People need sleep, ya know?

A book order via Abebooks/Paypal came in at 6 AM. . .
Buyer then sends e-mails at 6:30 and 6:45 requesting invoices. . .

Well hello?  Some people sleep until 9 or so and don’t even open up shop until 10 AM.

Can Abebooks Please get their Act Together?

I’m still getting dbl sales on Abebooks from their whole, “oops, we accidently listed some books twice”  glitch.  And now, despite getting e-mails from ABE, I CAN’T log into my account–it says that my e-mail doesn’t exist.

Heck, i can’t even log into the bookseller forum to cut and paste the Abebooks notices about the dbl listing problems of a few weeks ago, the delayed upload problems of a couple weeks ago, and I can’t even log in to see if they actually ever fixed these problems, and check for status messages.  If I didn’t have a 3rd party management program, I’d be screwed as fas as getting my orders and confirming them.

And don’t even get my started about how Ridiculous this Presidential Election has become, can we please debate the real issues like the economy?  Job Loss? Creating New Jobs? Health Care? The Deficit?  IRAQ & IRAN & Afghanistan solutions?

Now Half.com is Wonky : Closing Listings- Plus Amazon Wonkiness continued

I just received a notice from Half.com saying they closed 3 of my listings for incorrect binding. On Half.com they show as Hardcover, but these are Small Press Poetry books that have never had a hardcover edition–they are all First Edition softcovers with correct ISBNs.

Other sellers have been getting notices as well, only some of them can’t figure out which of the criteria they have violated, while others note the same hardcover/softcover issues. For now this is not a huge deal, but what if they had some kind of software glitch that changed the bindings on several of their listings? This would make their small catalogue even smaller. Of course, the mega sellers who don’t describe their books will still be listed.

******

Amazon is still a touch Wonky today. I expect that the prices will fall drastically as people freaking out about no sales and running their repricers over and over. I hate listing books when Amazon is like this-it’s not that I rely solely on Amazon, but that I fear their glitchdom will result in dbl sales.

*****

Oh yeah, it looks like I got to do whatever auctions I’m going to do on Ebay right quick, as things are about to change. I’ve been putting it off since the Feedback change-and I guess I’ve been a tad lazy and busy.

Things that Make me think Amazon site is wonky. . .

8 orders from abe and 10 orders from alibris in less than a 24hr period.  I don’t have a large inventory, and I’m happy to sell 1 book on Alibris a day, and a few books on Abebooks a week.

Plus newly listed stock on Amazon with best seller status that is not moving. i can see it on Amazon, it’s just not selling despite being competitvely prices and my 5 star, 4.9, 100% rating.

Now that Takes a lot of Ballz! When Book Sellers Buy From You

Booksellers know how to manipulate the system, that is if they are good, they know the rules of each site that they deal with, and know how other booksellers probably will deal with them as well.

Now the thing that pissed me off. . .

I got an order through Half.com for a 5 pd book going Priority–from another book dealer.

For those that don’t know, Half does not have an option to only offer priority mail on certain items like Amazon–it’s all or nothing, and the way I figure it is that it evens out. This book dealer could’ve ordered it on Abe where I could request xtra shipping, or Alibris where I could just cancel it with a small dent to my fulfillment rate–but they chose Half, where they could leave me a negative if I canceled, which would also affect my Ebay rating.

But wait, that is not the whole story–I was fine with that, I put the book in a Flat Rate Priority Box, and still made a tidy profit.

The next day after I ship it, I get an e-mail from the same book seller, asking me to quote them Priority Shipping for an 8 oz Mass Market book AND dealer discount. Now that takes balls. Not to mention that they wanted to do transaction off site–which could get me suspended.

People and their *^& Credit Cards

I have 7 orders pending on Amazon right now due to expired/incorrect CCs. 5 of these are items where the price is sure to decline due to the hotness of the items and Amazon’s 72 hour wait if I have to relist them. 2 are pricer items that will hold their value.

I don’t understand why people don’t check their mail after placing orders, I DO!

*******It’s Raining Books, Well Almost *****

Had a pretty good score earlier this week, in a genre that I both collect and sell-40 books. This is pretty rare as most places where I live are so over run with dealers that its hard to buy more than 5 books at any one place–and it’s all a matter of luck most of the time–somehow being one of the the first ones to the new pile.

Honestly, I don’t know how sellers who only sell 2lb books over $25 do it. . .yes, there is a seller on the river who will not sell a 2lb $20 book, e will leave it on the shelf for another dealer to pick up. Hell, send them my way. Send me 5 lb $15 books too. If I can make fast money I will sell anything. And then there are those who only sell books worth $50 or more– Having sold all my books in 2 cross country moves, I don’t have the luxury of an inventory collected over the past 10+ years to fall back on in these crazy times, just the experience of once having those books 🙂

Has it Really been 2 months?

2 Holidays combined with House Guests for 2 weeks at a time, as well as working around 10 hours more a week to bring in what I brought in last year and cover the rising price of gas, has left me little time to blog.

But Alas I have something to Bitch about!!!! It’s about another seller, and Ebay seller to be exact. But I also have something good to say about another Ebay seller 🙂

I engage in the fine art of arbitrage, though, I’m leery to spend very much since i have the sentiment that if the people selling these items really knew what they were doing, they probably wouldn’t let them go so cheap.

Anyway. . .I found a gem, but the seller charged $8 for S & H by Media Mail. Of course hardly anyone in their right mind will spend $8 to ship ship a $2.00 – $10 book, cept me–and believe me it took me some time to bid on it, as I almost didn’t bid out of principle. I knew I could turn around and sell the book for $60. . .As it turned out, no one else bid on the item except for me. It was described as “In excellent Condition.” And it looked well enough in the photo to sell.

Cut to 7 days later, the 4lb book arrives by Media Mail in an ENVELOPE!!! Now I realize that this seller says they charge a high S & H to cover gas money, labels, electricity and time spent packaging the item, but at $8 they could’ve spent and extra 30 cents for a box, or used recycled one. The book now has heavy bumping at all corners, as well as creasing. AND to top it off, it stank like SMOKE. At least I know how to remove odors, can’t do much about the other damage.

So I e-mail the seller saying that I am disappointed that the book smells like smoke, and that my $8 did not include better packaging. Seller says that I can return the book at my cost. Well, of course it will cost me more to return the book than the book itself, unless I include shipping, which of course is not going to be refunded.

Now sure, it was a cheap book, but when that seller put it up for auction, they had no idea how much it was going to sell for. . .It could’ve went for the $60 that it was worth. . .They should’ve disclosed that it smelled like smoke. . .they should’ve either offer to pay for the return, or, to give me some kind of discount. But when all is said and done, I will keep the book and still sell it for $40.

I unfortunately bought this book under my bookseller account, so I can’t leave negative feedback as my bookseller name is used on all venues.

Then there are good sellers–One sent me the wrong book, another steal that I happened to find over the 4th of July, this seller told me to just go ahead and keep it, and he would send the right book out next day. The book I get to keep is worth $40, although, it was meant for someone else who won it for 99 cents. . .An INTL shipment, if it wasn’t INTL I would’ve offered to forward it, a heavy book and INTL shipping is a situation I don’t want to get in the middle of. Maybe he sent the INTL customer my book, I’ll never know until my original book arrives.

My break from bitching-Superb Customer:)

Whew, is my blog getting hit today because of the Big Ebay changes taking place today.. . .

Instead of bitching more about that though, I’ve decided to post a short story with a happy ending. . .I hope.

So, my ABE sales have sucked more than usual for the last 3 months. . .I decided that before dropping ABE, I would try the paypal thing again–I had dropped paypal on Abe a couple years ago cuz it was a pain in the ass getting some people to pay ,and keeping track of it–at that time.

Long story short, I enabled paypal again last Monday, but I kinda forgot about it.  I shipped a $50 art Book to Sweden with a shipping confirmation e-mail. The customer e-mailed me a wonderful letter thanking me for my trust in these times of shady internet scams and such, and saying that he would like to pay now even though he hadn’t received the book yet. That was pretty awesome of him.  Sure, I would’ve figured it out once my next ABE payment rolled around, but even then once someone has the book, there is no guarantee that they will pay. Of course, now I am nervous that he won’t like the the book or something. . .

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I do have a few things that I want to write about, and will try to do a few posts this week, raising prices after the postal increase, only to see people pricing $15 books at $4 & $5, yet still selling my $15 books over their copies in same condition.

Idiot with a laptop

This post could prob give my anon identity away. . .I’ve sat on it for 3 days b4 writing it because I have been busy trying to level my Evasion Barbarian.

I had one of those scouting days last week. I walk into my favorite spot, and first thing I see is a guy with a worker cart from the store, filled with 100 books, ah bummer. . .but on closer look most were titles I had passed up the day b4. Most likely he was buying B &M stock.

Then there was the Weird Old Couple –the lady has been known to wear one of those flashlight headbands while scouting, and the husband throws books willy nilly all over the place. I have never been able to figure out who, or what they are buying for.

Then I notice a guy in his late 60’s maybe early 70’s, sporting a baseball cap and has that spends alot of time boating look to him. I see he is setting his grabs on the bookshelf–which is never a good idea, I went through them once and he didn’t even notice. His books for the most part were things I had passed up the day b4, or would’ve passed up.

And then he not only whips out his laptop, but sets up all his elaborate tools. I live in a highly populated urban area, laptop not good. Heck it;s not even good if ya live in the sticks.

I say to him:

“No wonder they keep raising the prices here.”

“Oh, are you buying books for charity?”

“No, I do the same thing that you do, only I am more discreet.”

Argh, I wanted to yell at this dude, but I kept a calm and even voice.

And not to be an ageist, but it seems that the older generation just doesn’t realize that their actions not only create more competition, but their indiscretion draws in get rich quick people who could care less about books, who never even read books.

The older folks, they love to blab to everyone about how much money they can make selling books ( or glassware, etc) including store workers. They don’t seem to realize that these days almost everyone has a laptop, or, at least a good internet connection where they can do a search to see what this guy is doing, and find out that they don’t even need a laptop, they can just use their tiny phone.

There is a huge gap between people under a certain age who happen to know how fast information can travel because they have grown up with computers all their lives, and people who just started using a computer a few years ago. Because I’ve grown up with computers my whole life, I know how to get any information I want, I know how to turn information into profit for me, I also know how to pass info out. I understand how info travels. I mean even without whipping out a laptop, people know your up to something when you buy 20 books, but, most people think that they don’t have the knowledge to do the same thing . . .and even if they bring their laptops, they still won’t–but they can really take a chunk out of product availability until they quit.

Back to the guy. By his actions, and his picks, I don’t think he was an experienced seller, he grabbed almost all hardcovers, most of them dusty, but still had ISBNs, not the type to be worth more if they were first editions. I live in a part of the country where finding books without ISBNS, is rather slim pickings. Heck, I rarely even see books published b4 1950, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book published before 1900 in these parts. And the stores, if it is published b4 1960 they will automatically price them $5 – $10 even if they are BCEs, thinking old = good, just like this guy. I grabbed 3 $25 – $75 books that he passed up.

This store is my favorite spot, they put out books 2 – 3 times a day, but, I think I may have to start passing it up as it is on every other books dealers radar, some will even sit there all day, pouncing on the cart as soon as it comes out. I just can’t do that, it would bore the hell out of me.

I know a few people who say they chat up the store employees because they get first dibs on books.  Well, believe me, so do I and I never talk to them unless they talk to me first, even then I keep it short, I think they like me because I don’t no pester them to death. A couple even bring books out whenever I am there, and I didn’t even have to go and be all fake about it, or tell them anything that would make their store start selling books online instead of offering them to the public, or, make the book people go into business for themselves.

Behold the Week of Glitchdom AMAZON, HALF-And AOB bitching.

I’ll start off with the big Glitch first. AMAZON.

Amazon is doing something that has prevented 3rd party services and even individuals from pulling order reports on consistent, timely basis for about 2 days now. It is aggravating. I’ve had a stellar 2 days of sales and have had to hand delete all my Amazon sales. OF COURSE I am not Home 24/7 so this doesn’t work out good for me.

The most aggravating thing in all of this, is that AOB once again is choosing not to communicate with their customers about this issue–sure, it’s on Amazon’s end, but Aman Pro, Fillz, and Sellerengine have all posted things to their customer base, as well as answered questions on the AZ boards.

And the most ridiculous thing ever is that one poster on Amazon said that they asked AOB to keep to post something about the issue and keep the users up to date, and their answer was to read the Amazon Boards.

Ok, well, most days I am way too busy to read those boards–I only went there today in search of an answer– I noticed that my Amazon orders were taking 3 – 7 hours to be pulled. So I had to waste 20 mins reading threads on Amazon–when AOB could’ve just made a post at the top of their pages like they used to do, and saved me that 20 mins. No wonder people bash AOB so much. It’s like AOB wants us to quit their service. Or perhaps they think that the majority of their users are such small sellers that they would never leave? Can’t afford another service? Well, I’m a large enough seller to use Fillz, and even though I don’t like their set up, I found myself once again looking a fillz today–more precious time that I don’t really have. Why can’t AOB just communicate better?

And I wish that they would cut with the Blessings crap. Saying “Blessings,” doesn’t give a big OK for crappy customer service. I once thought about leaving AOB on their use of “Blessings” alone. I don’t like religion interjected with business, I find that too many people ty to use piety to cover up things. Maybe they think that we are all just dirty sinners, and therefore do not deserve to be communicated with about venue problems.

HALF-make sure your getting paid for every order.

Well this is kind of a big one too, but it doesn’t result in dbl sales, and it can be fixed. All sales are not being posted to payment history. Thank goodness I had a big enough sale to notice that my payment amount was off by glancing at it. I investigated further and found that a couple of my sales were not in my payment history despite being on the sales page. I did some research and it was a known issue though HALF did not post anything about it. I e-mailed HALF with the transaction info, and they posted them to my payment history. Also, from the info I read this happened sometime last year as well, and was fixed without a word as well. I have not had to the time to go through all my transactions to see if I am missing any other payments.

ALIBRIS

Is still processing upload files out of order. Thanx. I got 3 dbl orders, books with rankings over 500K. My rating is going to take a huge ding without the BN or Half sales to keep 5 stars.