A different kind of book scanning

DIY Book Scanner Skunk Works. Share your crazy ideas and novel approaches. Home of the "3D structure of a book" thread.

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daniel_reetz
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A different kind of book scanning

Post by daniel_reetz »

I just got a voicemail message from a good friend of mine. She was in a local thrift store scouting for books, and there were two men training in a third. They had some kind of mobile internet connected devices with integrated barcode scanners, and they were scanning the barcodes and checking the prices with online booksellers. Any book which was undervalued was thrown in the cart.

I sent this information to another friend for his opinion. He responded:
A couple years ago I saw a girl in a small thrift store scanning CDs. I think she had a palm pilot with a UPC scanner on it. What I think she was doing was just scanning the entire inventory and then putting up all those items for sale on Amazon, and if the CD sells, she goes back to the store and buys the CD. That means that if it's already sold, then they have to cancel the order -- and I have had that happen to me with used books a couple different times at Amazon.
spamsickle
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Re: A different kind of book scanning

Post by spamsickle »

And here I thought I was being all cutting-edge by planning an online app I could email an ISBN number to (because my phone has email, but not a net browser), and it would do a search on bookfinder.com or isbn.nu and mail the lowest 3 prices back to my phone. I've often been in a used book store, thought the price was a bit steep, and wondered if I should buy the book anyway or take a chance that I could find it cheaper online.

I wonder what they're planning to do with the books they're throwing in a bin. Are they buying them, or re-pricing them? Because if they're re-pricing them, and they haven't sold at the bargain price, that could be a mistake.

OTOH, if they're planning to become the new low-price point for that title on Alibris or Half.com, it might be good business.
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IcantRead
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Re: A different kind of book scanning

Post by IcantRead »

I have the tmobile g1 and i scan stuff all the time. Mostly at book stores ill check to see if it is worth it to get it online. I have another program that you take a pic of the front of the book and it will tell you the name and author, thats my favorit one because im a very visual person.
mrbook

Re: A different kind of book scanning

Post by mrbook »

I use an application in my iphone Evernote, take the screen and then I send it to my personal Evernote account :)
jbrewster

Re: A different kind of book scanning

Post by jbrewster »

I have an evernote application as well though with the power you can actually do with scanning the barcode on the fly, I don't think that the evernote would be put to much use.

I mean no disrespect whatsoever but the idea here is to get the decision right of the bat and if you still wait to get home and check side by side on your computer through your evernote account, you might lose on it the next time you pay a visit.
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