Used-book store shares secrets of competing with the big boys

By Jan Norman
Orange County Register

The first impression of the exterior of Book Baron in Anaheim, Calif., is that this can't be one of America's great bookstores.

It sprawls across three spaces of a Magnolia Avenue strip mall that has seen better days.

How can Book Baron possibly compete with the two-story mahogany and espresso-bar ambiance of a new Barnes and Noble? Or the 24-hour, shop-from-anywhere convenience of Amazon.com? Or the nation's 12,000 other specialty bookstores and more than a quarter-million retailers that include books in their inventory?

Yet in 2002, USA Today listed Book Baron as one of the nation's 10 great used-book stores.

An even better indication of Book Baron's viability is its endurance and growth. Since opening in 1980, Book Baron has expanded from 1,200 books and 3,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet plus three other locations and a Web site.

With an inventory of 500,000 volumes, "it is the largest used- and rare-book store in Southern California," owner Bob Weinstein bragged.

Weinstein's strategies for staying power and success are instructive for other entrepreneurs in high-competition, high-attrition industries.

Book Baron specializes in used and rare books although it does carry some new books at discounted prices.

Small bookstores must specialize even more, such as in science fiction, to give customers a reason to come in, Weinstein said.

"But when you have a store this big, location isn't that important."

Customers come from all over the world to Book Baron's 101 rows of packed but neat shelves.

To amass 500,000 volumes, Weinstein has bought entire inventories of at least 20 other stores that were going out of business and traveled as far as Kansas City, Mo., to buy private libraries from estates.

"I don't buy books that are too common," he said. "You can get them at Goodwill. Why would you come here?"

The real money is in rare books. Weinstein once paid $28,000 for "Hike & the Aeroplane" (1912) by Tom Graham, a pseudonym of Sinclair Lewis. He in turn sold it for $35,000.

Book Baron is one of the suppliers of used and out-of-print books to Amazon.

Internet business is so brisk that he has set up one warehouse just for online sales.

eBay has become Book Baron's newest alliance. Lois Weinstein photographs and lists 40 items a week on eBay.

"You get two people who want the same thing and bid it way up," Weinstein said.

"We listed one book for $15. It sold for $1,800."