2nd Hand Book Shops In Pattaya

[johnong]

I own the place, but the selling information is still correct.

Lol I did wonder

There is a pretty good second hand bookshop in Ban Phae (can't remember the name). They used to give you (very little) money or exchange based on the quality of the book... normally exchange 2 for 1 but only in the class of book that you take in. It seemed to work well.

[bannerman]

Been thinking about this all day , had to reply because it concerns .. ME !!

severhead , the pathetic bookshop of which you speak ... is ... mine

a history briefly ,

after coming to Pattaya to try living .. funds after a few months became , ...thin.. ,

an opportunity arose to buy a bookshop business based in BKK . (classified ad in pattaya mail )

i needed to earn an income and NO WAY was i going to open a Bar

blah blah i bought the stock and opened a bookshop in Pattaya hoping it would earn enough to keep me here ,( it didnt on its own )

7 years later i own ( with a partner ) a printing and signmaking business employing 12 staff . its a good business to make a living , thats it . had a good run now at being quite busy , so i guess the service we are offering is well recieved .

after i sold Jeremy,s Bookshop about a year ago ( i,m Jeremy btw ) and the 11 bedroom guesthouse that went with it ( clarify -- sold the lease and fixtures and fittings ) i just concentrated my time on the signmaking business .

( i made it clear when i sold that business of my intentions to open another bookshop in the future and its all Kewl !!! ) (added that to avoid potential flames !! )

some people like to watch tv after work , i like the solitude of quiet brain time and enjoy reading.

it used to be quite nice , being an avid reader , to have my very own library of books to choose from .. i miss it , so

i opened Soi Diana Bookshop .next door to Megabreak .

its a work in progress , i need more stock , i,m soon to be doing English newspapers and magazines ( signed a contract with Bookazine ) i want cooking sections and travel sections . sporting sections etc etc.

to kick start the business i bought a selection from Bookazine , of brand new release paperback books .. ( idea being it makes my book selection up to date ) a few new books cost me 50,000 baht !

all takes time ( which i have ) and money ( which i have not )

at the point i decide that the bookshop is as good as i would like , ( ie lots of new stock ) hopefully it will

A) give me a endless supply of stuff i want to read , and

supplement my income ,

and they all lived happily ever after .

THE END

Cheers

Jeremy .. bannerman

Bannerman cos our company is called , The Big Banner Company

[bannerman]

edit - double post

Edited August 1, 2007 by bannerman

[Ulysses G.]

Been thinking about this all day , had to reply because it concerns .. ME !!

severhead , the pathetic bookshop of which you speak ... is ... mine

You admit that your new bookshop is pathetic and if I remember right, Jeremy's was too - that is why it AND a guesthouse wouldn't support you. Maybe you should should consider sticking to a business that you are good at so that someone who knows what he is doing can make a living?

It is nice that you want to sell books so you can get free ones for yourself, but Swan's Books actually did a decent job at running a professional bookshop over many, many years, long before you were around, and you purposely set up less than 100 meters away from him and probably had a lot to do with ruining his business over time. Soi Beuwkow is not exactly swarming with readers and it is hard enough for one bookshop to get and sell enough books, never mind two.

If your sign business is doing so well, you might do what the rest of us do, forget about opening another rag-tag shop and BUY your books from a decent bookstore.

Edited August 2, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[bannerman]

Ulysseses

everyone has a right to air an opinion , i accept that .

Soi Buakhow has 4 bookshops BTW ..Pattaya has 12 ( great for booklovers , cant find what you want in 1 of them .. go look at the others )

your posts say a lot of ...probablys ... probably because you dont know for sure

your style of putting thoughts to *paper* appear arrogant and rude, or maybe biased !!

could it be that you own a bookshop business yourself in Chiang Mai ?and have an alterior motive for your post ?

I have a good friend who runs Back Street Books in Chiang Mai , George .... do you know him ? is your business very very near his ?? was he there before you , or were you there first ??

do i smell a Troll - do i smell hypocrasy ??

your opinion is based on facts and information you know nothing about, and only surmise .

In actual fact I sold the business for several million baht and that in itself reimbursed the money i had spent in Thailand over years i have been living here . I would say that is pretty successful .

why was i able to sell it for that amount of money ?? the reason was i had built up a good trade and people liked my particular style of doing things .. my 11 rooms were nearly always full and i had a good regular client base who liked the way i arranged the bookshop and the selection i offered .

Your logic that says Jeremy,s bookshop was solely responsible for the demise of Swans business is flawed. Competition is healthy .

applying your logic to similar businesses opening near each other have a detrimental effect is quite a stupid thing to say when you think about it .. i like personally the many choices of restaurants , hotels , gueshouses , bookshops etc that Pattaya has to offer.

i used to buy all my books from Swan for about 2 years but soon couldnt find good reading material . i had the opportunity to set up my own bookshop and i took it

many new bookshops including Pattaya Beach Books have come and set up business in Pattaya since i opened mine .

the bookshop i opened ,as you say 100 yards from Swan , was actually the 3RD location on soi buakhow i operated this buiness .. had to move twice as i only had 1 year leases on the previous 2 locations

Pattaya Beach books is a very good , what i would describe as proper bookshop .. selections on everything .( do i feel animosity or jealousy toward the owner because he set up his second bookshop on Soi Buakhow , near mine .... no , not at all ... i pop in there from time to time and buy books from him that i want )

i choose to speacialise in mainly fiction , customers looking for books on mathematics or teaching books etc etc .. i happily send them to Pattaya Beach Books.

you state in one sentence that my bookshop business was pathetic , and in another i was responsible for Swans demise , i,m still trying to get my head around that one !!!

anyway , you provoked a response from me and got one .. now its your turn ...

lets see the character of the man unfold ..

Jeremy

Soi Diana Bookshop

[Ulysses G.]

Ulysseses

everyone has a right to air an opinion , i accept that .

your style of putting thoughts to *paper* appear arrogant and rude, or maybe biased !!

could it be that you own a bookshop business yourself in Chiang Mai ?and have an alterior motive for your post ?

I have a good friend who runs Back Street Books in Chiang Mai , George .... do you know him ? is your business very very near his ?? was he there before you , or were you there first ??

do i smell a Troll - do i smell hypocrasy ??

I have already said that I own a bookshop in Chiang Mai in this very thread, so it is not exactly a secret, and yes, the reason that I responded to your post is because I know how it is to have some parasite move in next to me, instead of working and doing the advertising and marketing and establishing a business location themselves.

A bunch of different kinds of restaurants gathered together in one place works. A bunch of crummy little bookstores on Soi Buekow buying and selling the same thing doesn't. This ain't London.

To answer your question, I was alone in my location for 3 or 4 years before your buddy moved in next door and although he is a minor annoyance, his shop is empty most of the time while my store thrives. He is so clever that he moved in behind us (from the main street), so everyone goes to my shop first and then mostly ignore him. He has tried to sell it, but no one is stupid enough to buy it. The truth is that he helps attract more people to my store, but his original intention was to put me out of business and that, I'm not going to forget.

By the way, if your good buddy were not willing to constantly subsidize his business from his personal bank account, he would have been out of business long ago. In fact, he ran off to Pai a few years ago crying about how much money “I” had cost him, but his shop there didn't work either, so he came back to CM give it yet another go - Doesn't exactly learn from his mistakes.

Every single business that he has set up in Thailand has failed, and this one will be no exception. I'm sure he is looking forward to my large new shop that is opening soon, right across the street from him - competition is healthy and all that.

Maybe he will move in next to YOU in a few months!

As to Pattaya Beach Books, they are decent shops - they are real bookshops - and both of them are quite a ways from yours and everyone elses, so I don't know what you are talking about. They went and found an area that needed a bookstore and didn't have one, instead of trying to leech off of someone else's efforts.

If it bothers you so badly, I am sorry that I used the phrase "pathetic" to describe your bookshops. I was just repeating the phrase that you (and someone else) had used, but in all honesty, it describes them perfectly, no matter how you try to spin it in retrospect. I don't even have to exaggerate!

Good luck with your sign painting business.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[bannerman]

Apology accepted

actually , Pattaya Beach Books Soi Buakhow shop was just a few hundred meters down the road from the location of my 1st shop in that same street .. i had to move because i could not renew the lease contract . but i never am and hopefully never will be concerned about what the next man is doing , as long as he leaves me and mine alone ...

to describe someones business as pathetic , which could have financial implications on someones livelyhood is actually quite a serious statement to make . i wouldnt do it myself.

constructive critisism however , is a different kettle of fish .. i had the shelving custom made and easily cleanable . i face most of the books so customers can see the cover . the shop was freshly painted with plenty of lighting installed . so i guess your description of the word pathetic can only concern the supply of books for sale .. yes , i concede i need more stock .. thats it .. i would say its at 50-60% capacity as it stands ... but as i said previuosly .. its a work in progress ...

you say it is difficult to buy good condition books , difficult to find a supply ... i put it to you that on your very doorstep there are thousands of those very same books available to buy .... Georges shop which you say is for sale ..

you may find this *spin * but all i am doing is defending a business which you are trying to damage before its even started by making bad comments on a public access forum ... any man would defend in the way i am his lively hood .

incidently , i have on several occasions bought books from your shop on my visits to Chiang Mai .. you cater for an entirely different market than the Pattaya market .. north Thailand gets lots of backpackers and travelling people through it .. when i bought the original around 20,000 books .. there were sections for children... about 10 different languages ... lots of Magazines etc etc .. as time went on and i realised my customers were only mainly English speaking males with a few females .. i donated about half of the stock to a local charity and decided to speacialise in just mainly English fiction , books on thailand and asia and a few non fiction titles ..

as i said , lets see the character of the man unfold - i have been reading your posts concerning lots of other businesses on these forums with interest ..

anyhow

good luck on your business too

Jeremy

[bannerman]

i just wanted to clarify a small mistake you have made.

you wish me well with my Sign Painting Business ..

we dont actually paint signs .. we use our state of the art large format printing equipment to do the job.

The Big Banner Company .com produces every thing from brochures and flyers .. to A Boards ,Banners , business cards , shop signage and neon signs etc etc.

We produce most of this in our main factory unit on Sukhumvit Road

some of our recent corporate customers including DHL ( vehicle graphics , large vehicle banners ) Harley Davidson ( graphics for their new showroom ) Bosch ( tradeshow invitations ) and Ford Motor Company ( banners ) .. other large but less well known companies such as JDR umbilical Systems ( off shore drum stickers and factory signage )

we also are priviledged to do all the printing work for local chat forums such as Pattaya Secrets and Pattaya Addicts as well as over the last few years , probably several thousand local businesses including .. Nick the Pizza , A1 Aircon , Murphys law etc etc.

a good many of these expat business owners are also my bookshop customers who appreciate the effort i make to provide as good a service as i can possibly give them .

i ask of you a favour , any constructive remarks on how i can improve on what i am doing to offer a better service will be greatfully received , any negative comments which could have a direct impact on my ability to provide for me and mine , will not be appreciated at all ...

have a nice day in sunny CM

Jeremy

Bannerman

[theseveredhead]

i wish you will with any business jeremy. just didnt want to waste anyones time, my browsing time in there is like ... 5 min.

im still peeved at the treatment by some female attendant yelling at me because i bothered to ask her to get off her phone and serve me. after she counted some 6 books, 2 of which were purchased there - she wanted to give me nothing. i was insulted and said id rather toss them in the trash. it was like b200 for six books im sure youd have made 600. she got all pissy with me and yelled at me to get out.

i will give you credit - you keep trying and youre still in the game. hope it all works out for you. i think the banner business may be a good one.

Edited August 5, 2007 by theseveredhead

[bannerman]

Severed ,

i,m sorry you feel mistreated by the lady that works for me running the shop .

i,m not in the shop very often because of other business interests , but ,

as a goodwill gesture , the next book you want to read from my shop is free .

simply call me on 0899 364 800 when you want to come have a look and i,ll meet you there and give you a good deal !

i,ll be honest tho. there is only that 1 lady who works the bookshop and she is very reliable . i wont *give her a talking too * unless the problems persists .. good honest staff are hard to find ..

the policy i operate is virtually identical to all other Pattaya Bookshops .

i give 50% credit on any book bought from me and returned in a resellable condition

i buy books at around 50 baht cash ,each if they are in good condition maybe more if new/ once read

on the book buying front tho .. i like the customer to leave the books he wants to sell for 24 hours so i can take a look and make sure they are English and not german /scandinavian etc.. ( my staff doesnt understand whats good and whats not )

hope you take me up on my free book offer and thanks for the comments

Jeremy ,

Bannerman

[Ulysses G.]

to describe someones business as pathetic , which could have financial implications on someones livelyhood is actually quite a serious statement to make . i wouldnt do it myself.

You are right, but I honestly don't think that I would have called it that if you hadn't already put it that way yourself. I apologize for real.

Anyway, I will admit that I flew off the handle because this is a pet peeve of mine (and bringing up the name of the leech didn't help ). Chiang Mai is full of of lousy little "bookshops" that are often part mini-mart, part travel agent, part restaurant, part pay toilet and 15 crappy novels. I resent them because they make it more difficult for good shops to buy decent books from customers. The good news is that all of a sudden a lot of them are going out of business - instead of being sold on to new idiots - and it is about time.

I am not freinds with the gentleman who runs Swan but I have shopped there a long time and I have a lot of respect for him as a bookseller and I can remember his comments and concerns when you moved in near him and I also saw how the quality of his stock went down almost immediately afterwards. I will admit that the competition with Pattaya Beach Books is what seems to have driven the final nail in his coffin, however.

As far as constructive critisism goes, books my boy, as many different types as you can get, but mostly ones that will sell, which takes a while to know. The other thing is a clean store and lots of light.

Also, you wrapped your books in plastic at Jeremy's - or the new owner did. I do that too, but it puts a lot of people off and it makes it difficult to check out the style of a writer that they are not familiar with. The good thing is that it keeps too many people from looking at it and damaging it, which helps a lot with the really popular ones. We let everyone open and browse through any book they want, but putting them in plastic slows down the people who are just wasting time in the shop and keeps the condition of the books from deteriating. My "solution" is to only wrap the more expensive, literature or non-fiction, but leave the novels open. So far, it works for me, but that doesn't mean it will fit your situation.

Well, again, sorry about coming down so hard. Good luck with the printing and etc. business, and, if you are intent on a good one, good luck with the bookshop as well.

[JimmyTheMook]

I am not freinds with the gentleman who runs Swan but I have shopped there a long time and I have a lot of respect for him as a bookseller and I can remember his comments and concerns when you moved in near him and I also saw how the quality of his stock went down almost immediately afterwards. I will admit that the competition with Pattaya Beach Books is what seems to have driven the final nail in his coffin, however.

For years Swan was the only 2nd hand book shop in town and that is what kept the dingy place alive, since then much better places have opened ( Pattaya Beach Books) where the shops are clean have excellent lighting and the books are arranged properly.

I like your book shops in CM and wish Pattaya had as good of a selection.

[Ulysses G.]

I like your book shops in CM.

Thank you VERY much!

Edited August 5, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[bannerman]

Ulyseses ,

i simply quoted what severed said -

the pathetic bookshop of which you speak , is .. mine

i wasnt agreeing with or accepting the statement

i wasnt doing a Gerald Rattner on his jewelry business a few years back

i wrap my books solely to try to keep them clean in an open fronted shop

as and when funds allow i,d like to air condition the bookstore to make it a more pleasant experience for my customers in which case i wont need to wrap them anymore

hopefully , sun scorching outside , people will spend a little more time browsing in comfortable surroundings

and the chances are .. if its airconned .. its going to be rammed to the jolly rafters with decent reading material ..

appreciate your thoughts and comments - ( most of them )

peace out

Jeremy

Bannerman

[prallo]

Jeremy´s Bookshop, now Canterbury tales.

Are the books still sorted by name of the author ?

It should be sorted by genre so I can find Science-Fiction(my 1st choice).

Sorted by author is not really helpful. I spent hours to find Science-Fiction in the bookshop.

And for Chiang Mai: Gecko Books are the best there. There are so many 2nd hand bookshops there.

I felt like I was in paradise.

[Ulysses G.]

Thank you very much!

[DefaultName]

Jeremy´s Bookshop, now Canterbury tales.

Are the books still sorted by name of the author ?

It should be sorted by genre so I can find Science-Fiction(my 1st choice).

Sorted by author is not really helpful. I spent hours to find Science-Fiction in the bookshop.

It was still by author in November, sorry.

The worst problem I have with second-hand SF and Fantasy books is that the vast bulk of the genre is published in series - and it's almost impossible to get the whole series second-hand. I did read somewhere that the way the publishing houses commission books is to blame, apparently it pays an author much better for series than the same number of stand-alone books.

[Ulysses G.]

Very few of the series retain the quality of the original book. The Foundation Series by Issac Asimov and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card might be exceptions!

[nnookk]

Thanks for sharing the information. I've been looking for 2nd hand bookstore in Pattaya, but some places that I visit didn't have what I've been looking for.

Anyway, if you're ever going to make your way to Bangkok. Take a visit at Dasa Book Cafe (http://www.dasabookcafe.com) between Sukhumvit 26 and 28. And another place is Skoobs in Thonglor Area (http://www.skoob-bkk.com) they are my favorite places to hang out for books when I'm in Bangkok.

By the way, you can sell your books and trade back as well.

[lungbing]

And Dasa will also post their books to you which is very useful when you live up here in the sticks in Khon Kaen.

[paul1970]

I'm not the type of person to frequent second hand shops of any description but all this talk of second hand books has got me thinking about the girlfriend, she is doing an English course at AUA in Pattaya and she's been showing me the coursework and even though she still at the basic stage I think it's way too basic and they way they score their "tests" is a joke where they will get an above average or average score etc, ehich doesn't say much about ability when class sizes are 3 or 4 people, she even had a dam_n certificate just for attending every class for a term, I mean come on.

Anyway back to books, what I was thinking is if I could find her some books that she could read that would have thai text written in them too ? Does anyone know if these kind of books are available at any of these second hand bookstores ?

[Ulysses G.]

I have never seen books like this in Thailand.

[nnookk]

Maybe try picking up these Student Weekly, Future Magazine or Reader Digest from the Newspaper stall.

I remember they do English on left page and Thai translated on the right. Most of them are short stories or poems, not like fiction or nonfiction, etc. if you know what I mean.

Or you can try getting her the chick lits(in English), the words and sentences are easy to read. If I may suggest - get Meg Cabot, Jane Green, Sophie Kinsella, etc.

[Aikido]

Hey Jeremy good to see your still alive its tj sams mate if you remember we all went to the wedding in Bang Chang.

anyways we sold the house in Ban Budsaba a few yrs ago and were now back in blighty, but im comming back to los soon, Sams also mostly in the uk, drop us a pm if youve got time and wee'l catch up.

t.t.f.n.

[GeorgeKi]

Has Swan Books now finally closed? I went looking for it a couple of weeks ago & could not find it.

[Tarqin]

Paul,

Not with Thai script but many of my Miss Right Now's have found Mills and Boon style books helpful. They have a reading age of about 12 and are short so beginners can cope with them plus being slushy loveydovey type subjects they REALLY appeal to Thai women.

If your ever over in UK you can get about 20 for a £5 at charity shops and the like.

Just a thought.

[jayhech]

I'm not the type of person to frequent second hand shops of any description but all this talk of second hand books has got me thinking about the girlfriend, she is doing an English course at AUA in Pattaya and she's been showing me the coursework and even though she still at the basic stage I think it's way too basic and they way they score their "tests" is a joke where they will get an above average or average score etc, ehich doesn't say much about ability when class sizes are 3 or 4 people, she even had a dam_n certificate just for attending every class for a term, I mean come on.

Anyway back to books, what I was thinking is if I could find her some books that she could read that would have thai text written in them too ? Does anyone know if these kind of books are available at any of these second hand bookstores ?

How about "Thailand Fever" Chris Pirazzi and Vitida Vasant. It's a book of "A Road Map for Thai-Western Relationships". The book's written in both Thai and English. You can find this book in Bookazine.

[enfield951]

If in Jomtien, try Book Lovers on Soi 3 (right hand side, only 100 yards up)

.good selection,good condition,50% back on return.

Nice lady ,good English.

[Danlo]

Have a look at this I found on Youtube

[neilf]

Thanks to all who have posted replies. Will be down in Jomtien in a few weeks and will check out all these places.

on the right going up chaiyapruk 1 from the beach road.

100 baht and 50 credit thereafter on take backs ----------its ok