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Use AI to research, price and catalogue thousands of used books before opening

who Richard Uphoff, co-owner of Book & Cranny, a new used bookshop (his own Substack)

What it does

AI helps find prices for comparable copies, check whether sets are complete, decipher old inscriptions, and turn his dictated book details into inventory spreadsheet rows.

Tool cost

See the vendor’s pricing

Setup

Easy · or we do it from $497

Tools

AI assistant (not named)

OperationsPaperwork & adminRetail

The problem

Close to 5,000 one-of-a-kind books had to be priced and catalogued before opening day.

What happened

Self-reported: it 'definitely helped us move faster', but he double-checks the formatting and his own judgement sets the final prices.

Told by the owner Source: The Up Angle (Richard Uphoff) (2026-09-14) · Added 2026-10-14. Results as reported by the source; we haven't independently verified them.

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How to set it up yourself

  1. Dictate author, title, price and condition.
  2. Ask AI to format it into your spreadsheet columns.
  3. Spot-check before uploading to your POS.

Copy-paste prompt

Turn these dictated notes into rows with columns Author | Title | Edition | Condition | Price. Don't guess missing fields; leave them blank. Notes: [paste]

Rather not do it yourself?

We'll set this up in your tools, in your voice, tested. Single use case $497. Satisfaction guarantee: we'll fix it until it works, or refund your setup fee. Terms. We reply within 1 business day.

Get this set up

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