
And it is really fun to be like, yeah, talking to all these other collectors. Yeah, I actually

774
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,640
had that book a couple years ago. It was totally awesome. It's beautiful. I mean, you should have

775
00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:32,280
seen it. It's really fun to do stuff like that. It's like, yeah, a lot of the rush, you know,

776
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:36,920
like having a collection for me is just like saying that I had it at some point, you know,

777
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:40,920
so for me, it really works for being a seller because it's like, yeah, I had that book and

778
00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:44,840
that book and that book. And I've mentioned other videos that I have on my channel that

779
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,360
the first edition of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, that's one of the first science fiction

780
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:52,680
books that I read. And I'm a science fiction nerd. And so to think that I even owned that

781
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:59,160
thing at some point, it's like, that is stupid. Cool. So a lot of that is the end of endomorphin

782
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:05,080
or whatever it is hit for me. It's like, oh man, did you guys know that I actually had that book

783
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:10,520
at some point? Isn't that crazy? So that's sort of that for me. Is there some crazy like antique

784
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:15,800
book out there, like if you came across, even though it's worth five thousand dollars, if you would actually keep for yourself?

785
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:22,280
I really thought that I was going to keep that Time Machine one, honestly. There are a lot of

786
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:27,480
books that I've actually bought and sold over the years that I'm like, OK, I do list all the ones

787
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:32,440
that I buy for the business, honestly, just because that is my business. I mean, I do need to make

788
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:37,560
money. Money is a thing. Money does exist, believe it or not. But I don't think there's anything that

789
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:41,720
would actually be like, I'm not going to sell this no matter what. But that isn't to say if I do like

790
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:46,200
a book a whole lot, it's like I'm going to charge an extra hundred bucks onto this one because I

791
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:50,520
would be happy to hang onto this book for like three more years just because it looks really cool

792
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:55,080
because it is really cool, that sort of thing. So there are some books that it's like, no, that one's

793
00:39:55,080 --> 00:40:00,760
mine for now. You can get it off me, but it's going to cost you. I'm going to interject that bike here

794
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:06,280
real quick. So do you sell on any other platforms other than eBay, like A-Books? That's what people

795
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:10,760
also think of when we say antiquarian or vintage. We go to Abe's, Connadeal versus eBay.

796
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:18,120
I don't. I know I sound like a bad eBay, especially a bad antique bookseller. I do check out

797
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:22,760
A-Books when I'm doing price comps, but I'm eBay only. It has worked so well for me on the

798
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,320
price structure for fees. I know a lot of people complain about the fees, but when you're paying

799
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:31,960
$2 for a book and you're selling a book for 40 bucks or whatever, actually, guys, my average

800
00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:35,400
sales price when I'm doing the business, like I really like to do it. My average sales price is

801
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:41,880
about 70 bucks. So when you have the eBay fees on all that, it's not really going to ruin everything.

802
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:47,400
Whereas with Amazon FBA for me, I was losing for a lot of the books I'd be selling. I did go for

803
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:53,080
lower and better things. I did have a lot of things that were like, oh, I'm losing like 60%

804
00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:56,120
of the money between all the different things. It's like, that's not really worth my time.

805
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,000
Promoted listings or no promoted listings?

806
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:05,080
I promote all my listings. When I first started a couple of years ago, I didn't do it for anything

807
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:10,920
except for the higher end books that I wanted to make sure sold. But eBay, they change things. A

808
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:15,240
lot of other people have pointed this out as well. If you don't promote your listing, it's like

809
00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:17,400
a lot less likely to sell, which really stinks.

810
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:23,480
All right. So I got another one for you. What's the future here of the collective?

811
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:28,520
I know you have a lot of different things going on in the background. You're not just a bookseller.

812
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:33,240
You have a lot of other businesses. You're working on your KDP, things like that. What's the future

813
00:41:33,240 --> 00:41:38,200
of selling books for you? Is this something like you're going to continuously do over the next

814
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:43,720
50 years? It might not be at the scale you want it to be, but you're always going to be selling

815
00:41:43,720 --> 00:41:46,520
books here and there, or are you planning on just doing something else?

816
00:41:47,720 --> 00:41:53,320
It's something I'm planning on doing until I kick the bucket. Hopefully, my descendants will

817
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:58,040
end up continuing doing it because it's just such a fun business for me. It's very fulfilling to be

818
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:02,600
like, yeah, I just found this book from 1700s that was going to get thrown away. This is amazing.

819
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:08,280
It is something that's just really fun on that point. I actually did have a period. I did this

820
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:14,200
business hardcore right out of high school. I did it hardcore for two years, and then I almost

821
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:20,360
basically stopped. I didn't buy basically any books for a couple of years so I could just focus on

822
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,560
all the other business ventures that I'm doing because I am in a lot of different business

823
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,640
ventures doing all these different sort of things. I actually did stop, more or less,

824
00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:31,800
buying a lot of these books. I did go out every now and then and buy a couple,

825
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:37,640
but I did basically stop for a long time, but I did keep the eBay store going. I did keep fulfilling

826
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,800
all the different orders that I did get. That is something that I do see myself doing potentially

827
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:47,000
again in the future. There are times that it's like, okay, so I need the next two years potentially

828
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:51,720
for this specific project because there are a lot of bigger projects that I do work on in my life

829
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:55,000
that's like, okay, this is not just something that's going to take a couple hours here and there. This

830
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:59,960
is something that's going to take every waking hour of my life for x long. For me, that's something

831
00:42:59,960 --> 00:43:06,040
that I do do, but it is anti-book selling is something I plan on doing forever, just not at

832
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:13,800
the hardcore scale that I might do every now and then. Outside of book sets, do you do book lots?

833
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:21,560
Yeah. I do lots of books for generally the lower end books that I sell because as I mentioned

834
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:26,280
earlier in this thing with the recession fears, that sort of thing, I do study the economy. That's

835
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:32,440
a big area of my study. I'm a big nerd, as I mentioned already. I saw this coming, I want to

836
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:37,960
say about September of two years ago, I actually was like, okay, we are getting into a recession,

837
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:44,600
so I'm going to diversify into the lower level books, the lower cost books. I actually bought

838
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:49,320
a boatload and a half of mass market paperbacks. I do sell the mass market paperbacks as lots

839
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:55,480
because a lot of those don't sell as sets. I'm like, here is a lot of 20 different Star Wars

840
00:43:55,480 --> 00:44:00,360
mass market paperbacks. Here's a lot of different ones that are just, let's just say, broad thrillers,

841
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:04,520
if you will. That's sort of what I do, but by and large when I'm doing antique books,

842
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:11,720
it's sets 99.9% of the time. The 1% of the time that it's not, with the lots, it's usually the

843
00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:17,000
books are quite similar or maybe it's a lot of cookbooks, but by and large, it's either going to

844
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:23,000
be sets or it's going to be the individual books for me. That was the first video I ever watched

845
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:29,480
on your channel was your mass market paperback, lot them up and sell them videos, which is pretty

846
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:35,880
crazy because antique book guys selling Danielle Steel mass markets and that's how I stumble across

847
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:43,000
them. I'm curious, do you ever have any intentions on coming back to the dark side and being a book

848
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:52,520
scanner? I will admit it. I was using the eBay app, but I was scanning just the other day back on

849
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:56,600
the last big group of books that I bought from a university. I was actually scanning the textbooks

850
00:44:56,600 --> 00:45:00,520
and that sort of thing because it is so much faster to scan just a barcode as opposed to typing in

851
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:08,360
textbook, algebra two by John. It takes a long time. It's really nice just be able to be done.

852
00:45:10,200 --> 00:45:14,440
So there is still a little bit of the dark side inside of you somewhere. We just got to pull it

853
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:18,360
out and bring you back to the... Now it is a good point though because you hit on it,

854
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:25,000
right? The Amazon fees are just insanity now and they were insanity back when you decided that

855
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:32,040
it was insanity back then and it's insanity times two now. So I do like the idea of your whole

856
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:36,920
business model, antique books. Personally for me, I thought they were all junk when I first started

857
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:41,080
selling books. I didn't think there was any money in any single book that didn't have a barcode.

858
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:47,320
I'm sorely mistaken now. I only want to know how much money I just donated to a thrift store or

859
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:52,920
book bin just because... I don't know. It's one of those things where if you don't know or there's

860
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:58,680
really not a lot of content out there around antique books, right? There's you, but who else

861
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:04,600
really focuses on antique books when it comes to YouTube? I don't think there's anybody that just

862
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:10,440
solely focuses on antique books. So hopefully it's eye opening for people out there. You can just

863
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:14,840
walk in and nobody's really going to look at those books and you could find a whole bunch of money.

864
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:19,800
Sure, right? If you're on Amazon, there's probably not even a listing for a first edition,

865
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:25,000
Stephen King this or Stephen King that, but that's even a more common one where if somebody sees a

866
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:28,920
Stephen King book, just flip it open and see if it's first edition and boom, right there is a

867
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:33,240
$40 bill it's going to sell the same day listed on eBay. So it's not even like you got to have the

868
00:46:33,240 --> 00:46:37,560
huge knowledge base that you have because even some of the newer stuff, if you get the first

869
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:41,880
edition, it's going to be worth a nice good amount of money. Yeah, for sure.

870
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:47,000
All right. And I mean, the fees is the reason I pulled out and the amount of what I'd have to

871
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:52,920
find out in my area would be a lot less than last year, honestly, just for that adjustment.

872
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:57,800
So that's why I pulled it out. Go ahead. And to go off that stinking, not just the fees,

873
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,680
that's an expense for your business, but stinking Amazon. Like people are like,

874
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:04,280
oh, eBay scammers, I'm going to lose my money. But it's like, guys, have you seen the Amazon

875
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:09,160
scammers? Those babies will like, oh, I bought this $40 book. Oh, I'm returning it. Here's a rock.

876
00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:14,280
Now, what I thought about doing for funsies, because we've had the OA discussion and I'm

877
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:19,480
thinking about going the reverse, Amazon to eBay. I think that'd be fun to do because I've sent some

878
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:24,680
older stuff in there and some more boutique type stuff like Easton did not do well at Amazon.

879
00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:31,080
So I'm wondering if there's a way for me to OA it to eBay and make it justifiable cost wise.

880
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:34,520
That's just one of those crazy ideas I think of because everybody goes the reverse, eBay to Amazon.

881
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:42,280
So that should be fun. Yeah, yeah, experiments.

882
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:50,360
So like, somebody wants to start getting into antique books today. Because personally,

883
00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:55,720
for me, at least at my thrift stores, I don't see a lot of antique books out there. Like,

884
00:47:55,720 --> 00:48:01,000
what would be like, all right, I'm brand new to antique books. You said, you know,

885
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:06,040
you love libraries. Would that be like, say, would you tell me, hey, go to your local, you know,

886
00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:11,000
five libraries and check out their for sale section. And like, kind of what expectations

887
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:15,400
would you kind of put on somebody that was brand new to antique books when it comes to just getting

888
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:22,360
started with it? So I obviously for people that are brand new, I try to give them option,

889
00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:26,920
optionality, you know, for being like, if you're going to source, I'm not going to say just go to

890
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:31,320
this one store. So I actually have a list of three places that I recommend people go to for buying.

891
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:35,080
First one is estate sales. If you go to an estate sale, there's a good chance that the books are

892
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,840
not only going to be older, because a lot of the people that are doing estate sales, it's because

893
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:43,560
someone older passed away. So these people have books from their entire lifetime. Sometimes it's

894
00:48:43,560 --> 00:48:48,040
their grandparents, grandparents old books, you know, so it's going to be an antique. So that's

895
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,800
a great place to get them. And a lot of times those books are going to be well cared for because

896
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:57,000
someone's owned them all this time. Another one is friends of library sales. I find those are really

897
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,920
good, you get some really good prices at those. Problem is sometimes when it gets donated, it

898
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:06,040
might not be great. But a lot of these friends of library sales will donate and sell the nicer

899
00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:10,440
books that they do get donated, which is something that's nice. And finally, Goodwill Outlet is

900
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:15,320
probably one that I recommend more often than not, because again, that's where I got my first

901
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:19,880
edition of the time machine, people were asking 30 grand for that book when I bought it, and I

902
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:24,440
bought it for 229. So it's like, that's a good multiple. I didn't, I didn't sell it for 20. I

903
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:29,080
sorry for 30. I sold it for about six grand, I believe, but it is something that is definitely

904
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:34,040
a good option for people. And at the end of the day, I do sort of also say be like, hey,

905
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:39,000
maybe antique books aren't your thing. So maybe you should just go to Google Outlet, look around,

906
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:42,120
look for something that calls you and see what it's worth. I mean, some people go to Goodwill

907
00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:47,080
Outlet, and they just do jeans. I mean, it really depends. So yeah, kind of he brings up all the

908
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:52,040
time, right? If you're not like a specialized or interested in something like, if Caleb lived

909
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:55,720
around me, I'd be like, yo, I got all these antique books, come take a look, whatever you want to buy

910
00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:59,320
for a buck, two bucks, that's fine, take it off my hands. So even if it's something that really

911
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:05,080
isn't like your interest, like, you know, I'm not really big in the books, right? Sure, you know,

912
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:09,560
I did, I did walk into a lot of all first edition Stephen King's and that kind of open my eyes a

913
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:14,280
little bit, but maybe, maybe look out in your area, local bookstores, you know, somebody's going to

914
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:18,440
appreciate those antique books, just because there's no value in our eyes, because it doesn't have a

915
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:23,000
barcode doesn't mean there's no value in anybody's eyes, it's probably worth a whole bunch of money.

916
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,000
So I think we're going to wrap it up there. Caleb, thanks for hanging out. You want to find him,

917
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:31,960
he's over on the YouTube, great channel, everything about book selling. And even, you know,

918
00:50:31,960 --> 00:50:37,000
like he said, he's real into the economy. He has some, you know, two hour long videos of talking

919
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:41,480
about what's going on out there and just the market of books and things like that, and how,

920
00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:47,080
how basically coincides with his business, antique book collective over there. Any final thoughts, Johnny?

921
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:55,320
Final thoughts would be, when you don't know anything about a book or just have a funny

922
00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:59,400
feeling as Caleb was saying, that this could be worth something, take the time, learn it,

923
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:04,280
and you'll have that knowledge going forward. Yeah, leverage Caleb, comment on his YouTube

924
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:08,040
channel, you come across, you know, first, second edition book, all you got to do is comment,

925
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:11,880
he'll tell you if it's worth anything, or if you know, just if it's just trash, and you know,

926
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:16,200
kind of lean on somebody that has the experience. Caleb, final thoughts will let you wrap it up

927
00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:21,080
here and take it away. Yeah, honestly, like you don't even have to ask a cool expert. I mean,

928
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:25,960
I don't see myself in it as an expert whatsoever. But I mean, guys, the internet is a powerful thing.

929
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:31,560
I mean, you could literally can just look up. Here's this book. And like, you can literally

930
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,360
be like, I don't even know the year, you can just look up the book, and you can look for a similar

931
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:38,040
photo and you can see what it sells for. I mean, the internet is so powerful. Like if you guys

932
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:42,040
started this business 20 years ago, you might not have the internet, but nowadays we do. So it is

933
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:46,120
something you can leverage and should leverage. So yeah. All right. Thanks for hanging out. We

934
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:50,920
will talk to everybody next week. Thanks for listening to another episode of the resellers

935
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:55,960
mindset podcast. Today's full episode and all previous episodes are available to all YouTube

936
00:51:55,960 --> 00:52:01,240
members, along with the weekly zoom call and private discord. Head on over to youtube.com

937
00:52:01,240 --> 00:52:05,400
backslash to use book guy and consider joining for as little as 299 a month.