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According to the article, Abebooks acts as a digital marketplace and does not hold its own inventory. If that is the case, why doesn't Amazon just go after book

by matt1 18y ago

According to the article, Abebooks acts as a digital marketplace and does not hold its own inventory. If that is the case, why doesn't Amazon just go after booksellers themselves? Amazon offers the same service with a much wider audience, no?

silentbicycle 18y ago
In my experience, many sellers already list their stock on both.
- antiform 18y ago
  Not when it comes to rather obscure or out-of-print math books. Abebooks is definitely a goldmine when it comes to those.
- irinotecan 18y ago
  My sister is an online used bookseller, and she has both an ABEbooks and an Amazon Z-shop account. She says she prefers to list with ABE because they charge a lower commission. I wonder if that will change now.
gruseom 18y ago
ABE was in the used book market for many years before Amazon and has a large entrenched base of booksellers who would be difficult to wrench away. All the more so since (speaking for myself, at least) they earned a high level of customer loyalty over the years. In fact, they're a great example of the companies pg has been talking about recently - the ones that make the world a better place just by quietly providing a great service. They basically made the hard to find, out-of-print book a thing of the past. Edit: by the way, does anybody know the story of how they went about amassing such a large network of used bookstores?
- jbenz 18y ago
  This article is a couple of years old. It's an interview with AbeBooks co-founder Rick Pura. They found a need and solved it. "We went to the booksellers conventions, and we passed out our brochures and sent them off to whatever lists of booksellers we could find. And, word of mouth spread on the Internet fairly quickly." http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/233-AbeBooks-com-Co-founder-Rick-Pura http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/233-AbeBooks-com-...
  - gruseom 18y ago
    Thank you, that's very informative.
- ionfish 18y ago
  Abebooks is also a more usable site than Amazon, in my experience. Because being a marketplace for second-hand books is their only business, they're able to focus on it far better than Amazon. Not having any adverts for lawnmowers makes it far easier and more pleasant to use.

by matt1 18y ago

silentbicycle 18y ago

In my experience, many sellers already list their stock on both.

antiform 18y ago
Not when it comes to rather obscure or out-of-print math books. Abebooks is definitely a goldmine when it comes to those.
irinotecan 18y ago
My sister is an online used bookseller, and she has both an ABEbooks and an Amazon Z-shop account. She says she prefers to list with ABE because they charge a lower commission. I wonder if that will change now.

gruseom 18y ago

ABE was in the used book market for many years before Amazon and has a large entrenched base of booksellers who would be difficult to wrench away. All the more so since (speaking for myself, at least) they earned a high level of customer loyalty over the years. In fact, they're a great example of the companies pg has been talking about recently - the ones that make the world a better place just by quietly providing a great service. They basically made the hard to find, out-of-print book a thing of the past. Edit: by the way, does anybody know the story of how they went about amassing such a large network of used bookstores?

jbenz 18y ago
This article is a couple of years old. It's an interview with AbeBooks co-founder Rick Pura. They found a need and solved it. "We went to the booksellers conventions, and we passed out our brochures and sent them off to whatever lists of booksellers we could find. And, word of mouth spread on the Internet fairly quickly." http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/233-AbeBooks-com-Co-founder-Rick-Pura http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/233-AbeBooks-com-...
- gruseom 18y ago
  Thank you, that's very informative.
ionfish 18y ago
Abebooks is also a more usable site than Amazon, in my experience. Because being a marketplace for second-hand books is their only business, they're able to focus on it far better than Amazon. Not having any adverts for lawnmowers makes it far easier and more pleasant to use.