Those Amazon Sellers
 

Hey all:

THere's a yahoo group devoted to bookselling, which only comes to life
from time to time, but it came to life recently, cuz an Amazon seller
sent a book to a customer which seemed to be a BCE. The seller turns
out not to know what a BCE is, whcih is why I am tending to buy fewer
used books on Amazon these days. Someone who clearly does know what a
BCE is gently chastised the seller for mis-representation while
apologizing for sounding 'harsh'.

Here's an OP post...


Well, neither the Amazon seller rep or I knew about BCEs. As it is,
she is keeping the book. And frankly, without the book in my hand
anymore, how am I supposed to know if what she's telling me is true or
not?! From what I recalled of the book, the dimensions of it (based on
a piece of typing paper) seemed mentally/visually correct to me. For
all I know the book is NOT a BCE and she's just just weird person who
wants all her hardback books to line up nicely on the shelf...or
someone who just wants to dent a 5.0 rating...

Yeah, a bit harsh. I know now about BCEs. Seems like a few of us also
didn't know about them either.


And my resonse, basically to get it off my chest about ignorant
booksellers...


Well, everyone, I must say, as a collector and sometimes seller, this
is one of the reasons I hardly ever buy used books on Amazon anymore.
I've been sent BCEs and ex-libs, neither identified. And often, not
priced accordingly. I've been sent 'as new' books with remainder
marks, clipped DWs, and otherwise. I've been sent 14th printings that
I've been assured were 'first editions'. I've even been sent PBs
listed as HBs.

Jeff, this will be even harsher than the post you complained about,
but you seem to be representative of this distressing seller, in that
you sell books on Amazon, possibly a lot of books, and you belong to a
booksellers' mailing list, and yet you have just found out what a BCE
is? In this day and age, with all this information readily available
on line for free and at a nominal charge in books devoted to
collecting, why?

It's so bad out there that I have stopped buying books online unless
they described in intelligent bookseller lingo; i.e., 'Fine in a VG+
dust wrapper with a 1/2" closed tear'. Then I know I'm dealing with
someone who at least is making an effort to learn the trade.

I think Amazon is aware how bad it really is, which is why they have
established a bare minimum standard for what is listed in a
'collectible' category. People like me are tired of getting abused by
ignorant (at best) and dishonest (at worse) Amazon sellers.

If you're selling used clothing you should be able to tell the
difference between real Chanel and fake Chanel. Why not books?

Of course, even on the more 'sophisticated' online sites there are
sellers trying to play fast and loose. I've been looking for a
reasonably priced first of Marilynne Robinson's 'Housekeeping'. As we
all know, this is a desirable and expensive work. Recently I saw one
on Alibris for $75, described as a first edition with a publishing
date of 1980. THe book was re-issued in 1995, but that would be a
'first thus', not a first, and of course it wouldn't be worth $75.
When I got it, it was the 1995 edition. Thank goodness for Alibris'
return policy, so I didn't have to go thru what I'm reading here, just
stuck it right back in the box and dropped it off in the mailbox.
You'd think the obviously dishonest seller would realize that no one
who is going to pay $75 for a book will be fooled in that way.

Getting back to BCEs, this is not to say that there aren't many
difficult individual titles with strange issue points, which has been
pointed out earlier in the thread. But really, 95% or more of BCEs are
easily and reliably identifiable as such. C'mon, folk....



Denton

Those Amazon Sellers
 

Denton Taylor wrote:
Hey all:

THere's a yahoo group devoted to bookselling, which only comes to life
from time to time, but it came to life recently, cuz an Amazon seller
sent a book to a customer which seemed to be a BCE. The seller turns
out not to know what a BCE is, whcih is why I am tending to buy fewer
used books on Amazon these days. Someone who clearly does know what a
BCE is gently chastised the seller for mis-representation while
apologizing for sounding 'harsh'.
...

I think that amazon.com (and half.com) are aimed mostly at the people
who want the book to read, not as a collectible. What annoys me the
most is when they claim the book is a "like-new" or clean copy and it
actually has all sorts of highlighting or underlining. I mean, they may
not know what a BCE is, but they can surely see that the pages are
half-covered in yellow highlighter. :-(

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
A great many people think they are thinking when they
are only rearranging their prejudices. -William James

Those Amazon Sellers
 

While many Amazon sellers may not know the difference between a BCE and
the BBC, a number are knowledgable and legit book dealers. I've been selling
at Amazon for about 18 months and have been frustrated by the dolts who list
books that they've salvaged from a Dumpster or were left over after the
library book sale sold the dregs at $1 per bag.

I've had considerable success at Amazon by describing my books
accurately (i.e., mentioning any flaws) and noting which are first editions
and first printings.

As a book collector myself -- yes, I still keep buying books even as I
dispose of my collection -- I consider Amazon a source of good books. You
just have to read between the lines when a book is described. And then ask
further questions. If a seller doesn't know the difference between a book
club edition and a first edition, I won't do business with him/her.

Gene Mierzejewski

"Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote in message
...
Denton Taylor wrote:
Hey all:

THere's a yahoo group devoted to bookselling, which only comes to life
from time to time, but it came to life recently, cuz an Amazon seller
sent a book to a customer which seemed to be a BCE. The seller turns
out not to know what a BCE is, whcih is why I am tending to buy fewer
used books on Amazon these days. Someone who clearly does know what a
BCE is gently chastised the seller for mis-representation while
apologizing for sounding 'harsh'. ...

I think that amazon.com (and half.com) are aimed mostly at the people who
want the book to read, not as a collectible. What annoys me the most is
when they claim the book is a "like-new" or clean copy and it actually has
all sorts of highlighting or underlining. I mean, they may not know what
a BCE is, but they can surely see that the pages are half-covered in
yellow highlighter. :-(

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
A great many people think they are thinking when they
are only rearranging their prejudices. -William James