QUESTION: I collect and sell vintage children's picture books and other more eclectic hard-to-find vintage interest titles (sports, art, gay literature, etc). What selling approaches should I take with newer contemporary titles, compared to collectible vintage books?

ANSWER: No doubt, the Internet has expanded the market for nostalgia items. This includes books appealing to baby boomers, reminding them of childhood. Amazon and eBay expose lots more people to the idea of buying nostalgia items. Many of these buyers would never have taken the initiative (in pre-Internet days) to go to a collector's show, shop, or catalog to buy such things. But after stumbling across these items online, they buy.

I think the contemporary stuff requires less preparation, fewer selling skills, and less creativity. And many of these buyers aren't necessarily building a collection they hope will be worth a certain value.

I prefer fixed-price selling instead of auctions for all but the rarest books. Fixed-price selling has these advantages:

-- You set the price and wait for a buyer to meet you there

-- No fees are incurred until after the item sells

I'll construct a hypothetical example to illustrate why I think fixed-price collectible book sales will increase. Let's say you have a book printed in 1950 that isn't very rare. But your copy is signed by the author AND a friend of the author whose signature is rare. What would happen if you listed this book on eBay for a 10-day auction? It might be seen by a few hundred people and you'd get a few dozen bids. Whether the ending price was to your liking is totally left to chance.

Now, Let's say you listed this book at a fixed price on Marketplace. You set the price at which you're happy to sell, the highest range you think is reasonable. And instead of hoping to find a buyer within 10 days, your item is for sale indefinitely on Marketplace. Because Google and other search engines index each Amazon product page, your book might be found by anyone searching for the names and words in your listing -- whether they were shopping for a book or not.