New chapter for used books: Buying, selling second-hand reads is growing trend

A team of book buyers from Powell's City of Books in Portland set up a temporary site in Seattle's University District for 10 days in September for one tantalizing reason: The Powell's employees would pay people cash in exchange for their used books. Previously owned books had become such a huge part of the company's business that Powell's was starving for more inventory.

Needless to say, the public responded enthusiastically to the promise of a few dollars for books otherwise gathering dust on living room bookshelves and packed away in attics. Long lines formed outside the store on The Ave, and some who lugged books to the event had to wait an hour or more to have their wares inspected by Powell's staff.

Powell's left town with a trove of more than 30,000 volumes that it would resell at its Portland stores and through its popular Powells.com Web site.

"We did better than expected," Powell's spokesman Steven Fidel said. "It was pretty much a steady stream the whole 10 days."

The bookstore's University District experiment blew the dust off of an old idea that's pulling in customers for large and small booksellers alike.

Bargain hunters have long enjoyed the option of browsing Internet sites such as Amazon, Abebooks, eBay and Alibris for used books, where prices for newer hardcover titles can be 30 to 50 percent less than the cover price of unread copies.

An unread copy of Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk's new novel, "Snow" (Knopf, $26), for example, sells at a discounted price of $17.68 on Amazon. But used copies sell for as little as $15.49 on the same Web site. The savings on paperbacks can be even greater.

But the virtual used-book market seems to be fueling interest from brick-and-mortar stores that buy and sell used books.

Some major book chains have started selling used copies of titles along with new ones, and that has publishers, who count on original sales, worried.

The Barnes & Noble chain has begun selling used books on an experimental basis at more than half a dozen of its locations nationwide, though not yet in the Seattle area, a local staffer said.

At Borders Books and Music, however, customers can place orders for used books over the phone or in person for pick-up at one of its Seattle area stores. Delivery usually takes two or three weeks.

But while publishers agonize, there is evidence that readers have grown more comfortable with the idea of buying used books — and selling their own. They are feeding the trend but also taking advantage of it.

The book world is notoriously bad at keeping tabs on itself, but in September, the trade magazine Publisher's Weekly pointed to surveys showing that $614 million worth of used books were sold last year and that used books made up about 14 percent of trade book purchases.

Sales have been driven in large part by double-digit growth at some online used-book businesses. But physical used-book stores are doing well, too.

At Powell's main store in downtown Portland, staffers purchase 3,000 to 5,000 used books from walk-in customers each day, but the store sells just as many off of its shelves, said Chris Hagen, manager of the store's used book business.

The Seattle scene

Despite a rash of store closures in the past few years, Seattle's used book temples are luring converts, too.

At Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park and other stores, used books sit side-by-side with new books and the selection keeps expanding as more people come in to sell their books.

"Our sales have been increasing along with our inventory," which now stands at 40,000 used books, buyer Samuel Gulpan said.

Half Price Books, a national chain with 82 stores, recently opened a 15,000-square-foot branch on Capitol Hill, the largest of its eight locations in the region.

For charm, there are wood beams, high ceilings, brick walls and a view of the Space Needle.

But Half Price Books makes its mark by offering cash on just about any book a customer brings in to sell. Or it will take books and donate them to charities as a customer service, West Coast regional manager Anne Von Feldt said.

She noted that Half Price buys up to 10,000 books from customers each month in the Seattle area alone.

And business isn't just good in famously book-hungry Seattle: The chain's Everett and Tacoma stores are going "gangbusters" right now, she said.

But the other factor that sets Half Price Books apart is that it typically offers less money for people's used books than other stores.

Von Felt attributed that to the store's take-everything philosophy and it's eponymous half-price, in-store resale policy.

As for why people are increasingly shopping for used books, Von Feldt points to economic factors.

"I think the demand is for affordable books," she said, noting the rising cost of new hardcovers and paperbacks. "It's not that someone will choose a used book over a new book. It's because of the price."

The Half Price formula has resulted in annual sales growth of about 5 percent, company spokeswoman Kelli Johnson said. Next year's sales are expected to reach $133 million nationwide.

Half Price Books faces competition with a passionate customer following in the form of the venerable Twice Sold Tales chain, which opened a new location in the Queen Anne neighborhood six months ago in a former bookstore space.

Twice Sold Tales also sells books at half the cover price, but it has gained a reputation for paying better rates than Half Price Books.

Niche market

Smaller outlets, such as the tiny Magus Bookstore in the University District, have carved out a niche in the used-book business, too.

"Every day I have people come in who have never been in a used bookstore before," said Chris Weimer, co-owner of Magus. The former house painter recently took over the 26-year-old store with his wife, Hanna McElroy. "I think used books used to have a stigma attached to them, but the Internet may have removed some of that."

"I have certain people who walk in every day with a handful of books," he added.

Weimer used to be a "book scout," a job that required visiting book-related events, thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales in search of titles that he would purchase and then resell to local bookstores.

Today Weimer works with his own book scout who visits the store each month with 40 or 50 boxes of books. Weimer may pay cash for about half of those titles.

He or his staff may also do house calls to inspect collections at people's homes that are too large to carry into the store.

Generally, Weimer pays customers one-third of the price that he'd sell a book for in his store. So most customers end up walking away with $1 to $4 for each book they bring in. Weimer will also offer store credit as an alternative.

At most used bookstores, buying rates are lower than some in the public might imagine. A whole box of trade paperbacks may yield only $5 or $10.

That's partly because bookstores take a risk in purchasing someone's used book and trying to resell it, Weimer said. If nobody buys the book, that's a financial loss to the store.

And there are few hard rules about what stores will accept or reject.

But a note to anyone wishing to unload hardcover mystery novels for cash at Magus: Chances are they won't be interested. "We can't sell them," Weimer said.

What's hot, what's not

Kurt Vonnegut lovers, on the other hand, should rejoice.

"We buy every Vonnegut that comes through the door," Weimer said, adding that works by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley are always in demand, too.

At Third Place Books, staff book buyers are always on the prowl for copies of Dan Brown's best-selling "The Da Vinci Code" (Doubleday), which has a list price of $24.95 but can sell for less than $10 in used hardcover form, depending on the condition and the bookseller.

"We pretty much buy every copy we see," said Stella Engelstad, a buyer at Third Place Books.

But that doesn't mean Third Place isn't selective on other titles.

"We won't buy everything from a customer," Englestad said.

A quirky charm

Used-book buying-and-selling is as much an art and culture as a business. Everything about the process is subjective, and often personal.

And that leads to a quirkiness that can't be measured in dollars and cents.

Weimer would find it "very embarrassing" not to have a copy of Richard Adams' 1972 rabbit-obsessed novel "Watership Down" on the shelf.

"You don't know what you're going to see when you come in here," Weimer said.

"We buy books on dog-breeding — judging dairy cattle. We try to have interesting books on the shelf — and the classics."

As Hagen of Powell's put it: "At a used bookstore, you'll walk in and find things that you didn't even know existed. They offer you a whole other world of reading."

Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com