Abebooks
Encyclopedia
AbeBooks is an online marketplace for book
s. Most books listed are used
, many are rare or out-of-print, and a growing number are new books. The company is based in Victoria, British Columbia
, Canada
, with offices in Düsseldorf
, Germany
, and in the US
. It was incorporated in 1995 and launched its websites in 1996. At present, they list more than 100 million books on sale from 12,880 booksellers in 57 countries. AbeBooks offers six regional websites: for North America, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain (Iberlibro.com).
On August 1, 2008, AbeBooks announced that it had been acquired by Amazon.com
.
s, thereby allowing small, independent players to compete with bookselling superstores. Some of the member bookstores offer their books online only, while others also maintain a regular storefront.
Booksellers upload their inventory data to the AbeBooks database, specifying information about each book including condition and price. Prices are fixed (with US$1 being the minimum) and there are no auctions. Items available range from the extremely common, where there might be hundreds of copies listed, to truly unique manuscript material worth thousands of dollars. In addition to books, magazines, audio books, journals, illustration art, vintage photographs and paper ephemera are offered.
markets.
In 2002, the founding partners were bought out by German media company Hubert Burda Media
.
From the late 1990s through 2005, AbeBooks had reseller agreements with eBay
, Half.com
, Barnes & Noble.com, BibliOZ.com and Amazon.com
, allowing AbeBooks to market and sell booksellers' books through those channels; these agreements were dissolved in 2005. AbeBooks purchased IberLibro.com in October 2004 and its inventory was integrated into the AbeBooks' database in December 2006. In November 2005, AbeBooks acquired BookFinder.com, an American book price comparison "metasearch" shopping service site. In February 2006, AbeBooks acquired book-inventory and order-management company FillZ. In May 2006, AbeBooks purchased a 40 per cent stake in LibraryThing
, a social networking and book cataloging website for bibliophiles.
In February 2008 AbeBooks announced the creation of the Gojaba.com site. This marketplace was designed initially for Russian and Swedish audiences, does not share inventory listings with the other sites and operates under different standards and rules.
Crislands was acquired by AbeBooks in April 2008. Chrislands is a company that hosts websites for over 1000 booksellers.
In June 2008 AbeBooks was awarded the British Columbia Technology Industry Association
Impact Award for Leadership in Social Responsibility for its charitable activities, literacy initiatives, and commitment to environmental friendliness in its business practices.
On August 1, 2008, AbeBooks announced that it would be acquired by Amazon.com. The deal gave Amazon.com a stake in both LibraryThing
, of which AbeBooks owned 40%, and competitor Shelfari
, in which Amazon.com had invested separately.
In October 2008, AbeBooks was named one of BC's Top Employers
by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by The Vancouver Sun
, The Province
and the Victoria Times-Colonist.
AbeBooks initially offered its services for a flat listings fee, based on the number of titles listed for sale. The model was changed in the early 2000s to include a commission on sales. In April 2006, AbeBooks started mandatory processing of Mastercard and Visa credit card transactions on behalf of its sellers and added a charge a 5.5% pecentage for the provision of this service: previously this service had been optional. In 2008, AbeBooks started charging a commission of 13.5% on the cost of postage as well as the book price.
Sellers can, within limits, set their own standard postage rates to various countries or by different carriers. Booksellers can upload their inventory using their own spreadsheet software or via the site's interface. Items that sell are mailed directly from the individual bookseller's location. Some booksellers have new books directly mailed from wholesalers or publishers. While AbeBooks is arguably the largest such site, most booksellers who list on AbeBooks also list their books on multiple competing marketplaces such as Amazon.com
, Biblio.com
, Half.com
, etc.
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s. Most books listed are used
Used book
A used book or secondhand book is a book which has been owned before by an owner other than the publisher or retailer, usually by an individual or library....
, many are rare or out-of-print, and a growing number are new books. The company is based in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, with offices in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was incorporated in 1995 and launched its websites in 1996. At present, they list more than 100 million books on sale from 12,880 booksellers in 57 countries. AbeBooks offers six regional websites: for North America, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain (Iberlibro.com).
On August 1, 2008, AbeBooks announced that it had been acquired by Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
.
Searchable inventory
AbeBooks' users can search across the listings of many independent bookstoreIndependent bookstore
An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned.-Literary and countercultural history:Author events at independent bookstores sometimes take the role of literary salons. The bookstores themselves, "have historically supported and cultivated the work of independent...
s, thereby allowing small, independent players to compete with bookselling superstores. Some of the member bookstores offer their books online only, while others also maintain a regular storefront.
Booksellers upload their inventory data to the AbeBooks database, specifying information about each book including condition and price. Prices are fixed (with US$1 being the minimum) and there are no auctions. Items available range from the extremely common, where there might be hundreds of copies listed, to truly unique manuscript material worth thousands of dollars. In addition to books, magazines, audio books, journals, illustration art, vintage photographs and paper ephemera are offered.
History
AbeBooks was founded in 1995 by Rick and Vivian Pura, and Keith and Cathy Waters. The site was launched in 1996, initially including listings for only four bookstores. AbeBooks acquired Germany's JustBooks GmbH online book marketplace in 2001, which helped the company expand into the German, French and British online bookselling markets. In 2004, AbeBooks expanded its model to include new books, and acquired the Spanish company IberLibro, to better serve Spanish languageSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
markets.
In 2002, the founding partners were bought out by German media company Hubert Burda Media
Hubert Burda Media
Hubert Burda Media is a German privately held, family-owned global media company with its origins in printing and magazine publishing. The company is headquartered in Offenburg and Munich, has additional main offices in Berlin and Hamburg and has more than 7400 employees...
.
From the late 1990s through 2005, AbeBooks had reseller agreements with eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, Half.com
Half.com
Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay, in which sellers offer items at fixed prices, usually items that have a UPC, ISBN or other kind of SKU, rather than rare, old or collectible items...
, Barnes & Noble.com, BibliOZ.com and Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, allowing AbeBooks to market and sell booksellers' books through those channels; these agreements were dissolved in 2005. AbeBooks purchased IberLibro.com in October 2004 and its inventory was integrated into the AbeBooks' database in December 2006. In November 2005, AbeBooks acquired BookFinder.com, an American book price comparison "metasearch" shopping service site. In February 2006, AbeBooks acquired book-inventory and order-management company FillZ. In May 2006, AbeBooks purchased a 40 per cent stake in LibraryThing
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by individuals, authors, libraries and publishers....
, a social networking and book cataloging website for bibliophiles.
In February 2008 AbeBooks announced the creation of the Gojaba.com site. This marketplace was designed initially for Russian and Swedish audiences, does not share inventory listings with the other sites and operates under different standards and rules.
Crislands was acquired by AbeBooks in April 2008. Chrislands is a company that hosts websites for over 1000 booksellers.
In June 2008 AbeBooks was awarded the British Columbia Technology Industry Association
British Columbia Technology Industry Association
The British Columbia Technology Industry Association is a not-for-profit member-funded trade association in British Columbia, Canada, which promotes the technology industry in the province...
Impact Award for Leadership in Social Responsibility for its charitable activities, literacy initiatives, and commitment to environmental friendliness in its business practices.
On August 1, 2008, AbeBooks announced that it would be acquired by Amazon.com. The deal gave Amazon.com a stake in both LibraryThing
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by individuals, authors, libraries and publishers....
, of which AbeBooks owned 40%, and competitor Shelfari
Shelfari
Shelfari is a social cataloging website for books. Shelfari users build virtual bookshelves of the titles they own or have read, and can rate, review, tag, and discuss their books. Users can also create groups that other members may join, create discussions, and talk about books, or other topics...
, in which Amazon.com had invested separately.
In October 2008, AbeBooks was named one of BC's Top Employers
BC's Top Employers
BC's Top Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best employers in British Columbia to work. First published in October 2005, the special designation recognizes the British Columbia employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work...
by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
, The Province
The Province
The Province is a daily, tabloid format newspaper published in British Columbia by Postmedia. It has been a daily newspaper since 1898.According to a recent NADbank survey, The Provinces average weekday readership was 520,100, making it British Columbia's most read newspaper...
and the Victoria Times-Colonist.
Sellers
Sellers pay a monthly subscription to list their books on the site, ranging from $25 to $300, depending on how many books they list. In addition, sellers pay a percentage fee for each book sold via the websites.AbeBooks initially offered its services for a flat listings fee, based on the number of titles listed for sale. The model was changed in the early 2000s to include a commission on sales. In April 2006, AbeBooks started mandatory processing of Mastercard and Visa credit card transactions on behalf of its sellers and added a charge a 5.5% pecentage for the provision of this service: previously this service had been optional. In 2008, AbeBooks started charging a commission of 13.5% on the cost of postage as well as the book price.
Sellers can, within limits, set their own standard postage rates to various countries or by different carriers. Booksellers can upload their inventory using their own spreadsheet software or via the site's interface. Items that sell are mailed directly from the individual bookseller's location. Some booksellers have new books directly mailed from wholesalers or publishers. While AbeBooks is arguably the largest such site, most booksellers who list on AbeBooks also list their books on multiple competing marketplaces such as Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Biblio.com
Biblio.com
Biblio.com is the third largest used book marketplaces in the US. Established in 2003 in Asheville, NC, Biblio.com has grown to become one of the largest global book marketplaces, with over 50 million books for sale from over 5,000 booksellers in countries around the world.-A used book...
, Half.com
Half.com
Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay, in which sellers offer items at fixed prices, usually items that have a UPC, ISBN or other kind of SKU, rather than rare, old or collectible items...
, etc.
AbeBooks web sites
- Abebooks U.S.
- Abebooks UK
- Abebooks DE
- Abebooks FR
- Abebooks IT
- Iberlibro.com
- AbeBooks U.S. Staff Blog
- AbeBooks U.S. Book Wiki
- UK Affiliate Blog
AbeBooks companies
- BookFinder.com
- Crislands.com
- Fillz.com
- Gojaba.com
- Librarything (AbeBooks owns a minority stake)