Order Canceled!

[Shelf Space] said:
'So what happens if you have received other enquiries?'
'Oh, we'll just withdraw it from sale because it has clearly not been
priced highly enough, and we'll quietly re-list it at double the price
in a week's time.'
'Hey, thanks, that's great customer service!

michael adams said:
No it called setting a fair market price.
Whereas previously, because presumably the other collectors weren't
even aware of the books availability, it was being sold at under
its fair market price.
All that's happened as result of the Internet, is that information
about the availability of particular books is becoming much more
widely available. And is no longer being restricted to a chosen
few. Even if its a chosen few who know which particular shops
are worth visiting on a reglar basis. Or which particular catalogues
are worth subscribing to, so as to be on the phone at 9.05 am.

I can understand Self Space's anger, I have no problem with a dealer
trying to select a price point at market value, but doing it in the by
pulling a book from sale, because there are several takers, seems
underhanded to me. He should sell to the first customer; if he
doesn't want to operate this way then he can openly auction the book
if that is his intent.

On the larger issue, Michael raises some interesting points. The used
book market has changed drastically. Economically speaking, the market
has become much more efficient. Search and information costs have been
enormously reduced. The reduction of these transaction costs has many
implications not the least of which is that in the dealer or broker has
less impact on the value chain. This reduction in the transaction
costs has already forced margins on used and collectable books to
decrease, and it's likely to get worse. In addition the barriers to
market entry and exit are practically non-existent to the EBay
literate, allowing the hobby-dealers easy access to the market, so it
would seem that things will get worse for the typical dealer before
they get better, if they ever do.

One of the B&M dealers here in Lexington, Ky. seems to heavily
specialize in books about the horse industry, a big local interest.
Undoubtedly, this offers many opportunities for arbitrage, buying
non-local books cheap and selling locally at a high premium. I imagine
that for all the reason I have already stated and others that arbitrage
is no longer as lucrative as it used to be. I would expect that the
supply of books has increased even though the margins have fallen. How
this balance has affected profit I don't know, it's probable highly
variable depending on the dealer.

Scott Lambert

Shelf Space wrote:
But can't you see how wrong it is (from a customer service perspective)
to list the same book through three different agencies?

No.

It's like walking into a bookshop and saying:

'I'd like that book in the window please, the one on display marked for
£50'.

Bookseller: 'Sorry sir, you'll have to wait while I phone my two other
bookshops to see if anyone else has reserved it. You see, we only have
the one copy and we keep moving it around. Give me your telephone
number and I'll phone you in a couple of days.'

No, actually it's like advertising a sale in three different newspapers. If
a customer who reads Paper #1 happens to be the first to call & pay, that's
just the breaks for readers of Papers #2 and #3. Why shouldn't a dealer
advertise their books for sale on as many services as possible, given the
normal business caveats?

'So what happens if you have received other enquiries?'

'Oh, we'll just withdraw it from sale because it has clearly not been
priced highly enough, and we'll quietly re-list it at double the price
in a week's time.'

Now that IS unethical, and while I'm sure some dealers do it, I rather doubt
it's the majority.

'Hey, thanks, that's great customer service!'

I much prefered the old days of paper catalogues and real bricks &
mortar bookshops. It used to be that those with specialist knowledge
triumphed, whether they be book collector or dealer, whereas now the
mainstream internet bookdealer sits in the middle of the stream with
his vile trawling net, snaring everything that washes past, big or
small.