MASTERING THE ART OF SOURCING FOR

ONLINE BOOKSELLERS  & COLLECTORS

THE MOST COMPREHESIVE STUDY ON BOOK AND MEDIA SOURCING AVALABLE TODAY!

How to Buy Books, DVDs, and CDs for at least 80% below Market Value Guaranteed!

Direct from the publisher 

This Paperback Edition is specifically designed for easy study.

Book Details

Format:  Paperback

Size:  6" x 9"

Pages: 242

Author:  M. Mitch Freeland

Publisher:  Las Vegas Book Company

Edition:  First Paperback Edition, October 03, 2018

DISCOVER: THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE BOOK ON BOOK AND MEDIA SOURCING AVAILABLE TODAY FOR ONLINE BOOKSELLERS AND COLLECTORS!

Have you ever marveled at successful booksellers and book collectors and wondered where they find their valuable books, DVDs, CDs, and VHS tapes? 

Well, in this book you are going to find out.

What is sourcing? In short, sourcing is where you get the products you sell. To start a business, run a business and grow a business you need to be an expert at sourcing. You need to find the best products at a low acquisition cost, resulting in high profit margins. In Mastering the Art of Sourcing…you are going to get the most comprehensive work on sourcing for booksellers and collectors available.

Sourcing is an art. It is also a skill that is learnable and can be mastered. You are going to master the art using this book, your step-by-step guide. 

In Mastering the Art of Sourcing…I’ll teach you and show you how to:

•source better 
•save time and money with efficient scheduling 
•get more products 
•negotiate like a professional for large purchases
•source multiple venues in a day
•evaluate product sale ability—what to buy and not buy 
•deal with private sellers and Friends of the Library organizations
•built relationships and long-term alliances with important sources
•follow strategies that will knock the socks off your competitors 
•limit your downside risk and parlay your upside potential for steady growth in online bookselling and collecting;
• have all the necessary tools at your disposal to propel your enterprise from a home operation with rapid growth to a multi-faceted venture with the potential expansion into multi-media products and beyond.

When you download Mastering the Art of Sourcing….today, you’ll get an easy to follow plan for procuring the books, DVDs, and CDs you will need for success. 

CONTENTS

 Introduction

Booksellers and Collectors

Defining Mindfulness in Book Sourcing

Your 5 Percent Edge

How to Use this Book  

PART I

Chapter 1:  Thrift Stores

Goodwill and Salvation Army

Independents—Mom and Pop’s

Thrift Store Auctions

Pricing

Scheduling a Route

Killing Many Birds with One Stone

Eliminating the Bad Stores

Focusing on the Good Stores

Restocking Times

Discount Days

Where to Find Stores

Summing Up

Chapter 2:  Swap Meets and Flea Markets

An Average Day at the Swap Meet

Cutting Deals for Large Quantities

One Good Swap Meet

Hundreds or Thousands of Books From One Vendor

The Regulars

New or Periodic Sellers

The Go-Getter Negotiator

Inflexible Sellers

Storage Unit Offerings

Get on the List

Seventy DVDs and Two hundred Forty Eight More

About Four Thousand Books

Unrealistic Sellers

No Scanners

It’s All About Relationships

Probing for Products

How Much Money Should You Take with You?

Summing Up

Chapter 3:  Garage Sales & Yard Sales

Are Garage Sales and Yard Sales Really Worth While?

How Many Books, DVDs, CDs, etc. are For Sale? 

Questions to Ask Over the Phone

Have Any Dealers or Booksellers Come to See Your Books?

Have the Books Been Scanned?

How Much are They? 

Are You Selling them Individually or Altogether?

Could You E-mail Me a List of Your Books?

My $15,000 Blunder:  Don’t Let This Happen to You!

A Little Trick to Keep the Competition at Bay

Summing Up

Chapter 4:  Estate Sales

A Worth the While Estate Sale

A Couple of Bins of DVDs

Hourly Rate Rundown

Why Should You Care About an Hourly Rate?

How to Determine Your Hourly Sourcing Rate or What are You Really Worth?

Strategy for Estate Sales

Estate Sale Questionnaire

Summing Up

Chapter 5:  Church and Private School Fundraisers

Prices

Religious Books

Leather Bibles

Study Bibles in Particular

Multiple Language Bibles are Always Worth Picking Up

The Koran and Other Non-Christian Books

Jewish Books, the Torah and Others

Locating Church Book Sales

Private Schools

Other Nonprofit Charitable Organizations and Events

Summing Up

Chapter 6: Buying Books from Other Websites and Online Classified Adds

Arbitrage with eBay, Amazon, Abe.com, Alibris, Barnes & Noble, Half.com and Others

Classified Adds

Summing Up

Chapter 7:  Bookstores

Dollar Bookstores

Used Bookstore

Large Chains

Stores Going Out to Business

Video Store Liquidations

Summing Up

Chapter 8:  Storage Unit Auctions

Summing Up

Chapter 9:  Book Buy Back Websites

Customer Service is Priority Number One

List of Online Book Buy Back Websites

Summing Up

Chapter 10:  Donation Bins

What to Consider Before you Get A Donation Bin

Summing Up

Chapter 11:  Book Auctions

Online Auctions

Auction Houses

Pricing of Books at Auctions

U.S. Treasury and U.S. Postal Auctions

Summing Up

Chapter 12:  Marketing for Products

Marketing to Family and Friends

Free Newspapers

Business Cards

Bulletin Boards

Neighborhood Campaigns / Fliers:  Canvassing your Area

Summing Up

Chapter 13:  Colleges and Universities

University Bookstore

Shorting Books

Summing Up

Chapter 14: Dealing in Autographed Books and Collectables

Getting Autographs Yourself

Where to Find Autographed Books

Book Fairs and Shows

Long Lines

Celebrity Autographs 

Popular Authors

First Time Authors

Dated and Inscribed—Yes or No

Where Should a Book be Signed?

Summing Up

PART II

Chapter 15:  The Library Book Sale

Why are Library Book Sales Important and Why does Part II Comprise  Half the Entire Book?

From this Powerful Section You’ll Learn

You’ll Learn the Following Strategies that will Propel You to Superstar Status

First Big Score

Summing Up

Chapter 16:  Strategy for Library Book Sales

Setting Realistic Goals

How Important are Plans?

Affirmations

Establishing Performance Measures

The Judo Strategy of Book Acquisition

Principal 1:  Movement at the Sale 

Principal 2:  Balance at the Sale

Principal 3:  Leverage at the Sale

Partners, Assistants, Hoarders and Blocker

The Beachhead Strategy

Illustration of  Beach Head Strategy at  Book Sales

Von Clausewitz's Maximum Force

Blocking Out a Cluster

Strategies that Could be Applied to Library Book Sales

The Octopus Strategy

Subtle Manipulation or Persuasion and Influence  (The Honey Strategy)

The Counterattack Offensive Strategy

The Tunnels of Cu Chi Maneuver

The Moon Light Strategy Maneuver

The Three Forces

Value Stream and Process Mapping

The Self-Actualized Plan

Unpredictability

Devising an Action Plan

Strategy Revisited

Strategy Process at Library Book Sales

Strategy for DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes

Strategy for Seniors and the Physically Handicapped

Differentiation

Differentiation by Duplication

People Need to Execute

Chapter 17: Enriching Your Environment

Building Relationships

Chapter 18:  How the Friends of the Library Works

Nonprofit Fundraising Consultants

A Typical Friend

Becoming a Member

Benefits of Membership

The Preview Day

Non Published Sales and Poorly Marketed Sales

Locating Libraries

Booksalefinder.com

City Search

Chapter 19: Positioning Yourself at the Sale: The Five Stages

Controlling a Section or Category with Double Teaming

Advantage

Window and Door Peaking

Getting in Before the Sale

Chapter 20:  How to Get More For Less: Cutting Deal

The Second day or Last Day of a Sale

The Bag Sale

Working with Volunteers

The Law of Reciprocity

How to Produce The Law of Reciprocity to Work in Your Favor

Influencing the Right People

Volunteering or How I Made $975 in Fifteen Minutes

Chapter 21:  Which Sales to Attend

How I Categorize Library Book Sales

Mega Sales

Categorized Placement and Floor Plan

The San Francisco Book Sale

Chapter 22:  Hiring an Assistant

Training your Assistant

Your Personal Hoarder

How to Train Your Hoarder

Two Scanner Advantage

Three Scanner Advantage

Who to Hire?

Costs of Assistant

Assistants without Scanners

Prerequisites for Books, CDs, DVDs and VHS

The Collectors Section

Chapter 23:  Preparing For The Sale

Preparing for a Sale: Your To Do Schedule

Chapter 24:  Setting up a Consignment Program

Points of Consignment

Sample Consignment Agreement

Benefits of Consignment

Problems to Overcome with Consignments

Before Sale Consignments

After Sales Consignments

Private Consignments

APPENDIX 1:  Frequently Asked Questions

APPENDIX 2:  Acquisition Journal

APPENDIX 3: Book Bins, Consignment Program, Scanner Program Examples

What's Next?

I NEED YOUR HELP

Selected Books by M. Mitch Freeland

SPECIAL SALES

INTRODUCTION

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."

--Alexander Graham Bell

his book is two books in one. Part I covers thirteen chapters on different venues for successful sourcing.  Part II covers The Library Book Sale. This is a comprehensive study regarding everything you should know about productive sourcing from libraries.  All of the sourcing activity presented in this book are from my own experiences in book and other media sourcing.  This book represents a real-life approach to honest, yet aggressive, techniques in sourcing for books and other media products. 

                If you have my first book in this series,  How I Make $4,000 Part-Time Selling Used Books, you have already been introduced to several of the methods used for sourcing. However, this book is in a league of its own, with many more details and an extended section on sourcing from library book sales.

                “In business, the term sourcing refers to a number of procurement practices aimed at finding, evaluating and engaging suppliers of goods and services.”(Wikipedia)

                In our practice, our goods are books, DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes. And our suppliers or sources for the aforementioned products are vast:  libraries, estate sales, garage sales, swap meets, thrift stores, church fund raisers, school fund raisers, charitable organizations, classified ads on internet websites, auction websites, finders, referrals, students, private collectors, etc., etc., etc.—sourcing is anywhere a buyer (you), and a seller can get together and make a transaction. In this book we are going to explore all of these sources and many others where online sellers and collectors can get products to secure an ever growing business or noteworthy collection.

Booksellers and Collectors

This book is for booksellers (online and brick and mortar) and book collectors. When discussing sourcing methods I will reference both booksellers and collectors as one. To prevent being repetitive I have removed the word collector after the word bookseller from most places in the remaining text.  Therefore, when I refer to bookseller(s), I am referring to both booksellers and collectors alike.      

                Booksellers have always been hungry for quality books and other media products. They need books to sell or add to their inventory and collection. It’s not always easy finding books to grow a business or expand on a collection. And to grow, you’ll need help. You need good books—the valuable ones—and you must be mindful of your activity; that is, mindfulness is critical to productive book sourcing. You need focus. You also need a plan—a strategy—a system to break loose of the crowd, to crush mediocrity, escaping from stagnating and deflating performance. Your mission, your goal:  to soar to new heights in book sourcing and ultimately securing an income or collection deserving of the top 5 percent in our society.  Are you up for the challenge?  I certainly hope you are, because I am going to show you exactly what to do and how to do it in this book. You’ll learn how to source like a pro—the Go-Getter way to sourcing and product procurement.

                If your desire is to change fast and reach the top of the mountain in book sourcing, then this book is for you. If you’re new to online bookselling, somewhat experienced, a student, retiree, or stay at home mom or dad, or simply someone looking for full or part-time income, or you are a passionately proactive collector—this book is for you, too. And if you are a new collector then this book is also for you.

                Here you’ll get it all—all the nuts, all the bolts and none of the screws—if I can help it. You will also get methods and systems which I’ve used to secure quadruple digit growth.

                Many books and courses tell you how to do something better. This course (book) won’t tell you a thing. I’ll show you how to:

·         source better

·         save time—your most important commodity

·         get more products

·         built relationships and long-term alliances with important sources

·         and simply wipe the floor with the competition in your area, leaving them high and dry

You’ll learn how to get tough and you’ll learn how to win—and you’ll learn how to grow your business and collection with aggressive sourcing and how to stay in the game for the long-term. A statement that is more profound the more I think about it is this:  The better you become, the better your sourcing will become. If you want life to be better, then you must be better. Don’t worry about changing the world, begin with changing yourself. When you change, your world will change.  Simple isn’t it? And it’s straight forward—no tangled angles or twisted roads to contend with.  You are in charge—you’re in control of every decision, every movement—you’re in the present, and this moment is yours.  When you’re out sourcing, you really are in control. And it is nice to be in control of your future.  Because when you are in control--you own it.

                As with other books in this series of online bookselling it is important that you understand the dynamics of this business quickly. I’ve chosen the title, Mastering the Art of Sourcing for Online Booksellers & Collectors for one simple reason: sourcing is an art; but it is also a skill—a skill that is learnable and can be mastered. Therefore, you are going to master this art and learn this skill.  Let me explain. To be successful in sourcing, as with any endeavor passionately pursued, and I do mean, passionately pursued, you must first begin with the correct attitude. This attitude is to be mindfully aware of what it is you are doing. Sourcing can be an art when pursued correctly. To be great at anything you have to master it. You must plan to succeed and be mindful of what it is you want to accomplish—in the short-term and in the long-term you must not lose sight of your goals.  

                Focusing on your prime objective while involved in sourcing and book collecting is paramount. Book sourcing, with the end result in mind, is the first step toward your success; not every day is an easy one, but it doesn't have to been overly difficult either.  The Chinese say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” or something to that effect.  

                With intelligent sourcing you take hold of potential growth whereby creating positive situations—you force momentum as you grow. And as we know, it takes momentum to expand an enterprise to the next level. You are going to learn how to source properly by practicing, practicing, and practicing a daily routine set to consistently produce exceptional growth year in and year out.

                Fact: Books, DVDs, CDs, and VHS tapes are your lifeblood when you are a seller and when you are a collector, you want the best. For, without these products and a healthy, revolving inventory of them, you won’t be going anywhere fast. Your business may be slumping and your collection may be on the slowest of growth prospects. As a collector, you want the best books or DVDs or CDs in your collection. Look at it this way, to achieve superstar status, you need books—valuable books, lots of books—fast sellers and/or collectable titles. You’ll need a great degree of discipline, constant focus, and mindfulness; that is, being attuned, being aware of your present situation, whether sourcing from library book sales or meandering through swap meets stalls, you must practice mindfulness at every moment—be alert, be aggressive, be in the here and now, be the best.

Your 5 Percent Edge

What if you were 5 percent better than everybody else? You would receive 5 percent more books.  If you have collected an average of one hundred books each time you go out sourcing or attend a library book sale, then you would receive five more books than usual. If each book is worth $10, your 5 percent is worth $50 more every time you go out. If you are 5 percent better, and you are 5 percent better thirty days out of the month, then every time you source for books you’ll make $400 more when you source two times per week and collect a total of eight hundred books for the month.  Now there can be a lot of variables here; but the idea is to become better than you are. With little improvement over time, you will become a force to be reckoned with. 

                When you are sourcing for books and you are perfectly, mindfully, aware of the present, the moment, the here and now, and your mission, and the achievement of your immediate goal, you are mindfully in sync to the activity. This in sync or attunement will almost always produce better, more, satisfying results that, will not only reap a pleasing income but yield a more rewarding experience in sourcing.

                You can burnout in sourcing as in other activities. So practice, train and prepare yourself for a mindful experience every time you are out hunting down books and other media products.  I promise that you will see a world of difference in your daily production, both in mind and in spirit, and naturally, the cash in your pocket will grow with better and more valuable books surprisingly coming into your life. Just before a sale begins and even the night or day before a sale, think about your movements and the mission you plan to achieve at the sale, or your sourcing activity for the day. Your adrenalin will pump you up to the next level of ever higher production. Go over your plan and goals; they will motivate you to move forward.

                Summing up—practicing mindfulness regularly will increase your income and bring more joy into daily or weekly sourcing.  Book sourcing is similar to treasure hunting—and the more you’re out and about, in the world, the better you’ll eventually do.  This is very important when first starting out and especially as you mature into sourcing.

*   *   *

It was a brisk February morning, Saturday. It rained most of the night; now the morning sky was clear and the air crisp as air is after a mountain snow fall with a lingering scent of burning embers from nearby homes. I awoke refreshed, rested, and energized—prepared to be fully engaged in my morning endeavor. The plan this morning—a local, monthly library book sale, one of many I would attend throughout the month—but this was one of my favorites, having a hot supply of good, resalable books month-in and  month-out. I spun out of bed—no need for an alarm.  It was a quarter of six.  I prepared a light breakfast, eggs, went to my computer, logged into my Monsoon sellers account (Monsoon is a software program that helps with sales on multiple websites, inventory management and competitive re-pricing of inventory) and checked the orders that came in during the night while I slept.  Not unusual, nine new orders appeared totaling $279.89. The largest, a legal book I had purchased from a library sale two weeks earlier for $1.  It sold for $135.  It was not uncommon to wake-up to five, six or ten new orders. It’s also common to receive international orders while you sleep. I checked e-mails—nothing important. The book sale today started at nine o’clock for members preview—the line started before eight. I left the house a little after seven grabbing my retractable hand-truck, along with an empty box, drove traffic-free the thirty minutes to the library and visualized all the fine books I’d collect at the sale. I also visualized myself being quick, clear-minded, mindful, assertive, persistent and consistent—the competition, my rivals would be heavy on the attack, as usual of this particular sale, for it was in a very literate area with a constant donation flow of fine books.  The prices for almost all the books were fifty cents for paperbacks and one dollar for hardbacks—a good deal and one in which I’ve become accustomed to.

                When I arrived, about an hour before the sale, there were, as expected, a few boxes forming a line just outside the entrance door to the sales room. There were a total of four boxes. The boxes, representing four individual booksellers—the live bodies typically wandered back to their cars to wait while the boxes took their places in line—a customary procedure. I have not yet been the number one in line at this sale as I have been at others; but I’m typically in the top four or six. I have a feeling that a couple of the regulars, who live close by, place their box in line the night before.  But it’s time I uncover this mystery. I’ve made a reasonable donation to a neighbor who lives across the street from the library to place my box out the night before with a note written on it “book sale line starts with this box.”   

                Within the hour, they started floating in, thirty to forty, all members, lining up behind me.  Many are the regulars I see at other book sales—all dealers and resellers and a few older, unassuming folks who just like to wait in lines—some collectors too. A few minutes before nine, a graceful volunteer ( a dear senior citizen in her third stage of twilight), appears and checks membership status of those in line, and within minutes the doors open and the line disappears into the room.  Quickly, I head for nonfiction books.  I don’t particularly hoard books, which I detest of others with a distain that can only be described as bowel movements through the nostrils, and should be banned from all sales, but since the pace is fast and the competition stiff, I generally start picking books out, about ten at a time or as many as I can handle, carried and stacked, and sometimes I harness an over-the-shoulder bag that can carry over twenty medium sized books. I escort my new friends (books) briskly to my box and dolly which are placed against the wall or under a table at checkout. Most book sales allow space to cart around books, but this particular salesroom is small and gets crowded—therefore, books chosen must be stored against walls or under checkout tables immediately upon collection. Moreover, you do not want to be encumbered pulling around a cart; park it somewhere, some open space near a wall and place a towel or jacket over it, so people know that they are not on the open market.  

                The books I choose, without first scanning, are chosen from intuition, experience, and some may be books that I am familiar with that I know are profitable bets. Strange and obscure, very specialized titles are picked.  Through experience, my hit ratio is now about 70 percent on target; this is up from 40 percent a year ago, after picking books out somewhat blindly in haste. After I quickly collect about twenty or so books this way, I then pullout my scanner and start scanning the rest that are spread out over the tables.  About five minutes has now passed.

                And then it happened—call it what you want, intuition, gut-hunch or what have you, a book that caught my immediate attention was a book about golf courses. Imagine, golf courses?  It was mixed in with the random, unspecified and non categorized nonfiction books. Most books about golf are not worth much monetarily—mostly because they are over printed and the supply is endless; and there are lots of books about golf. Basic supply and demand economic theory has a hand in this as with other industries and products, keeping prices in this category low.  I grabbed this particular book, scanned it, and to my happy surprise, the low price showed $225 with an Amazon ranking of 320,000 (I’ll address Amazon ranking later in the text).  It was a hardcover book and the price I would pay would be $1.  I shoved it under my arm and began to scan other books as fast as a croupier collecting dead chips.  I gathered a few more books ranging in value from $7 to $50 before heading for my box and unloading my score.  The expensive golf book went under the others, toward the bottom of the stack.  I didn’t want someone recognizing it. The temptation to lift it could be too great for an unscrupulous bookseller—a thief at heart and now a thief in reality—it’s always best to be cautious—don’t trust anyone.  A month earlier, at another sale, I had a 50 cent paperback worth $35 lifted from my box and just recently a, Julia Childs, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1, 1971 printing, in Very Good condition with Very Good, unclipped dust jacket swiped from my box. The book was worth about $100 at the time—and somebody knew it and when I turned away, just for a few seconds, it disappeared, even with my jacket laid over it. I’ve also caught, numerous times, people pilfering through my box of books even when it is covered with a towel or a jacket and set aside from the books for sale. Yes, there are thieves everywhere.  Did you ever read the book, The Sociopath Next Door?  A very high percentage of people do not have a conscience regarding moral or ethical standards.

                In about fifteen minutes, I had accumulated thirty-eight prized books. Most of the regular sellers are cashing out. I stay for another thirty minutes and go through the remaining books for a second and third run and also books others have returned to the tables. During the sale, a few of the volunteers bring more books out from the storage room.  I follow them as they set the books out on the tables and get the first chance to scan them or pick them out with my Bruce Lee moves—stealth moves that I’ve honed to perfection (dreams of a bookseller). The earlier books that I collected without scanning are scanned when I’m ready to settle-up and cash-out. I return seven books back to the stacks—bad picks with low prices or extremely poor condition books (books with mold or terribly mangled not noticed when first picked out).  Finally, when I’m ready to leave I have forty-seven books with a total resale value of about $1,150. This is a good, reliable, monthly source for quality books, with driving time and collecting time totaling less than three hours.   By the way, I sold the golf course book, The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, two weeks later for $285.  And now this book is on my radar—as soon as I see it at a sale, I’ll grab it; no scanning necessary. This is how you become proficient in picking without scanning—remembering your past winners.  Bauman’s Rare Books in New York has a fine copy of the book listed for $1,500—but there are several copies available on Amazon starting at around $265 for a “Very Good” copy. During Christmas, the price moved well over $300 for “Good” copies.   Most people, including dealers and resellers won’t touch the book if they don’t already know of its value, for its appearance is no more interesting than other typical golf books with tons of printed copies available, which usually are not worth more than a few pennies.  And when a sales volunteer categorizes the book and places it with other sports books, it’s bound to get ignored—but I’ll be looking for it.  Sports books are usually not on my buy list—most are not worth much. Although, baseball book sales pickup during late April with the season starts. Unfortunately, over the past ten months, I’ve not come across this golf book, but my eyes are open and as an eagle swooping down for a trout, I’ll pounce when I see it again.

                The reason I shared this story with you is to show you that books with a value of $200 and more are available for $1 at many book sales.  In fact, I picked another book worth over $200 at this sale two months later.  The book was an investment book—specifically for serious traders. Typically, I will collect a minimum of at least one book worth over $100, and on a better day, several books worth over $100 each.  The last library sale I attended, I found seven books, and VHS tapes worth well over $100 each.  One was worth over $700 and purchased for 25 cents. Another was worth $130 and purchased again for only 25 cents and four other books worth over $100 each.  You’ll find these types of deals too, but only when you’re out there and you get in the game.  This particular day, I had purchased sixty-two books for $57.25; the total value worth $2,700—a good day.  I particular day I purchased a book for $1 from a library book sale that was a bomb.  It was not a good sale. The quality of books smelled as bad at last week’s mackerel—still in the pan. The $1 book sold for $495 three months later. I was vindicated.  It was a pictorial book of Texas oil wells, oil people and all things oil.  Naturally, somebody from Dallas, Texas purchased the book during early December.

                Over the course of a year, your knowledge of books and sourcing aptitude will increase beyond your expectation when you follow through with study, becoming mindfully alert and committing yourself to improvement at every chance—gaining knowledge and skill in choosing valuable books and other media related products can be acquired faster than you think—it’s all up to you and the time you devote to it.

                Your success of becoming a powerful seller of books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes online depends largely on the quality and volume of the items you find and eventually list for sale on Amazon Marketplace and other websites. This is a skill that can be acquired.  If your desire is to grow your business by expanding your inventory year after year, exponentially, you’ll need to secure sound and dependable, rather reliable, sources for building significant inventory that turns-over regularly and allows you the income you desire.  You will also have to find new ways to locate products as old sourcing venues dry up, disappear or become over saturated with desperate buyers, book hounds, tramps, scrambling and hoarding the last valuable book or CD. Competition will also rise in the future, as I predict, especially during times of economic downturns, recessions, and depressions and so on.  But much of the competition will also dwindle away as these new sellers jump into the venture completely unprepared and fairly dumfounded of an industry that has grown astronomically in the last decade. This growth, while launching many successful sellers and self-starters to new careers that fill monetary needs temporarily, has also produced a fair share of wannabe entrepreneurs, not so serious people who simply want to turn a little extra coin.  There are many winners, yet far more, uncommitted losers who after a short stint, dropout.  Most are just not serious enough, simply unattached, and unwilling to focus in on a specific plan of action, a strategic, long-term roadmap to guide them, or they simply want to sell the few books they currently own or have acquired. And thus, in a short time, typically in a few months, the uncommitted, those without a solid plan, dwindle away into forgotten lands, in midstream on the edge of the rainbow, short of the pot of gold and into a dry, arid hole covered over by gophers.  The gophers in this case are other, more serious book dealers and sellers—the ones who are committed, scratching their way up to the fresh air, knowing the higher they go the cleaner the air becomes.  They are not turned off by a little hard work. And they are not discouraged with a few setbacks.  In course, they are committed and reasonable about the whole thing.  

                However, it doesn’t have to be hard or energy draining. You on the other hand, are different—you now have this book in your hands—you are serious, determined, and conscious. You want, and perhaps need, to make a meaningful difference in your life when it comes to producing a solid income from online bookselling. You too, may have been in a strange, forgotten land  before—but those days are now far behind you since today you have this book on sourcing—you’re ready to hit the big time—or at least run your business on a professional, less stressful level which promises future growth and long-term security.

                The opportunities available today to online booksellers are boundless. There is more opportunity today than ever before, for the trust and confidence of online buyers has grown steadily and will continue to grow as the Millennials (Generation Y kids) mature into Generation Y adults—adults that have grown-up with the internet and e-commerce and will be steady, trusting customers—your customers. This may sound strange for those of you who are Millennial, but perfectly understandable for those in midlife and beyond.

                 If your mind is made-up and you want to move forward with this business, I’ll teach you everything you need to know to stay one step ahead of the competition while growing steadily for the long-term. Online selling of books and other media products is very profitable when sourcing is planned strategically and conducted professionally—it is also highly competitive—so you’ll have to set a spark to light the fire burning in you. And this is exactly what you’ll learn in this book and the other books I’ve put together on online bookselling—turning profits and cutting the competition to irrelevance.  By the way, it’s also fun and adrenaline pumping when you hit the jackpot.  And I assure you, you will hit it hard and many times when you follow my advice.

                As you progress into book and media product selling, you’ll realize soon enough that the harder you work the luckier you’ll get—and your numbers will speak for themselves. The tenacious lead the field in bookselling and book collecting as in other businesses or hobbies. Yet, the big difference here as opposed to other endeavors is that, in the online bookselling business you can quickly flourish on a shoestring, with minimal cash outlay as a startup.  This allows the temporarily cash starved entrepreneur, go-getter, maybe you, a welcomed chance to score big with little out-of-pocket funding—this is a huge plus—low capital risk and high return on labor—and hustle.  This was one of the major advantages that persuaded me to jump in, and possibly you too.

                Sourcing, a term used to define ways in which one locates or finds top quality items to sell, merchandise, is the most important aspect of your business, and this is the reason it is covered here in book two, the second book in our online bookselling series.  Without an ample supply of products you do not have a business and you will not make money—money you’ll need to furnish the lifestyle you desire. Therefore, your sourcing goal should be clear, concise, planned, monitored consistently, frequently analyzed and continually expanding.  Frequent self analysis of your sourcing activities is crucial.  Moreover, a critical factor to your success is centered in continually improving your sources for quality products. This should be never ending. There are countless ways, and places to find products—and in this book, I’ll  show you the Go-Getter Way—a system of finding the products you need day in and day out to keep you ahead of the pack and way ahead of the competition.  You will be the force to be reckoned with in your area when you follow the sourcing methods and rules that I’ve outlined in this course (book).  You will also, in a very short period of time, be relatively well known among other sellers (not by name), respected by suppliers and possibly even feared by some resellers with deflating prospects.  I’ll go into the fear issue later.

                The Go-Getter System of Sourcing is the most comprehensive sourcing course available today. I’ve designed this course to be straight forward, hardboiled, and candid.  I’ve left nothing out and everything in this course, you can bet, I’ve used and continue to use in my daily business.  I have also taught this system to countless students wanting to supplement income and work for themselves. This is a system that works and works well when applied and executed correctly and consistently. 

                Before we start in on the guts, let me tell you about six important terms I want you to remember. I want you to think about these terms all the time. These are terms to be thought about especially when you are out scouting for books and other media products. Do not forget, you are what you think about—think mindfully, as noted earlier. The terms I’ve chosen allow motion, direction, directness, patience and endurance; moreover, having these terms in your arsenal of thoughts will help keep you grounded and on a straight path in this business—a path, I hope, absent of potentially twisted roads and what-ifs.  You may even have prejudices against some of these terms.  If you do, you’ll have to get over them quickly or your survival may be in serious jeopardy. The six terms in mention are:  (1) assertiveness; (2) tenacity; (3) diligence; (4) hustle; (5) focus; and (6) mindfulness.  If you are committed to succeed where others have failed, seeing what’s over on the other side of the mountain, rather than fading into the quiet, dark void of life, and into that gopher hole with stifling air, you’ll need to make a commitment to yourself that you will behave in ways that embodies continual growth, professionalism and successful activity.  Now here’s the rundown:

·         assertiveness—successful sellers do not exhibit timidity—they take action.  You do not react—you respond with pressure.

·         tenaciously—successful sellers do not quit—they keep going and going. You are a fighter till the end.

·         diligently—successful sellers work hard and intelligently to get started on the right footing. You understand hard work pays dividends and creates surplus in your pocket and in life.

·         hustle—successful sellers exhibit more drive, ingenuity and creativity. You’ll out hustle more than everybody in your area scouting for books and other media products.

·         focus—with a clear vision, clear mindedness and determined to get what’s yours, and not just your share, but a good share of everyone else’s.  

·         mindfulness—being fully aware of the present, here and now, the moment and experiencing the situation as it is presented.

It’s vitally important that you be tough on yourself now so life will be infinitely easier on you later—a phrase I like to remember.  This makes sense regardless of age.

How to Use this Book   

This book has not been written to be read sequentially. Read the Contents and go to the chapter that interest you first; then as you like, read through the other chapters taking notes along the away. I’ve enclosed a few stories, set as examples of my own experiences of my first couple of years in this business. The examples illustrated should allow you the opportunity to think about the situations that I’ve experienced and draw from them the necessary knowledge, techniques and methods that I’ve used. You may emulate my ways in your own sourcing ventures.  I warn you though, if you do, you may experience a degree of rapid success—so don’t be alarmed by it—be prepared.

                In addition, you should get reasonably familiar with all sourcing methods outlined in this book and you ought to incorporate many of them into your daily or weekly hunt for quality inventory.

                Returning to the chapters frequently and reviewing the material every chance you get should be part of your study plan.  Through repetition, as in any serious study, you’ll absorb the information quicker and subsequently begin to enact, that is, take on the behavior of a professional sourcer with good, solid habits formed early on.  A good policy to follow is to keep this book in your car and refresh your mind of the material in the text regularly, focusing on your main objective—scouting for books at every turn—you’ll be surprised from the opportunities that pop-up. You might even consider getting two copies. Any book that shows me how to do something better, make money faster and leads me to a quicker means to an end is worth having two copies. I sometimes will purchase two copies of a particular book; one copy will go into the car and the other will stay at home. If you have the eBook and the softcover copy, even better. You may want to do this too. One becomes your traveling copy—the other, your home, study copy. This will allow you to breeze through your book when you are, for any number of reasons, unexpectedly delayed. The time waiting in your car or in lines offers you an opportunity to study and read and bone-up on information that will make you better at scouting and acquiring, effectively, the books that produce high profits.  So when you find yourself waiting in your car or having to wait in lines—make good use of this time and fill your brain.  Go to www.MitchFreeland.com and order your car copy today. One good idea applied passionately, and consistently over time could be worth thousands of dollars. So don’t just read and agree, apply the information and get what’s yours now.

                Also, keep a pad of paper handy when studying your book. Write down anything that comes to mind. Remember, your inventory is everywhere you look and everyone you talk to.

M. Mitch Freeland

Las Vegas, Nevada

February 29,  2016

YES, YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL SOURCER AND NEVER RUN LOW OF GREAT BOOKS, DVDS OR CDS TO SELL EVER AGAIN!

"Writer, publisher, real estate investor--flipper, poker player, gambler, bookseller and collector,  and businessman, 
M. Mitch Freeland has been called the 'modern-day polymath.'"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ello, I’m Mitch Freeland. I am the author of Mastering the Art of Sourcing for Online Booksellers & Collectors, published by Go-Getter Express a division of Las Vegas Book Company. I have bought, sold, scouted, and donated over 500,000 books in the last five years. I have been called “a modern-day polymath” due to the diversity of subjects that appeal to me and for the subjects I write about.  I am a person of faith, a business person, and a writer. I write both fiction and nonfiction.

I studied Anthropology at UCLA and started writing at forty-four. Since then, I have written sixty books. Everything I write about, I have experienced. On the fiction side, I have produced six short story collections and a few novels.

I have been an investor in numerous young companies and start-ups dealing in all classes of investments for over twenty-five years.  I have also been a real estate investor for many years. I have been President and founder of an online bookstore, and publishing company (Go-Getter Express), and a hands-on operator in my real estate investing and property management companies. With my brother John, we have bought and sold, fixed and flipped hundreds of single-family and multi-family properties and I have managed over 100 units as a landlord.

Regarding my nonfiction writing, my goal is to create intuitive, pertinent content that can be incorporated into your personal and work life to help you succeed faster and with less stress.

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