Let's Talk: Buy/Sell/Trade

        BST groups have started to become a really big thing in the book world. With the coming of the Book Boxes and more people becoming invested in Special Edition books, the up tick in people joining these types of groups. There is of course the huge elephant in the room where there are those that prey on people who miss out on certain books flipping them for a big profit. This is something that is kind of an eye sore for most of the book world. It's even becoming a point of contention with some authors. We're going to dive into the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with being in these groups as well as talk about what I think the best practice should be in these types of situations.

        As the world has become more online everyone is talking about FOMO. The fear of missing out has caused people to start buying and doing things that aren't necessarily needed just because it seems to be the "In" thing to do. With books, it shows itself in the form of people buying books just because everyone is talking about it. There doesn't seem to be any kind of connection with the books for people who feel this way. Which leads them to getting a book and then realizing that maybe this wasn't the book for them and then they search for ways to off load the books. Many then flock to "the market" to see how much they can get for these books. For me, this hasn't been a thing. I don't really feel the need to be involved with things that don't interest me, no matter how pretty or popular the particular thing is. When these types of situations pop up, it seems to me that it would be a good practice to find someone who seems eager to receive the book and let them buy it from the seller at cost or maybe at just a small profit for themselves. Of course everyone is entitled to do what ever they want but it does seem a little tacky when the item in question is selling for 3 to 4 times what someone paid for the book in the first place. The good side of this is that there have been a few books that I myself have really wanted and was lucky enough to find people who were willing to sell at cost. In those situations I have given more than was requested just as a thank you for not being a scalper. As a seller, I think the market is ripe to sell books since there are so many people now who are looking for just about any of the books that are done by some of the well known book boxes. If I were to receive one that I didn't really want, I could sell it easily. There are times when that isn't the case but then you could look into trading. Sometimes you may not have a book that is highly sought after but giving more books that have the potential to be big in exchange can definitely be something that you look into. 

        Now for the bad. Since most people believe in using "the market" to set the value for what they are willing to sell a book for, it can be a dog eat dog world. There are some books that I know that some people got with the intent of selling it for profit. For example, I know that there is a book out there by a certain dark romance author that was originally sold for about $50 maybe $60 dollars by a book box and has been selling for at least a couple hundred if not $1,000.00. It is quite a crazy mark up. Unfortunately, this is becoming more and more common. There are people who have admitted to going on the market and finding people who are selling books at cost and they then flip the book for a crazy amount of money. Of course there is no way of knowing whether the person is going to do this but I think holding out to see how often people are requesting these books is a key factor in seeing if they are a legit buyer. Many authors have started requesting that people not do this, or not buy from people who are doing this. The author of the book I mentioned has been one of them. Many book boxes are also starting to request this. People will flip the book the moment that they receive them and many of the people who buy them do not want to wait to get them since they have FOMO. When these book boxes are known to have sales on these same books later on once every person who is subscribed has received them. I think that this is a good practice for people who are looking for books that they may have missed out on to do. I have done this with books even when I was not a subscriber to a book box and it was wonderful and painless. Not to mention you get it so much faster than the subscribers do since they already have the books on hand and you don't have to wait long to receive it. So hold off on letting FOMO get the best of you so that you can save some money! As for the books that you missed out on from book boxes due to them coming out before you might have joined the game, then happy searching and hopefully, you don't run into someone trying to purely make money. 

        I haven't participated much in the trade side but to me that seems to be something that is harder to do. This has to deal with the value of the book to the other person. Someone could be looking for a book that was done previously that to others didn't really hold any value but to you can mean everything. For people who are new to the game this can be a daunting thing since, you more than likely don't have much to trade with. Some people even hold onto the books that they know are in demand to use as items to trade with instead of selling them. This seems like another good practice to do! I haven't had the opportunity to be in this boat yet but hopefully in the future I can join in on the trading! As with anything, this also comes with risk. You are almost completely dependent on the other person to be trustworthy enough to send the item when you are sending one to them as well. This to me is the scariest idea about purely trading items. I'm not sure what the system is on this. Maybe you list the book and have the person "buy" it. Then once you receive the item you have them do the same and then "buy" it from them for the same amount that you "sold" an item to them for? Of course through a reliable system that will give you your money back if the person decides to renege on the deal, so like PayPal G/S? Hopefully, someone in the comments will let me know how they work trades. I'm truly curious about how it works.

        There are many different groups and many different ways to go about doing things when it comes to Buy/Sell/Trade. Hopefully you have a good experience whether you are on the buying end, selling end or trading end. There are definitely some horror stories about doing this but there are also some great stories as well. Always be sure that you find out the rules about how to do this before diving in because it would be terrible to end up scammed. Pictures and videos are your friend when it comes to this because you can never go wrong! See you next month when we dive into another hot topic that is giving the book world fits!!