Rare Book Monthly
<i>Survey Results:</i> Should Book Fairs Offer a 20% Discount on All Items?
Comments from dealers who opposed a mandatory discount at books fairs included these.
"I price the same at a show as online. My customers enjoy being able to examine the books as opposed to internet purchases. I don't think cheapening prices will attract new collectors. We need to promote interest in book collecting for reasons other than price."
"I don't need anyone encouraging my customers to demand discounts. They do just fine on their own."
"I understand the point, but it has not been clearly thought out. What about dealer-to-dealer sales at shows, typically discounted 20%? Let book dealers run their own businesses, and promoters theirs."
"Discounting prices tends to give the feeling of a fire sale, like the material isn't worth what it is priced at. The better option is to spend REAL time and marketing dollars finding the newer buyers and getting them to shows. This is something that no promoters seem to be doing well - even though the market for book buying is larger than ever."
"You would find that the collector will want to negotiate a further discount - otherwise the buzz element from using one's bartering/negotiating skills is absent and there's no 'crack' any more."
"Prices at a book fair reflect the hours of work and expense of doing a book fair."
"As a matter almost all booksellers at almost all fairs will discount if asked. Of course knowing they will be often asked, they build in the discount in the asking price. It works. The customers are happy because they think they are getting a deal. And, the dealer makes the sale, getting the price they wanted in the first place."
"I do not offer discounts but display pure favouritism when it comes to offering rare and unique material to established clients. So if someone wants to receive offers from me, they have to buy at full price first and not haggle."
"The small number of books I have online have already been discounted in order to be the best copy at the lowest price."
"Markup is usually less than 50% of the purchase price. Discounting every book 20% would seriously reduce any profit we would realize."
"It wouldn't work for me. 20% across-the-board-discounts on my already low internet prices? No way. Those dealers who regularly price high and who have established high-end clientele that typically don't comparison shop could do it. But their prices would still be higher than my regular online prices, even after they discounted by 20%. Better local area promotion & advertising is the way to go."
