Von Abebooks zu Tomfolio Arne Schaefer (Africana Books, P O Box 12038, Mill Street Post Office, Cape Town 8010, South Africa) ist aus Unzufriedenheit vor anderthalb Jahren komplett als Anbieter bei Abebooks aus- und auf die genossenschaftliche Plattform Tomfolio umgestiegen. Der Inhalt seines Beitrags deckt sich mit vielen kritischen Stimmen an der Abebooks-Hegemonie im englischsprachigen Antiquariats-Online-Handel, die in den letzten Monaten laut wurden. Schaefers Brief ist aber auch ein engagierter Appell an die Kollegen, sich zu organisieren und neue, unabhängige Wege zu erschließen. Wir drucken den vollständigen Brief hier mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Arne Schaefer in der Originalfassung ab.
"Dear Sir
Your newsletter is always most interesting, as are the comments from dealers worldwide. Especially interesting are the ongoing shock ripples each time that ABE twists the hook it has embedded in thousands of bookdealers, by its remorseless and growing rapacity. To my amazement, the victims just scream and squirm but stay hooked!
The moment ABE became the single, biggest book mall, I suspected that it would become less friendly very soon, so I cast about for a 'reserve parachute' in the form of an alternative site. After a few abortive attempts, I picked on TomFolio, a co-operative site, not owned by accountants, website developers, geeks but by bookstore owners, small, medium and larger businesses like myself, as well as real 'brick & mortar' shop owners. Business was slow to start off with. My niche is very specialised, and I did not have a large customer base which I could immediately rely on. Although I still listed with ABE at the time, I referred all customers individually to my TomFolio presence, all my stationery, bookmarks, adverts etc reflected the latter not ABE. Within two years ABE was already raising the stakes repeatedly, and I could see the writing on the wall. I started redirecting customers from my ABE listings to TomFolio, which triggered slow, but menacing responses, telling me to desist. After several run-ins with ABE, I decided to cut the umbilical cord and go it on my own.
It has now been some 18 months since I ditched the proverbial 400-pound gorilla sitting on my back. Business is better than it was during the last six months that I had listed at ABE. My cash flow is improved as I get paid immediately, my costs are way down and new customers are making their appearance almost daily. Best of all, OUR co-op has a dedicated board, made up of OUR colleagues, our web techie is of the highest standard, ensuring maximum exposure of our products to search engines, our charges are no higher than other malls - and best of all, we will not sell off our shares to the highest bidder somebody whose only interest is in showing a 20% per annum compounded growth, so that they can in turn sell the book mall on for a huge profit in a few years' time.
I am not suggesting that all booksellers join me what I am saying is that it is time all booksellers get together, albeit in smaller groups; advertise your presence by word of mouth, good service, innovative web-presence, then you can topple that giant, towering house of cards that was your business premises but has become your oppressor.
