Buying a Bookstore?

I did not see your original post but I formerly had a bookshop. First we
rented shops, and then purchased a building with a shop downstairs which we
turned into a bookshop and an apartment upstairs which we lived in. Very
good arrangement until my husband suddenly passed away. (Long time ago).

Location is one of the most important things you have to consider - also,
parking. How large is the town? Are there towns nearby of similar size
that do not have a used bookshop? Is there another shop in the same town?
Is there a University nearby? If so, do the university students shop in the
town in which the shop is located? What kind of condition is the building
in? Does it have a basement? How large is it(Is there enough room for you
to store books out of sight so you can go through them).

Even though the shop is only open a few days a week and closed in summer,
what is the gross and what is the net? How good is the stock? What kind of
condition is the stock in? Have you been in the shop a few times before it
went up for sale? If so, do they seem to have customers? Does it look like
they may have culled out the good stuff (a lot of dealers will do that). Do
they do any advertising? Did they purchase the shop from someone else or
did they open it from scratch? What is their reputation?

Does the building having any other tenants - another shop, an apartment?
How is the economy in the town? What kind of neighborhood is it in?

What would the building be worth without the business? What would the
business be worth without the building?

I am assuming you would add selling on line to your operation while the
current owner does not - are you willing to put in the kind ot time that
would be necessary to make it a going concern? (Long hours). Is the
neighborhood good enough for your wife to be alone in the shop every day?
(I live in the Chicagoland area so this is a question I would be concerned
with).

I will be honest - I loved owning a bookshop even though I was the one with
the day job. I still miss it. If you really love it and are willing to
devote the time - and you have done the math....go for it. You won't become
a millionaire but you would love what you are doing.

O'B

"William M. Klimon" <william.m.klimon.c87no.TakeThisOut@spamalumni.upenn.edu> wrote in
message news:4o5Kb.34769$F22.999@lakeread02...
 > In article <u4q8uvg4g41ljrenknsscj68vl8v7k0uv1.TakeThisOut@4ax.com>, John A. Stovall
  > > <johnastovall.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net> wrote:
  > >
   > > > I've bought collections in the past but now I have the opportunity to
   > > > by a book store in the town where I work. It is a general used
   > > > bookstore. The present owner a University professor (not at mine but
   > > > one 70 miles away) and his wife have run it for 7 years but only
   > > > opened it 3 days a week and closed it all summer. I don't plan to
   > > > quit my day job but have a wife to run it and the building is included
   > > > with the stock of some 40,000+ volumes (80/20 hb/pb). The store has
   > > > never listed on line.

Several things you might want to consider. In the first
place, while 40,000 volumes take up a lot of space,
they might be worth next to nothing if they are not the
right volumes--the ones that customers want to buy.
As an inveterate browser in used book stores, I have
had a number of interesting chats with owners over
the years. One thing I learned is that selection is
everything. In Southern California (and probably
many other places, I suspect) you can put an ad
in a local newspaper and/or the net and say you are
a bookdealer who wants to buy a lot of books.
People with carloads and truckloads of books
will flock to your door. The hitch is that perhaps
not even two-percent of what people bring you will
be what your customers want to buy. I don't
know about the rest of the country, but I can tell
you that in San Diego County many used bookstores
have gone out of business in recent years. Of
course, you can still find quite a few of those
miserable little paperback traders which only
stock the popular pb's, but I don't really consider
them used bookstores worthy of the name.

Good used bookstores are few and far between
these days in this neck of the woods, which
plainly would not be the case if it were an easy
business to make a profit in. Anyway, don't
be impressed by the 40,000 volumes until
you find how well they match the things that
used and rare book store customers in your
part of the country are looking for. For instance
one thing I have learned is that these days, fiction
books with no dust jacket are seldom worth the
proverbial plug nickel, unless they are something
really special, such as a first edition of ON THE
ROAD or something. Book club fiction editions
with no dust jackets are ofthen worse LESS than
the proverbial plug nickel, in fact. Much of the
self-help stuff is near worthless too. Most dealers
won't touch text books with a ten-foot pole either.
Anyway, the fact is that 4,000 of the right books
might allow someone to make a go of a used
bookstore, while 40,000 of the wrong books
might sink them: One way to find out the
"right books" for your market are would be to
visit some other dealers "undercover" and--
while browsing--learn everything you can.
   > > >
   > > > What questions should I be asking and considering when thinking about
   > > > this possible purchase?
 >
 >
 >
 > So, John, what was the verdict? I thought seriously 3-4 years ago about
 > opening a store--or a book nook in a tea house. Glad I didn't do it, but
a
 > part of me regrets it.
 >
 >
 >
 > William M. Klimon
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 >
 >
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