Way back, when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I attended classes at the University of Manitoba. Wait a minute, it wasn’t that far back, though it seems like it sometimes! Anyhow , while there I was a typical broke university student. Collected comic books as a teen and then got into vintage paperbacks while at university. Vintage paperbacks are mass market paperbacks published from the 1930s to 60s, and they often have rather sleazy, lurid or really cool cover paintings. There are pictures of a couple of them on the left. Went to garage sales, rummage sales and the like in search of the books I collected since I had to collect on the cheap. Also used to consign my unwanted textbooks at UMSU’s student book exchange. One day the idea dawned on me to pick up some of the literature I would run into while searching for the stuff I collected, and then consign them at the book exchange. That is how it all started. Got a very good idea of what titles were in demand that way, and could actually make enough to pay for my tuition (it was far cheaper then). Alas, I was eventually banned from the exchange because I was bringing in too many books (would be up to a few hundred). Noticed that there were vendors on campus selling jewelry and what not, so I looked into renting table space, and that was the birth of the business as you see it today. I do other things besides vending books at the universities. Sell books on line (have a page on how to find books on line), am a regular vendor at the Winnipeg Flea market Co-Op (100 Mandalay Drive in the North End of the city, I will do a page for them later), and I do some occasional shows like the Fringe Festival, Osborne Village on Canada day, Rockin’ Richards Music Collectors Show, and a few other such events. I will post these on the home page when they are up coming. Besides books I also handle video games, comics, toys, CDs, movies, records, certain small size antiques and collectibles.
What happened with my university studies? I graduated from the U of M with a commerce degree and my major was accounting. The original plan was to become a Chartered Accountant. However, after years of tedious study and a solid “C” average there was one thing I discovered, I hate accounting! After graduation I had no job and wasn't sure any more what I wanted to do. Meanwhile there was this collecting thing which always interested me. So I started dealing in these things in order to raise cash. Had no money to open a store, so I had to do things differently. There was no grand plan, but it all somehow worked out.
Likely why it worked out has to do with the fact that we all are passionate about things we enjoy doing. If you don't like your job or profession, then life seems to be filled with struggle and frustration, kind of like my university career. I Have since discovered that it is critically important to identify what it is in your life that drives you, what you really enjoy doing, what fills you with joy and purpose. These feelings are all clues to where your passion lies. In my case I just went with what I knew and loved to do. It all worked out because it had to, my purpose could not be denied, and any one who follows their passion will find this to be true. If I had known this back in my university days it would have saved lots of time and energy, so I'm passing this on for your benefit or for any one you know.
So that is my business story. Have recently been attending seminars and doing readings from some fantastic mentors. Highly recommend seminars by Peak Potentials. The introductory course they offer, Millionaire Mind Intensive, is life changing and they aren't kidding about the intensive part. Other Peak Potentials courses include, Life Directions, Warrior Camp, Millionaire School, Guerilla Business School, World's Greatest Marketing Seminar, and a bunch of others to help you be successful in what ever you choose to do. Unfortunately they don't teach this stuff in University. Also am doing a marketing telephone seminar with Jay Abraham, one of the most brilliant marketing minds on the planet. If you would like any information on Peak Potentials courses, please contact me. I will be adding a link here later on.
Ever since the business was started I had no name for it. Without a store, I didn't think it was necessary. At World's Greatest Marketing Seminar I learned the error of that thinking. But what to call it? Another seminar attendee suggested Bookman, and come to think of it, I had often heard my clients say, "the Bookman's back" when they see my display. So that is where the name came from.
The underlying strategy of my business is simply the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So I will always treat my clients as I would like to be treated. Just found this rather neat quote which sums things up; “I am grateful because the people come to see me. They make it possible for me to make my living in a very agreeable way. I am going to give them the very best I possibly can.” Howard Thurston
HOW THE BUSINESS OPERATES
There is a fair amount of behind the scenes things going on before and after my sale events. My constant goal is to provide the best and most interesting stuff for my clients, and to do so in a reasonably organized way. The first step is my favorite, shopping for inventory. This entails trips to garage sales, rummage sales, charity sales, thrift shops, second hand stores of all types, and from people that meet me at my sales who have things to sell. Besides books I also deal in video games, CDs, movies (VHS and DVD), records, toys, comic books, and certain small antiques. The non book items are sold at other venues like the Winnipeg Flea market Co-Op at 100 Mandalay Drive in the north end of the city. I am very particular about what material I will buy in terms of quality and condition. Occasionally you will see lower consdition items on my tables, but they will be of very high demand and or uncommon items only. As I mention on my homepage, I go through about 200,000 books in a year and I end up buying about 12,000 to 15,000 of them. Since starting in business my eyeballs have scanned over 1 million books.
Getting back to books, once they are acquired, they are taken to my warehouse space (the basement of where I live, but warehouse sounds so much more impressive) where they are priced and sorted. Pricing is done right away so that my entire inventory is priced and ready to go. Any minor repairs are made at this stage too. I generally avoid books that need extensive repairs since that is very time consuming. When sorted, the books are arranged in a few broad categories, science fiction, horror and mystery, coffee table size, books to be checked on the Internet, items to wholesale to other dealers, and literature and scholarly items. The literature is in alphabetical order so things can be located easily and quickly. The scholarly items are in rather large piles in no particular order since most tend to be one of a kind items. This mass tends to cause me the most trouble because of the lack of order. Do not have enough space in the literature to be able to mix them together. That is why at my sale events you will notice the main literature tables in alphabetical order and the larger size academic books to be in no order at all. I often run into many interesting types of books that I do not have clients for and these are picked up to be sold to other dealers. Finally the books to be checked on the Internet are to see if they are worth listing on line. I also sell books on the net and the web page page titled Finding Books On line will cover on line book selling. My total inventory numbers about 35,000 volumes right now and about 12,000 are listed on the net..
In the winter months my buying does slow down, but even so the sorting and pricing is an ongoing thing. So if you don’t find a book you are seeking at one sales event, it may very well turn up at the next one. That’s where it helps if you let me know what you are looking for so it can be put aside for you.
When a sale event is near, then it is time to restock the traveling book boxes. Each box is unloaded, one at a time, and fresh items are added in. You may notice index cards placed in books with the author and title written down. These cards list the books that I commonly handle and am usually well stocked in. The carded books are in the alphabetical literature section. The oversize academic items don’t usually have cards since there tends to be only one copy. It takes 3 to 4 hours to do all the boxes. The evening before a sale event the boxes are then all loaded into my truck. There is anywhere from 20 to 25 boxes brought and they can weigh anywhere from 20 to 40 pounds. A good tip when moving books is to always use small size boxes so that they are not extremely heavy when loaded. Very heavy boxes can hurt your back.. So the boxes are then loaded in my truck the night before the event starts. There is on campus storage so the unsold books are stored overnight. Each evening during an event I will pick fresh stock using the cards that were pulled from sold books, and more academic books will be chosen to fill up the empty boxes. So there is always some new stock each day.
There you have it, a summary of what I do for you, my valued clients. And again, if you have a book you are looking for, please e-mail or contact me at a sale and I will do the best I can to locate it for you.
