How to Find More Used Book Inventory to Sell on Your Pango Shop
updated by PangoBooks, August 22, 2024
If you’ve been selling on PangoBooks (and thanks for doing that, by the way!) you probably kicked off your bookshop by going through your personal library and deciding which books you didn’t plan on reading again. If you’ve enjoyed the Pango experience and the super easy selling process we’ve created on our app, maybe you’re thinking about investing a little more time in expanding your Pango shop. If that’s the case, it’s time to start looking at ways to acquire more inventory.
There are a ton of ways to get more books to sell, and being a successful hobbyist bookseller is largely a matter of finding good books at good prices. In this blog post, we’re offering some general tips on book resale along with some specific sources you might want to consider when leveling up your Pango shop.
One note before we dive in: when dealing with large volumes of used books, there are always lots of opportunities for donations in your community. While obviously PangoBooks is a platform for book sales, we absolutely encourage folks to consider donating books locally, especially with school age books, or to their Little Free Library if there is one nearby. (Note: it is against Pango's guidelines to sell books from free lending services, but you're welcome to donate to them!) Book resale and book donations are in no way mutually exclusive, the more books getting into people’s hands the better!
With that, let’s start with some general guidelines on acquiring books for resale on Pango.
General Tips for Acquiring Inventory
- When it comes to used book selling, not all books are created equal. Many books you might encounter are unlikely to find a new buyer through Pango or any other venue. For example, manuals or how-to books for obsolete technology typically don’t sell, and books focused on passé trends or fads (think outdated diets) often have a hard time generating interest. When sourcing new inventory it’s important to ask if it’s worth making a listing at all. That said, since our listing process is so quick and it doesn’t actually cost anything to just make a listing, there’s no harm in giving it a shot if you're unsure. How to get started as a Pango Seller.
- When digging through older books keep an eye out for mold, water damage, or even pests that might be lurking in the pages. That 100-year-old publisher's binding might look fantastic on a bookshelf but it’s certainly not worth selling if it arrives to your buyer with black splotches on the page edges. Make sure you look through every book for damage and other issues when making a listing. As painful as it is, don’t be afraid to dispose of books that are past the point of no return. Check out our ultimate listing conditions guide.
- With the above in mind, it’s totally fine to sell books that have some conditional problems like damaged spines or dog-ears or notes in the margins so long as you are careful to disclose any issues in your Pango listing. Adding more photos and a detailed description is the best possible way to avoid a dissatisfied buyer and an unfortunate return situation. Other ways to optimize your listings.
- Consider developing a speciality for your shop and expanding your knowledge of the market for one particular genre or book type. This is a tried and true strategy for any sort of re-selling but definitely comes into play with books as well. If you decide to focus on a particular area of the book market, you’ll find that you’ll learn what’s selling, how to spot good deals, and eventually, build a network of buyers with similar interests. It doesn’t have to be a single speciality either, but even just paring back your shop’s focus from any book to a few types of books can be clarifying and productive. See other ways to help your Pango Store stand out!
- Be realistic when it comes to pricing. At the end of the day, used books that sell best on PangoBooks (or anywhere else online) are the ones with fair price tags. Taking the time to check what other folks are selling a particular book for is always a good step, whether it be a sub $5 paperback or an over $100 limited edition. The most important thing is to keep the end price in mind when acquiring books to sell and when making your listings. Learn more on how to price your books.
Where to Find More Books For Your Pango Shop
From Friends, Family and Neighbors
Perhaps the easiest way to find more books to sell is simply asking the people you know. You might be surprised how many folks have books they’d love to clear out of their homes. This is especially true with older relatives or people planning a move that will appreciate shedding a few extra heavy boxes from the process. If you want, you can always offer to split the proceeds from the books that sell, or maybe commit to donating some portion of your earnings to an organization they care about.
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Garage, Yard, and Estate Sales
Similar to the above, garage sales and the like are fantastic ways to get a ton of books for cheap. Estate sales can be a treasure trove of nicely bound classics or art books, and in all of these venues, there’s tons of room to negotiate for excellent pricing. As always, it’s important to remember that not every book on display here is going to be a great nominee for resale. That said, offering to take a large number of books from such sales is a tried-and-true tactic to get bulk discounts, even if you end up with a few slower moving titles.
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Local Classifieds and Groups
Similar to the above, keeping an eye on local classifieds be they in person (like a church bulletin) or online via a neighborhood Facebook group or Craigslist is another potential way to find people with a lot of books to move in a hurry. Here too there’s a certain expectation that you’ll be able to negotiate— in many instances folks will be happy to have someone take their boxes off their hands, and you might end up with some real gems like always in-demand classics and perennial best-selling authors.
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On PangoBooks Itself
Sourcing books from PangoBooks and flipping them for a higher price is a bit more advanced of a technique but definitely something we see happen quite frequently. The general idea is to keep an eye out for in-demand books that are priced below market value, be the first to snag those when they get listed, then relist it at a higher price when it arrives to you. It’s a tricky thing to pull off but as mentioned above, developing a specialized expertise on a particular market is a vital part of the equation. And of course, this process can extend to other online book venues beyond Pango as well.
Thrift Shops and Antique Stores
Thrift stores, antique shops, and really any other retail establishment that sells used goods can be true mines waiting to be tapped by intrepid Pango sellers. All the guidelines mentioned above certainly remain true in these venues as well. Pay extra attention to possible damage to older books that have been sitting in the back corner of a resale basement. While it might take some time to find the diamond in the rough, for many resellers, the process of hunting for great books in thrift shops is the most fun part of the whole experience.
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With a combination of the above tips and the PangoBooks app in hand, there’s nothing holding you back from turning your Pango account into a bona fide online bookstore!
