Entrepreneurship

I'm doing "What do other libraries do?" which is usually really irritating but today is a useful diversion from things even more irritating. Somebody (not me) suggested outsourcing our booksale, dumping unwanted stock onto somebody else and taking a percentage of the proceeds. I ask a colleague how their arrangement's faring.

"Oh, wonderful. Actually, it's an excellent way of making sure you're not clogged up with boxloads of old stock but it's not much of a moneyspinner to date. We signed a contract with this company last year. After a few months I rang them up to make sure that the stock we were sending them was appropriate and that things were going fine. They asked me if I wanted to know how our account stood at that stage. I wasn't expecting much by then, we'd only just started remember, but out of curiosity I said yes please.

"'You're doing really well,' they said, 'your account's two pounds in credit.'"

I wonder how much librarian you can get for your £2.