Two years ago my father decided to try selling books on the internet. Since he had spent much of my childhood expatiating his theory that computers involved more work than they saved, this was something of a U-turn. But he quickly opened a seller’s account on Amazon where he listed for sale the 1,500 of his books he was least likely to miss before sitting back and waiting for the orders to come in.
Rather to the surprise of his sceptical sons, orders did come in — and have kept on coming. Two years on, along with a few neighbours who are eBay sellers, he has turned the village post office into a hub for global commerce, parcels being sent out every week to almost anywhere. His copy of Birds of the Sudan, for instance, went to someone in Sudan (sensible, really, since my father lives in a part of Wales notoriously light in tropical bird-life).
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By allowing people to trade in this way, the internet lets you obtain better prices than by selling through booksellers (who often aren’t interested unless you’re offering a first folio for £10).
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