[Publib] Selling Withdrawn Library Books on E-bay

[James Casey]

Karen is absolutely right about the work and hassle involved with selling on Ebay.  It is alot of work and hassle.  Setting up and maintaining a PayPal account or other means of accepting payment, packaging, shipping, returns, maintaining the rules of the sale process, etc., and keeping a multitude of orders straight (don't mix them up).  I've sold items by Ebay and can affirm that it isn't a totally simple/easy process.

Here in Illinois, a bill before our State Legislature (HB 4202) would amend existing law to enable public libraries to sell de-accessioned materials and use the proceeds to purchase more.  This bill has multiple sponsors in the House and Senate, but is currently in Rules Committee of the Senate.  Illinois Library Association supports this legislation.
"Amends the State Property Control Act. With respect to the transfer of books, serial publications, and other library materials to which the Act's transfer procedures do not apply, (i) adds those items that have been withdrawn from the transferring agency's library collection through a regular collection evaluation process and (ii) adds non-profit agencies, whether located in or outside Illinois, to the list of entities to which such items may be transferred. Authorizes an agency with withdrawn books, serial publications, or other library materials to sell those items to the public at library book sales or to book dealers or to offer those items through exchange to book dealers or to organizations. Provides that revenues generated from such sales shall be retained by the agency and used for the purchase of library materials."



James B. Casey -- My own views

Director of Oak Lawn Public Library

ALA Council Member

________________________________
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider [kgs at bluehighways.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 10:35 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Selling Withdrawn Library Books on E-bay

Once you cleared this with your legal people, another way to do this would be to spend several weeks or a month as a seller on Amazon. You’d be able to assess how much labor it would take, whether this is something you could delegate to a Friends group, what the cost/gain was, etc. and have an idea whether you wanted to ramp up to a full-fledged project or stick with other methods.

Karen G. Schneider

________________________________
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Victoria Kemp
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:00 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Selling Withdrawn Library Books on E-bay

The major thing would be to know what your city’s legal guidelines are for selling city property. Most cities would not allow the Library to do that; they would require some other entity (e.g., The Friends) to dispose of the material.
That being said, as long as the books are described in a credible manner, i.e., as being “withdrawn library material with accompanying markings and stickers,” then it’s caveat emptor on Ebay.
Viccy Kemp
The opinions are my own; the library wouldn’t want ‘em!

________________________________
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tom Cooper
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 2:58 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Selling Withdrawn Library Books on E-bay


Our manager of circulation is a big E-bay user. She has recently read that libraries are having success selling withdrawn books on E-bay, and wants to try it. Has anyone done this? Is it profitable? Or more hassle than it’s worth? How does one describe a library book that is covered, stamped, labeled, then withdrawn and stamped again?

Thanks,

Tom Cooper, Director

Webster Groves Public Library

301 E. Lockwood

Webster Groves, MO 63119

(314) 961-3784

tcooper at wgpl.org

Do not judge beliefs by their plausibility, but by the harm they may do.

                                             Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20080430/00d040fa/attachment.htm