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Book Hunter Press, publishers of
The Used Book Lover's Guides,
is pleased to share with you this report on the expansion of the used book
market.
Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 Book Hunter Press
For more information contact:
Contact us
In 1999, in
The Quiet Revolution: The Expansion of the Used Book Market 1992-1999
, we took the first comprehensive statistical look at the used book market.
In 2001, we added revised Tables and new Charts reflecting the statistical
changes that had taken since the publication of the original report.
Now, in 2003, we're pleased to share the findings of our continuing tracking of
the ever-changing used book market. What follows is a statistical update,
augmented with some general observations about the used book market as of the
end of 2002.
The industry has continued to change and evolve in response to the growing role
of the Internet as a vehicle for selling used books.
As shown in Table I (Revised 2002), the total number of used book dealers
continued to grow during 2002, reaching a total of 7,198 dealers. Over the past
decade, there has been a 20% increase in the number of dealers.
(Please see the Methodology section below for an explanation of how these numbers are arrived at, and equally important, which dealers are and are not included in the figures.)
Given the diversity of what constitutes the used book market, in terms of
buyers, sellers and books, we repeat the caution included in the 1999
Report
against making generalizations about the used book market.
Table I
Growth In Number Of Used Book Dealers
* Comparative data for '97-'00 not available.
Chart I
Changes In Number Of Used Book Dealers
1. Comparative data for '97-'00 not available.
Table II
Make-up of Used Book Market
Chart II
Make-up of Used Book Market
Source: Book Hunter Press. Copyright 2003
Changes in Open Shops
For the ten year period 1993-2002, the number of open shops increased by 7%.
However, after 2000, the number of shops began to slowly decline, and between
2000-2002, there was a 4.8% decrease in the number of open shops.
As a percentage of all used book dealers, open shops now account for 57% of all
dealers, compared to 61% in 2000.
The growth and subsequent decrease in the number of open shops over the past
decade has been uneven across the country with the Central/Western and Pacific
Coast States the only regions experiencing a net decrease.
While the "net" number of open shops has declined, new used bookstores continue
to open throughout the United States, with the greatest number of new stores
opening in New England.
The new owners represent a cross section of ages, from couples in their 30's to
retirees. Many of the new owners are book collectors turned dealers who are
living out their dream career.
The decline in the number of open shops can be attributed to a variety of
reasons, including
Table III
Changes In Number of Open Shops
* Comparative data for '93-'97 not available.
Chart III
Changes In Number of Open Shops
Source: Book Hunter Press. Copyright 2003.
A word about used book sales.
Although all informal and anecdotal indications are that used book sales are
increasing, there are no reliable figures on the actual dollar volume of used
book sales.
The reliability of estimated annual sales figures is limited by what the
estimate counts and does not count, the source of the estimate, the methodology
used to make the estimate and the motivation of the person or entity making the
estimate.
The major reason for the lack of hard, verifiable sales information is the fact
that most of the 7,200 used book sellers are small sole proprietors and as
such, they are not required to publicly report their sales figures.
While large public companies such as amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com have
reported that their used book sales have increased as a percentage of their
total sales, they have not specified the dollar volume of their USED book sales.
Similarly, other large used book companies such as Alibris have reported
increased sales volume, but not the dollar volume of the sales.
It is impossible to quantity the total number of sales, or the dollar volume of
sales, made as a result of visits to multi dealer sites such as abebooks
because only a portion of these sales are processed by the site owners.
For more information, tables and charts and prior years' information, please go
to:
http://www.bookhunterpress.com/index.cgi/survey.html?id=IXwQh2uB
Report Methodology
- - Booksellers who identify themselves as selling used, rare, secondhand,
recycled, pre-owned, out-of-print or antiquarian books. Stores that sell both
new and used books are included. - - Dealers whose business has been
verified
by phone, mail, email or personal visit.
- - Paperback exchanges that sell only used paperbacks. - - Used booksellers
who sell only at book fairs. - - Dealers whose business operations could not be
verified. - - Relatively new dealers who operate exclusively via the Internet
and typically, but not always, have limited stock.
- - The names of potential used booksellers are gathered from a variety of
sources including, but not limited to: . membership
directories of state and national bookseller associations .
local lists of booksellers . the Internet
. trade publications . direct requests from booksellers
. leads from other booksellers . leads
from book collectors . telephone directories - - Information
about dealers is continuously gathered by questionnaire, phone calls and
personal visits to bookstores. A minimum of two attempts, and often more, are
made to verify information about a potential dealer. - - Information gathered
between 1992 and 1996 was first published in six regional
Used Book Lover's Guides
plus a revised edition of the
New England
Guide. Between 1997-2000, revised editions were published for five editions,
including a second revised
New England
edition. - - Beginninig in 2000 when the database was put online, updates to
all six guides have been made on a weekly basis. The print guides are updated
yearly with print supplements.
Book Hunter Press was founded in 1992 by David S. and
Susan Siegel.
A life long book collector, David Siegel retired as
Superintendent of Schools for the Croton-Harmon School District in 1992. Susan
Siegel was a public relations consultant before teaming up with her husband to
form Book Hunter Press.
Since 1992, the company has been gathering information
on the used book market in the United States, and, beginning in 1999, in
Canada. The company's database is the most comprehensive and most up-to-date
database of used booksellers in North America.
In 1993, the company published
The Used Book Lover's Guide to New England.
Subsequently, five additional guides were published covering other parts of
the United States, and in 1999, a guide for Canada was added to the series.
Since 1995, the company has published revised and expanded editions of five of the original six guides.
To date, the Siegels have traveled over 100,000 miles
and visited thousands of used bookstores in the United States and Canada. 0ver
50,000 copies of the
Used Book Lover's Guides
are in the hands of book collectors, specialty enthusiasts, used book dealers
and librarians around the world.
The Siegels have been featured on national
television on C-SPAN's Book-TV, and in the
Wall Street Journal
,
Washington Post, The New York Times
, the Gannett Newspapers,
Kiplinger's Magazine
and dozens of national and regional newspapers and magazines across the United
States and Canada.
Subscribe to the Standard
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