Have a Mocha with that Book?

Today BWB spied 2 Chinese Acupuncture books on the shelves of a local sale that normally will flip for $50+! Oh the excitement of the find on an otherwise uneventful day, a day where I don’t even want to read any of the books that I see–a week where the pickins’ has been very sparse, and the new dealers were sproutin’ everywhere.

However, the good find quickly left my hands–On the bottom of each book was not just a coffee stain–but a Mocha stain!! All the pages were stuck together and warped. Why do they put dirty disgusting books out like this? Mind you, we’re not talking about a stain, but a substance that became one with the book, and mutated into something that should be recycled or eaten by a bear!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Book Sales

These days have always been average or below average for BWB.

Everyone I know is looking for deals on Laptops, iPODs, HD DVD players, HD TVS, Game Consoles and Games, Cell Phones, PDAs, and then some are looking for Clothing. They are also looking for the best sales and discounts. This crowd purchases books as last minute gifts. . .And I don’t slash my book prices to get Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

The message boards and mailing lists are a titter with people either freaking out about no sales, or braggin’ about their hundreds of sales– should be remembered that most of the people selling 100′s of items on these days, sell that much anyway on any given day–wink wink. Actually a lot of the sellers doing well are selling Toys, CD, and DVDs too.

Some sellers who only sell books, are probably having better than average Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays, maybe these sellers have an established customer base whom think of giving books as gifts before anything else, or maybe they just got the luck. . .The Hot Items.

As for my stock, the main genre that I specialize in doesn’t exactly scream AWESOME GIFT . . .Another genre that I specialize in would seem vastly over priced for someone who does not have any experience in that area, they would look at the book and think it’s only worth $2, or that they could buy it new for $15- $20 someplace–not so, as these titles are Out of Print. My sales are average during December, but I would choose 12 good months a year over 2 great months and 10 slow months.

Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were better than average, and I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that I wasn’t one of the sellers posting to Message Boards on Thanksgiving Day asking about sales, or, maybe trying to save themselves from loneliness. It’s sad. I’m thankful I was lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving with real life family and friends.

I had a seller try to tell me that I wasn’t a real bookseller because I took a couple vacations a year, and because I do not do any work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day, and Easter. I’m sorry, but I do this because I love it, if I had to do it 365 days of the year, I’d be sick of it and want to quit, and I’d also not get through half of my stack to read.

Winner 4 Most Aggravating Customer of the Month

Yeah, the month isn’t even over yet, but this buyer will most likely get the award for the whole year.

It is Weds before Thanksgiving, 4:55 PM and BWB checks the e-mail one last time before completely relaxing about business for 40+ hours .

I see that I sold a nice $30 book, and it is going Priority.

But wait, what’s this? An E-mail from the customer demanding that it is sent OVERNIGHT, and by FED EX.

Ridiculous. Always e-mail the Seller first with any special requests or questions.

1-I don’t use Fed Ex, am not setup for it, can’t get to Fed Ex in a reasonable drive time, can’t wait around for Fed Ex to come to me, etc.

2- The price I am reimbursed for shipping comes no where near the actual cost to ship overnight ( $20+ using Postal Service)

3-Even if I did use the Post Office to overnight it so customer could get it on Saturday it would cost an extra leg–if I could even get to the Post Office on time Friday–with the holiday and all. Having my carrier pick it up would not work. UPS doesnt seem like a good option either.

Now, I’m sure some sellers out there would’ve rolled over and looked for a Post Office that stayed open late on Weds, or driven to the Fed Ex Center, and even ate the extra $15-$20 for the overnight shipping–Still the book probably wouldn’t make it there until Sat because of the late time in the day. Or maybe some would’ve elected to wake up really early Friday morning to send the book overnight with Saturday Service, and still eaten the $20+. Or perhaps they would’ve somehow got the extra shipping charge from the buyer.

But me? I can tell this transaction is going to go south from the moment special service is not asked of me, but demanded, and after the purchase. This customer wanted their book on Thanksgiving Day, I’d be lucky if I could get it there by Monday. They are going to be unhappy no matter what happens, and its also possible that they could file a claim and get a complete refund. If I was lucky enough to get the extra shipping cost from them, it wouldn’t be so bad as it would just be the original cost of the book–but would still piss me off.

So I refund, and explain that I do not offer Over Night, or Fed Ex shipping, and that because of the holidays there is no way I can get this customer their book in the time they need it. Of course customer freaks out and e-mails me a few times, I e-mail back suggesting that they try to e-mail other sellers to see if they can send it overnight, to which they reply, “I Did and they said no.” I e-mail back, “You didn’t e-mail first, the refund has already been processed, good luck.”

I’m sure that I will get another e-mail or two, but I have no need to respond anymore. I refunded the buyer within an hour of their purchase, there is nothing else I can do except pray that this buyer doesn’t order anything else from me.

Runner Ups :
Guy who bought a Serial Killer book on Ebay and then not only said he would pay me half of the price he bought it for, but insisted on Picking it up–Creepy. Yeah Ebay automatic feedback is a real great Idea. Needless to say, I did not complete this transaction, and made sure to bold in all my listings that Local Pick Up was not Available. Lucky for me, this book jumped in price and I sold it for $200 a week later, instead of the $100 that the guy bought it for, or the $50 he was willing to pay.

Another Ebay guy from Australia bought an item that was not available for INTL sale because of it’s size and weight, he had a US account so was able to get around the US only criteria. He explained to me how I could ship this 5lb book in a Flat Rate Envelope to Australia, with long, intricate instructions on how to tape the envelope. Well, there was no way that this book would fit in the envelope to begin with, also, my Post Office does not allow tape*. My Lord this guy sent me novels of e-mails, talking about his disabilities yada yada yada, and accusing me of discriminating against him. He would not of course pay to have it shipped in anything else besides a Flat Rate Envelope. This guy would probably win the award, but, because he had disabilities that might have caused him to be an anal jerk, I’ll bequeath him a runner up trophy.

Women who gave Amazon old address, she e-mailed me after I shipped the book and she got the shipping confirmation, I suggested that she file a forwarding order as sometimes it works for books, and if she did it online it might go into affect before the book arrives at her old address. I watch her book work it’s way through the Postal System for a week, and then when I see that it has been delivered to her old address and it is not coming back, I give her a FULL refund, even though this is not my mistake but hers, I also kept up good e-mail communication the whole time. A month later She leaves me a negative–but at least if people read her comment they see that it is all her fault, “I gave old address and never got the book.”

*yes I know they are supposed to allow one piece, but they give my excellent service and I’m not about to argue and cause some of my packages to be delayed, lessen the smiles I get, or cause headaches for my super nice carrier who goes beyond the call of duty for me–Besides, I know how to tape the insides.

Thanksgiving

I was going to write a post on Feedback, and not being a slave to it, but then it expanded to the whole Ebay debacle–in which we might see automatic positive feedback for people who pay. . .that will have to wait. BWB has been swamped since Monday.

So here is what BWB is thankful for:

Dean–Super Hero of Mail Carriers, picks up packages everyday, even if he has to take the stairs instead of the elevator–trust me, this can be daunting task. Delivers packages to the doors of all the people in my building, doesn’t leave them down in the mail area.–All done with a Smile

BWB is also grateful for her wonderful BF, and her family and friends.

The Crazy Times is a Starting. . . .

Ah lovely holiday shoppers. . .

While BWB has noticed that with each passing year, customers have become more internet savvy, there is one time of the year that brings out the wackos. The I want to tell you about my whole lifers; the I ordered my book Saturday and it’s Monday and its not here people; the what is this thing, the how do I get it to work oops I didn’t mean to order that book people; the e-mail address hasn’t been valid for 6 years people

BWB’s circumstantial evidence that people think that we are small fries selling books for fun, or some omnipotent corporation that won’t miss a few dollars ( see previous post) comes through 2 e-mails received in the last few days.

Both asked when and if their book shipped. Both e-mails lacked any identifiers–nada, zip, zilch. BWB sent back e-mails asking if they could give a name, a title or order number, and while BWB was pretty lucky that these e-mails didn’t bounce, there is still a chance that they will get caught in a spam filter or that they are going to a long lost e-mail addy– BWB sends out a shipping confirmation e-mail with every order, why would these people pester BWB if they didn’t get it? Oh yeah, dumb question.

For the most part BWB gets very few “Where is my Book” inquiries, and very few cancellations. BWB only seems to experience about half of the headaches other sellers do this time of the year—- knock on wood—-But, Oh, Please holiday shoppers, please update your e-mail addresses, please allow our little e-mails a direct path to your Inbox, please look at the descriptions of what you are buying, please verify your order and YOUR ADDRESS b4 clicking that last button, these small things will improve our internet relationship greatly. . .Thank you.

When Customers Lie! Coming to an E-mail Box Near you Soon!

BWB has been pretty lucky when it comes to scamming/internet challenged customers, I guess it’s just the way BWB lists books and handles orders.

When customers do try to pull something, or lie, it just really gets to me, and I don’t just rollover and refund like other sellers do to preserve my feedback. I’ll stand up and take the negative feedback if it’s on a feedback venue.

I do make mistakes, but in some cases like yesterday, I knew I didn’t make a mistake, and the buyer may have tried to blackmail me with feedback as well.

“Dear BWB,

We are very disappointed with this book, it has writing in it. We purchased from you because you had it listed Very Good, this book is Good at best. We also purchased from you because of your stellar feedback, however, If you refuse to resolve this issue we will be forced to leave a negative.”

My first reaction was, “Wow, I made a mistake, I’ll just give a full refund. If it’s an expensive book I’ll send a pre paid shipping label to get it back. “

I looked up the details of the transaction, and the book had not been listed as Very Good. It was listed in Acceptable/Fair condition, with the description describing the exact amount of writing in it and on what pages.

Now, we could *be nice* and think that the customer made a mistake and purchased the wrong copy–BUT every book BWB ships includes a packing slip with the complete description as well as category that the book was listed in–this text is the largest type on the packing slip besides the business name. Book shipped in a box and description was face up when they opened the box.

And that is what irks me, they tried to tell me that I had listed it as very good and mentioned my feedback with the hopes that I would just refund.

I e-mailed them with all the listing info which clearly shows that the book was listed correctly and described the flaws. I told them they could ship it back to me for a full refund–I do not take out the initial shipping I paid or even use restocking fees like other sellers do.

The buyer e-mailed back asking if they would have to pay for shipping it back to me, and I said yes, though If it had been listed wrong by me I would’ve sent a pre paid label. To be honest, I’m pretty laid back about the return of things compared to some other people– if this buyer would’ve emailed me saying that there was more writing in the book than they thought, I would’ve sent them a pre paid label and given a full refund. But I think that this buyer was just out to get a free book.

Why do buyers try to scam sellers? Besides the obvious answer : they are cheap asses; I think that they look at us as either a huge company who can afford to lose a little cash, or really small sellers who just do this as a hobby and for fun–They don’t realize that this is how we support ourselves and in some cases our families.

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BWB doesn’t like to list books that are only in Fair/Acceptable condition, but some academic texts are hard to find, or quite pricey in pristine condition, so many customers still find Fair copy desirable.

Coming Soon : When Sellers Lie. . .The Folly of Arbitrage

Ebay Store My Biggest Indulgence

By far, my Ebay store has to be my biggest indulgence. I get to watch all my girls get all dressed up and pose for pictures. Sadly, besides my admiration, they only get a few window shoppers, and once in awhile a taker. The neighborhood isn’t what it used to be, and it’s kinda hard to get to unless there is a cyber accident and traffic is being directed there. Shoppers prefer other trendy neighborhoods now, even the fellas standing outside my door auctioning things off aren’t moving things as fast as they used to, nor bringing in the same cash.

Of course, despite all the abandoned stores on our block, there are still a few stores that are bringing the folks in and closing the deal, the hustlers outside their doors are flippin’ product fast, and quite happy with the tribute that they pay.

My store is just a front, something to make me look legitimate to my parents, and the few other people that are privy to what I do. A place for me to mess around and talk to folks in the community. The amount of time and money put into it does not produce what it once did. It is just a frivolous bauble for BWB.

When I shut my doors I won’t have a Big Moving Sale. I won’t make any announcements, or say goodbye to the remaining neighbors. I’ll simply close the doors and stop paying tribute.

Fun with Other Booksellers :)

Walk into a lower traffic place to scout, preferably one with a decent amount of rows or shelves.  If you see other people scouting, walk up to the section that they are not at, look for a few seconds, and then put 3 or 4 books in your basket.  Watch them all run to your shelf.

Honestly this happens a lot to me, even when the others are not book sellers,  people seem to migrate towards the area that I am searching.  Part of this may be guys trying to check me out, part of it just might be my own personal energy–I could stand in the middle of an empty room and people would still bump into me.

Ok Here’s another one.

I have a brilliant and sexy friend who for awhile got addicted to reading historical romance novels–the trashier the cover the better.  I would send her a huge box of these every few months or so.  One time I was out at a sale where these were really cheap, so I piled a bunch in my basket–This guy  who was watching me, grabbed the rest as fast as he could, like 100′s of them. . . .Madeline Baker must’ve been having quite a romp with in his basket with the War Heroes he had previously picked up.

Amazon Merging ASIN pages -Will The Sky Fall?

Thought I would post this here in case you haven’t seen this announcement, which was put up sometime yesterday, and is being implemented TODAY. Thankfully I don’t have too many ASINs that are not for really unique items, I’m not going to shout that the sky is falling, and I do agree that the cat need to be cleaned up, but I do worry about 2 things :

1) How are they merging the ASINS? Are we going to see a rise in materially different claims, and more spiraling prices on Amazon? Will a 1947 Hardcover now be listed on a 1978 page of the same title? I sell many children’s books where the illustrator has changed over the years of a titles publication, sometime making the title more desirable, will this point be lost?

2) It seems that when Amazon does things like this, the site gets extra glitchy and sales slow down for a few days, which I suppose wouldn’t be bad if BWB didn’t already have a traditionally slow period for the days around Thanksgiving coming up.

I love to Hate you Amazon. But you do seem to be the better contender in BWB’s life right now, the others merely flirt with providing for us.

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In order to provide Amazon customers with a better discovery and shopping experience, duplicate ASINs for the same books will be merged beginning on November 13, 2007. This will mean that sellers will not have to list on multiple single detail pages that refer to the same product.

ASINs will be merged when a duplicate ASIN is detected. This will result in all merchant product data, image data, offers and seller listings for one ASIN (the “merged” ASIN) being transferred over to a second ASIN (the “retained” ASIN). The first ASIN will no longer be viewable on the Amazon.com website. We will make a concerted effort to retain the ASIN that has a higher sales ranking and more merchants using it.

If a listing in an inventory loader feed refers to the first ASIN after the merge, the listing will be assigned to the second or retained ASIN. A warning will be displayed in the processing report and the new ASIN will be identified. You should verify that the new ASIN correctly identifies the product you are selling and use the new ASIN in subsequent uploads. You will not have to make any other change to your feeds.

In rare instances, you may believe that an incorrect merge has occurred. If you believe an incorrect merge has occurred, contact Seller Support and include the original ASIN and the new ASIN in your correspondence.

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Now off to do my dreaded day after a postal holiday shipping which has piled up since Saturday.

Hello The Bitter Book Seller has Arrived!!!

To my one reader out there. . .I’m just going to put an expanded version of my about you page as my first post.

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This is not another blog telling you how to make money selling books, I am not going to outright give any of my secrets or strategies away to NOOBS who don’t want to do their own footwork.

Yes, my secrets are no secret for most of you experienced booksellers, but it amazes me how many of these sellers turn around and just out right give info to new sellers, it’s like they have to show off just how *smart* they are, that they know better than anybody where to get the *best* deals—all the while creating an ignorant, aggressive competition, and giving them a leg up because Time is Money.  We all spent a ton of hours reading books, doing research on the web, fine tuning our methods, shouldn’t they? I spend at least 10 hours a week doing various research, why should I just give this a way? Save the NOOBS that 10 hours, that is 10 more hours that hey have to lower their prices and buy more inventory.

I see many of the sellers that freely give away all this info, also posting on various message boards about how slow their sales have become, as well as about spiraling prices. Well what did they think would happen? While many of us seasoned booksellers will hold onto something for at least a couple years, the NOOBs want their sales NOW. Even if you do tell the NOOBS how to acquire inventory and how to do everything from listing it to how to ship it, you can’t teach them the value, and the love of books. Many of these sellers are just here because they think that they can get rich quick–Heck, they can’t even do a simple Amazon search for books on collecting or even book selling, let alone read a book or go to one of the various websites that offer info on proper grading, etc. Many of these people don’t read books at all!

Once upon at time, I also gave info on certain things like shipping and grading, thinking that I wanted the other sellers on the various sites I sold on to be the best that they could so that people could trust buying from us little ol sellers. I soon realized that I was seeing so many new faces out in the trenches, that I was working harder for the same money, and that it was getting to be a challenge to find a book that would hold its value for the few months it took to sell, so I stopped passing out info.

Yes, it was inevitable that there would be more competition. But I think that all the indiscreet sellers whom have to brag to everyone from other regular shoppers to the cashiers about how much money they can make on selling one book, and that the sellers that tell everyone how to do it, expedited this process and most likely brought a lot more people to the train who are essentially looking for a free ride with all meals included.

To be clear, I am not talking about mentors. For Antiquarian book selling we all should have mentors, but no mentor in their right mind would take on someone who had never done any of their own homework first, and I’m guessing someone who does not read, and someone who is just in it for the money. I cringe at the way I see some of you treat books at sales. Even Daniele Steele deserves a little more respect than to be thrown on the floor.

OK enough for now, the rest of my about you page.

This is just a space for me to bitch about everything related to book selling, a lot of these rantings won’t be new to many of you, as you have probably had the same thoughts, and maybe even written about them. There are only so many stories, its the way we tell them.

I am a Full Time Tax paying Bookseller, not a rich one, but I support myself doing what I love. I started collecting books about 15 years ago, and eventually ended up selling as a way to pay for my collection. Since then I have sold off my original collection, traveled around most of the states, and moved to one of the most competitive areas in the country for books, where I’ve had to start from scratch and reinvent the wheel over and over.

I am the worst typer ever and rarely proof read blog stuff as I have a lot of other shit to do. I really am a girl, and I play D&D and Video games too. I am also a writer–though obviously not too successful yet or I wouldn’t still be selling books. . .or would I?