Canadian booksellers sound the alarm over bulk buyers turning used books into AI training data

For a small bookstore sitting on shelves of unsold inventory, an offer to buy it all at once can look like free money. But when the buyer’s identity and intentions aren’t clear, that yes carries more financial and reputational risk than a typical sale. Here’s what’s actually happening — and how Canadian booksellers can protect themselves before cashing a cheque from a stranger.

What’s behind the bulk order surge?

Hempelmann, owner of BMV Books in Toronto, told CBC Zoom Books — a Pitt Meadows, B.C., company that describes itself as a book reseller and recycler — began placing large orders roughly six months ago, mostly for older technical and academic titles with small print runs that had sat unsold for years. Sellers, of Sellers & Newel, said he received a LinkedIn message from a representative of Innodata, a New Jersey-based AI data company, saying it was “currently looking to purchase large volumes of secondhand books” and was “exploring potential sourcing partners.”

Is every bulk offer actually AI-related?

Not necessarily, and that uncertainty is part of the problem. CBC News describes the link between these orders and AI training as a growing suspicion among booksellers, not a confirmed pattern for every buyer. That gap between what’s suspected and what’s verified matters for how a small business should treat any offer: as an unproven transaction that needs checking, not a known quantity.

Why ‘easy money’ deserves a second look

A bulk sale can genuinely help clear dead stock and free up cash flow — a real opportunity for a small business carrying inventory that isn’t moving. But treating a stranger’s high-volume offer like a routine sale skips steps that protect the business:

• Confirm who’s actually buying: Ask for the company’s legal name, address and reason for the purchase in writing, not just a first name on the phone
• Get paid through traceable methods: e-transfer, cheque or invoice, rather than cash, so the sale is documented if a dispute or tax question comes up later
• Price by the batch, not by pressure: An unusually large order is still worth negotiating on a per-book or per-pound basis rather than accepting the first number offered
• Treat it as business income: A one-off bulk sale can affect quarterly Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) filings or bookkeeping differently than routine daily sales; a bookkeeper or accountant can flag that before the money lands

The reputational math matters too

For some owners, the calculation isn’t only financial. Hempelmann said he wasn’t aware of the AI-scanning controversy until CBC News contacted him — after learning about it, he called the idea of destroying books “just sad.” Independent bookstores often build their business on community trust, and selling into a process that could end with books being shredded, even at a decent price, is a decision some owners may not be able to easily undo once it becomes public.

A bulk offer isn’t automatically a scam, and it isn’t automatically a windfall either. The safest approach is the one any small business should take with an unfamiliar customer: Verify who’s buying, get it in writing, price it fairly and understand how the sale affects the books at tax time. For Canadian booksellers weighing whether to clear out inventory this way, the real decision isn’t whether the cheque clears — it’s whether the deal still looks good once every detail is on paper.