David Ames wrote:
I learned of a textbook used at a major university. Wondering about
the subject of the textbook, I searched bookfinder.com to seek a prior
edition and to consider whether I might want to enroll. I posted an
inquiry to an alibris.com dealer, using Alibris' form.

What I got back was not a response, but a request to post my query to
the dealer's website.
Doesn't Alibris forward my message plus the dealer's listing? Am I
really supposed to hunt up the listing all over again in order to
repeat my question?

David Ames

It is one thing to ask a
dealer about customery bookselling
matters, such as condtition, edition, etc.
But if you were talking about having the
seller tell you about the contents of a
textbook so you could "consider whether
[you] might want to enroll," you may have
been asking a wee bit too much. After
all, the person is a bookseller, not a
college counselor.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]