Amazon Buys ABE ~ Disaster ! ABEBooks Problems
This week brought news that Amazon has bought ABEbooks much to the dismay of most internet booksellers.
What are the ramifications of this news and are there any benefits for the secondhand book dealer?
For those unaware, ABE is a site that allows book dealers to upload their stock onto one big site and presents them to the public.
They have around 13,000 independent sellers on the site and claim to have over 100 million books listed.
Good things that may come of the Amazon take-over
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Better management - abebooks could not run a piss up in a brewery it seems !
Increased traffic to the site - Az may drive visitors there possibly if they cannot fulfil a search themselves
May also provide some financial security for the site long-term
The downside and potential problems of the acquisition
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I expect AZ to merge the 100 million books onto their site somehow - which will reduce sales for those already on AZ.
It gives them a near virtual monopoly in the field of used, second-hand and collectable books
It could spell the end of sites such as Biblio, Antiqbook and the like
They may shut down the site altogether as they did with Bibliofind (which I used to list on successfully years ago)
Possible introduction of fixed shipping and postage allowances which would hurt some sellers badly
Possible fee changes which would, I presume, increase rather than decrease
Clearly the minus list outweighs the plus list !
I see little benefit for most though those that may benefit could include:
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Sellers who don’t list on Amazon
Buyers who may well get cheaper buys and better choice on AZ
ABE booksellers may see improved sales due to driven traffic and higher visibility
The owners who, presumably, have pocketed a tidy sum
This post could run on but I thought it may be more use if it was kept short and any subsequent expansion, opinions, observations and predictions were done via the comments field.
If you are a bookseller, buy or collector and have an opinion of any sort please feel free to leave a comment about the situation either as you see it or as you think it may pan out in the future
Regards
Rod
Goldeneye Rare Books
Little Brother said,
August 8, 2008 @ 8:04 am
Rod,
I imagine the fear for independant bookdealers is that if they are not signed up to Amazon they will struggle to get customers to their sites because they will view Amazon as a ‘one stop shop’ and may refrain from searching further afield.
Personally I don’t like the ‘new and used’ option, I used Amazon because I wanted a newly published book without going to the high street and pre-ordering it there. I suppose I don’t want to put another nail in the second hand bookshop coffin either, the last thing we need is another Tesco/WalMart.
LB
Rod said,
August 8, 2008 @ 9:49 am
Miles
some salient points - I fear we already have the book equivalent of Tesco with AZ now !
They wield agreat deal of power, indeed recently they were removing the BUY button from some authors books because the publishers would not sell them to AZ for even less money than they do already !
Rod