started in October 2004, gets
500 hits a day and sells 500~
650 books a month. On the
other hand, many foreign
sites have already built
bigger customer bases. Barter
a:
Books - a bookstore based
in a Victorian~ railway station
in Northumberland
receives around 4,000 orders
a year from its website.
For the Indian website
owners though, the
used
books trade is driven by
passion as opposed to a
lucrative business option.
It's more professional in the
West where the websites
started some time back and hence reap
profits from the entire venture.
Even if you are technologically.
challenged, there's no hassle - it's as
easy as it gets. You go on to the website
and search for the titles you seek. If you
like what's on offer, you register yourself
and add some cash in the shopping cart
or cash basket by cheque or demand
drafts and place the order.
The deal obviously becomes
cheaper when you order from Indian
book web sites - the reason being that
delivery cost are tiny. In fact some sites
like Dog Ears Etc. does not actually stock
books but puts buyers and sellers to-
gether. By contrast, SecondHandBooks
keeps its own stocks but there are no
extra delivery charges for orders from
Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
For other parts of the country, Chura-
mani charges Rs 10-20 extra for delivery.
But being comparatively new in the
business as compared to their Western
counterparts, the Indian websites haveI
The lure,
at
the
.
.
end of the day,
is great bargains
and convenient
delivery
fewer titles - about 2,000-2,500. By
comparison, the Barter Books website
boasts around 30,000 titles. "They
include antiquarian books. We charge
according to the time-frame within which
the customer wants the delivery and it
also depends on how heavy the books
are," says Mary Manley, who started the
website with husband Stuart in 1995.
The couple professes to have wit-
nessed the growth of the secondhand
book sales in leaps and bounds on the
web. "From a few hundred dealers now
Sharad Churamani, of
there are20,000 dealers on
the web," says Stuart.
Meanwhile, Abebooks
which lists over several
million used, rare, out-
of-print and new books,
allows 13,000 sellers to set
. their own shipping prices.
"It is possible for a buyer in
Idaho to buy a book from
an Indian seller and have
it. shipped to an Indian
address," says Lisa Stevens,
VB Marketing, Abebooks.
Each of these websites
boasts varied features. At Dog Ears Etc.,
you can also sell your books, for which
Fernandes charges an eight per cent
facilitation fee. Second Hand Books has
a 10 per cent discount option for people
who make Rs 500 deposits into the cash
basket. Churamani provides informa-
tion on the books and sends prospec-
tive buyers a few scanned pages. The
out -of-print books on his website come
at real bargains - you might find a
1960's print Carter Brown for Rs 39.
Though the books come at bargain
prices, they are not pirated editions.
Most buyers would like to see the
condition the book is in. But what if you
can't flip through its pages, there's the
option of seeing the condition of the
, book. These websites guarantee that
they sell books in good condition and
seldom would you find missing pages.
'The lure, at the end of the day, is of great
bargains and convenient delivery. Says
Churarnani: "The fun is in searching and
to find a gem hidden somewhere."
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