Someone was trying to explain this to a group of Conference attendees, and even we had a

hard time understanding and figuring out how to explain

this to customers so they would be comfortable with the concept.

“We buy outright, but we only give store credit, not cash. Sellers may use their credits anytime for anything, but only for half of the price. The other half they have to pay cash for.”

We all shook our heads at this. Would it work? Would people be confused? Would they like it? How on earth could we explain this with a WIIFM twist?

then along comes Robin, now a secondhand book dealer, once a consignment shopkeeper, and says:

Think of your trade credit like a perpetual 50% off coupon which you can use until you run out of trade credit.

I think that’s a terrific, positive, simple way to put it! Robin said I could pass it on to all of you.