Our Book Trading Policy
So, this is a common question at the store... "What IS your trade-in policy?" We've never made handy-dandy hand-outs because so much of it varies right along with our stock. However, I will endeavor to outline (at least) the basics. After that, if there are more specific questions and whatnot, I can certainly answer those.
First off... we sell our books for Half-Off the cover price. We then give you Half of that (roughly 1/4 of the cover price) in store credit. The standard is that you always receive, in store credit, half of what we sell the books for.
For items such as Hardbacks, we sell them for Less than Half the cover price (they simply don't sell well), but you still receive Half of whatever we sell them for (We typically price them between $7 and $12 a piece).
Occasionally, there are also some items that are priced well above what their cover indicates--this is most often because they are rare and collectible. You still receive Half of whatever we sell it for, even if we are going to sell it for $100--you then receive $50.
So if this is how we dispense store credit... how do we decide what we can accept or not? The short answer is based on their Age, Condition, and Whether we have them In Stock or Not.
First off... we sell our books for Half-Off the cover price. We then give you Half of that (roughly 1/4 of the cover price) in store credit. The standard is that you always receive, in store credit, half of what we sell the books for.
For items such as Hardbacks, we sell them for Less than Half the cover price (they simply don't sell well), but you still receive Half of whatever we sell them for (We typically price them between $7 and $12 a piece).
Occasionally, there are also some items that are priced well above what their cover indicates--this is most often because they are rare and collectible. You still receive Half of whatever we sell it for, even if we are going to sell it for $100--you then receive $50.
So if this is how we dispense store credit... how do we decide what we can accept or not? The short answer is based on their Age, Condition, and Whether we have them In Stock or Not.
Age, Condition, and Whether we have it in Stock or Not...
We do sort through the books that you bring in as quickly as we can, but sometimes it can be a lengthy process as we really are looking for a lot of things. The basic Three are a book's Age, Condition, and Whether we have it In Stock or Not.
First thing that we do with every single book that comes into the store, without exception, is to check it based on its Condition.
Second, we check it based on its Age and Thirdly, we find out whether we already have it In Stock or Not.
*Condition
*Age
*Whether we have it In Stock or Not
Condition... a baseline for this is if we cannot sell it in the store, then we cannot accept it for trade credit. What determines if we cannot sell it? Well, the books should Not try to go swimming or be used as coasters (no water damage) nor should they have entertained pets or small children (no teeth marks, major rips, pages missing, etc). They must have a cover and the bindings should be tight (or nearly tight). A book with a broken spine is liable to start losing its pages after the next read--thus we do not accept those. Hardback books must have their dust-jackets.
Sidenote: If the box of books you've been meaning to bring in for months upon months has been sitting in the garage the entire time... PLEASE at least move them to a new box so that anything that made it's home in the old one doesn't join us at the store. It's technically not a *requirement* that anything is done with them, but if we are pulling leaves, dead bugs, and spider webs off of books then they just don't seem to be very clean anymore.
Age... we do wish that we could afford to keep every single book that came through our store--both old and new. However, the new(er) books simply sell better for us. Typically, we'd like the books that you bring in to have copyright dates newer than the year 2000. There are, of course, exceptions to that (This is where things get a bit trickier). Also, we can only accept Current Year Fiction Hardbacks. The Hardbacks simply do not sell well for us and they take up a lot of room on the shelves. Naturally, things such as The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice are not subject to these cut-off dates. A lot of it simply depends on us knowing which sections are selling well and which are not... which authors sell well no matter their age and which sit on the shelf forever... this does bring us to the next portion, though...
Whether we have it In Stock or Not... We are not a huge store, so we do have to be careful that we don't take 5 copies of a single title. Typically, we try to only take in 1 copy of a title at a time. As it has been out for a while, we often wind up with more than 1 copy--but that is why we begin with just a single copy. There are times that a book is a HOT seller and we are asked about it long before we ever see a copy. Those times we will likely take many copies of it (especially if we have a Reserve list for it). There are also times that we've had to discontinue a title (or author) for one reason or another--most often because they haven't sold in more than a year. Those items, we really cannot take any of.
Those are the Three basic criteria that we will check books for... yet there are also some things that we simply do not ever accept...
We do Not accept:
Book Club Edition Hardbacks
Harlequin Romances
Books on Audio Cassette
Reader's Digest Editions
Textbooks
Movies
Music
First thing that we do with every single book that comes into the store, without exception, is to check it based on its Condition.
Second, we check it based on its Age and Thirdly, we find out whether we already have it In Stock or Not.
*Condition
*Age
*Whether we have it In Stock or Not
Condition... a baseline for this is if we cannot sell it in the store, then we cannot accept it for trade credit. What determines if we cannot sell it? Well, the books should Not try to go swimming or be used as coasters (no water damage) nor should they have entertained pets or small children (no teeth marks, major rips, pages missing, etc). They must have a cover and the bindings should be tight (or nearly tight). A book with a broken spine is liable to start losing its pages after the next read--thus we do not accept those. Hardback books must have their dust-jackets.
Sidenote: If the box of books you've been meaning to bring in for months upon months has been sitting in the garage the entire time... PLEASE at least move them to a new box so that anything that made it's home in the old one doesn't join us at the store. It's technically not a *requirement* that anything is done with them, but if we are pulling leaves, dead bugs, and spider webs off of books then they just don't seem to be very clean anymore.
Age... we do wish that we could afford to keep every single book that came through our store--both old and new. However, the new(er) books simply sell better for us. Typically, we'd like the books that you bring in to have copyright dates newer than the year 2000. There are, of course, exceptions to that (This is where things get a bit trickier). Also, we can only accept Current Year Fiction Hardbacks. The Hardbacks simply do not sell well for us and they take up a lot of room on the shelves. Naturally, things such as The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice are not subject to these cut-off dates. A lot of it simply depends on us knowing which sections are selling well and which are not... which authors sell well no matter their age and which sit on the shelf forever... this does bring us to the next portion, though...
Whether we have it In Stock or Not... We are not a huge store, so we do have to be careful that we don't take 5 copies of a single title. Typically, we try to only take in 1 copy of a title at a time. As it has been out for a while, we often wind up with more than 1 copy--but that is why we begin with just a single copy. There are times that a book is a HOT seller and we are asked about it long before we ever see a copy. Those times we will likely take many copies of it (especially if we have a Reserve list for it). There are also times that we've had to discontinue a title (or author) for one reason or another--most often because they haven't sold in more than a year. Those items, we really cannot take any of.
Those are the Three basic criteria that we will check books for... yet there are also some things that we simply do not ever accept...
We do Not accept:
Book Club Edition Hardbacks
Harlequin Romances
Books on Audio Cassette
Reader's Digest Editions
Textbooks
Movies
Music
"Our" books and their Stickers
Some of you may have read through the last topic and wondered if it applied to your books since you bought them from our store. The easy answer is: Mostly.
If you bring a book in for Store Credit and it is one of "Our" books... it will have our sticker printed on the back (don't worry if it's fading). This sticker is the same thing we scan when we checked you out at your time of purchase. For the books that you bring in to be considered "Ours" it must have its sticker, still.
Our current computer system required that we switch to using these stickers for scanning purposes and we've been using it for roughly a Year and a Half, now. Thus, any books that do not have our sticker (even if you may have bought it from us 3 years ago) no longer counts as "Ours." It will be checked just as any other book.
What does it matter if a book is "Ours?"
If you bring in a book with our sticker on the back, then it does Not matter how many we already have In Stock.
We do still check "Our" books based on their condition, however. If it has pages falling out, water damage, or any other ailments that would not allow us to sell it again... we cannot accept it back. If you are purchasing a book from us and worry about its condition and whether we would accept it back or not... most often we CAN accept it back as long as it is in No Worse condition when it is returned to us. However, we can never say for sure until you bring it back and we can take a look at it.
Technically, "Our" books are also checked based on their age since anything that does not have our sticker does not count as being "Ours."
So, the first two portions of how we check our books Do still apply to those that have our stickers. It simply doesn't matter if we already have 5 in stock, already.
If you bring a book in for Store Credit and it is one of "Our" books... it will have our sticker printed on the back (don't worry if it's fading). This sticker is the same thing we scan when we checked you out at your time of purchase. For the books that you bring in to be considered "Ours" it must have its sticker, still.
Our current computer system required that we switch to using these stickers for scanning purposes and we've been using it for roughly a Year and a Half, now. Thus, any books that do not have our sticker (even if you may have bought it from us 3 years ago) no longer counts as "Ours." It will be checked just as any other book.
What does it matter if a book is "Ours?"
If you bring in a book with our sticker on the back, then it does Not matter how many we already have In Stock.
We do still check "Our" books based on their condition, however. If it has pages falling out, water damage, or any other ailments that would not allow us to sell it again... we cannot accept it back. If you are purchasing a book from us and worry about its condition and whether we would accept it back or not... most often we CAN accept it back as long as it is in No Worse condition when it is returned to us. However, we can never say for sure until you bring it back and we can take a look at it.
Technically, "Our" books are also checked based on their age since anything that does not have our sticker does not count as being "Ours."
So, the first two portions of how we check our books Do still apply to those that have our stickers. It simply doesn't matter if we already have 5 in stock, already.