Every now and again it hits me what technological babies we all are. In the pre-internet 1980s, I wrote my graduate school work on a Commodore 128. The only thing it was good for was word processing -- it may have been able to do other things as well, but I didn't know what those might be. Just before I finished my dissertation, its keyboard failed -- in particular, the letters 'J' and "M" virtually stopped working -- and writing my dissertation about a quarterly journal that was published in January, May and June became something of a challenge. (Since the Commodore hardware wasn't compatible with anything else, and since the model I owned had been phased out, getting just a new keyboard was out of the question.)
I think about the infantile state of our human species vis-a-vis the world of high-tech every time I see an grossly-inappropriate tweet, receive a too-hastily-sent email, or hear of someone who has been scammed by a 17-year-old Ukranian claiming to be his or her "soul mate" ("And won't you please send me the money it will take to enable us finally to meet and be together forever: bail, hospital fees, insurance bonds, court costs, $10,000 for a new passport, etc.?") We are so new to this world (even those who grew up with it) that we just haven't yet acquired enough technological 'life experience' to avoid the pitfalls with any regularity.
This brings us to the subject at hand: namely books. The other day we had a call from someone who lived in our village and who knew that we were booksellers. Could we find her a particular book for her, please?
So we asked the usual questions. But our first question was: "Have you looked on Amazon?" After all, it's what most people do these days when looking for a book, or anything else for that matter.
Her reply is one we've had in response to the same question, asked of many other callers requesting that we find scarce books for them over the years. "I'm afraid to go on Amazon to find old books. It's too confusing. It's hard to know which sellers to trust on Amazon." And we can sympathize. Amazon is great for buying new products, including recently-published, in-print books. But out-of-print, used or rare books are something else again.
Actually, Amazon.com can be a great place to buy used, rare and out of print books. It is easy, quick, and the range of choice is astonishingly vast. Books you never knew existed can be found there, and books you have spent years hunting for are there, too. Amazon began its corporate life as a book-selling site, and is still the "World’s Largest [Books] Marketplace."
But at the same time, book-buying on Amazon can be something of a challenge, especially when it comes to uncommon or hard-to-find books. Many sellers, both professional and amateur, inhabit the site, with different ways of doing business, different levels of professionalism, and different methods for describing and merchandizing their books. Like any online platform, getting the things you want in the condition you want in the timeframe you want is a matter of savvy shopping and the ability to look for warning signs when they appear.
In this 2-Part series of blogs, we'll quickly go through what to watch out for as you navigate the minefield that is Amazon used-book buying, so that you and the book you want can be happily united.
The Basics:
1. As almost everyone knows, Amazon as a corporate entity sells books themselves. These are usually the ones associated with the headlined, one-click ordering options. In-print books fall into this category, and when you purchase from Amazon itself you will receive a new copy from one of their many US warehouses.
2. Out-of-print, used, and rare books are sold almost-exclusively on Amazon by Third-Party sellers (3Ps). These are businesses (like us) or individuals who have a relationship with Amazon, and who are permitted to sell on the Amazon platform for a fee.
(Of course, 3Ps can also sell in-print books on Amazon as well. In the example above, the $4.11 copy is sold by Amazon itself, and the "154 new and used copies" under "More Buying Choices" and starting at $0.01 are being sold by 3P sellers.)
3. 3P sellers have to follow Amazon's rules on things like returns, the condition-grading of items for sale, quick turnaround of orders, and delivery deadlines, but can set their own rules about some other things (pricing, the content and format of their book descriptions, shipping methods, and their standards for packing books). Amazon also does its best to 'police' 3P sellers to ensure that Amazon customers will have a good buying experience. (More about that in Part II)
4. Amazon 3P sellers may be based in the USA or may be operating from somewhere overseas. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which. (Again, more on that later.)
5. Although many 3P sellers store their books on their own premises or at nearby locations, many others ship all their merchandise to a centralized Amazon warehouse, and orders are packed and sent to you from that warehouse (in these cases you will see "Fulfilled by Amazon" somewhere in the Seller's listing).
5. You can message 3P sellers with questions before you buy using Amazon's "Ask a question" option. Amazon expects all 3P sellers to respond to messages promptly (the rule is a response within 24 hours) and courteously.
When you see a seller's name in the list of books for sale, simply click on the name and you will get a window that looks like this:
Click on the yellow "Ask a question" button and write your message to the seller. Your email or other identifying information will be masked, and will not be available to the seller.
Complaints after buying are directed through the Your Orders page.
6. Some 3P sellers have earned what is called the Amazon "Buy Box," which is located at the righthand side of the screen as a yellow "Add to Cart" button.
This enables one-click ordering from that buyer, even though there may be several other buyers with the same book on offer. (The Buy Box is actually one of 'Amazon's Great Mysteries.' Amazon giveth, and Amazon taketh away, and no one knows why.) Although clicking on the the Add to Cart link is a convenient way to order, there maybe other copies in better condition for lower prices available,
7. The only performance metric that the buyer sees for any given 3P seller is the Feedback score (calculated and shown as between 1 and 5 yellow stars underneath the seller's name), a positive percentage rate, the lifetime number of feedback ratings, and actual buyer comments by clicking on the percentage rate link. In the screenshot below, this seller has a 4.5-star feedback rating from buyers rating with 94% positive comments, and over a million individual comments from buyers.
But there are other 3P seller metrics that Amazon itself uses to keep 3P sellers in line (overall order dissatisfaction rate, slow shipment time, the percentage of valid tracking attached to an order, fast response to buyer messages, and so on) that buyers do not see. These metrics are Amazon's way of determining whether a particular seller retains selling privileges on Amazon, and (probably) whether the seller is eligible to win the Buy Box.
That means that when you have a choice of sellers -- sometimes a choice between many, many sellers -- for an old book that you want to buy on Amazon, you have to do some added detective work. Even reading and interpreting the Feedback scores that you CAN see is something of a challenge.
And hints for meeting that "challenge of choice" will come in Part II of this seres.
I think about the infantile state of our human species vis-a-vis the world of high-tech every time I see an grossly-inappropriate tweet, receive a too-hastily-sent email, or hear of someone who has been scammed by a 17-year-old Ukranian claiming to be his or her "soul mate" ("And won't you please send me the money it will take to enable us finally to meet and be together forever: bail, hospital fees, insurance bonds, court costs, $10,000 for a new passport, etc.?") We are so new to this world (even those who grew up with it) that we just haven't yet acquired enough technological 'life experience' to avoid the pitfalls with any regularity.
This brings us to the subject at hand: namely books. The other day we had a call from someone who lived in our village and who knew that we were booksellers. Could we find her a particular book for her, please?
So we asked the usual questions. But our first question was: "Have you looked on Amazon?" After all, it's what most people do these days when looking for a book, or anything else for that matter.
Her reply is one we've had in response to the same question, asked of many other callers requesting that we find scarce books for them over the years. "I'm afraid to go on Amazon to find old books. It's too confusing. It's hard to know which sellers to trust on Amazon." And we can sympathize. Amazon is great for buying new products, including recently-published, in-print books. But out-of-print, used or rare books are something else again.
Actually, Amazon.com can be a great place to buy used, rare and out of print books. It is easy, quick, and the range of choice is astonishingly vast. Books you never knew existed can be found there, and books you have spent years hunting for are there, too. Amazon began its corporate life as a book-selling site, and is still the "World’s Largest [Books] Marketplace."
But at the same time, book-buying on Amazon can be something of a challenge, especially when it comes to uncommon or hard-to-find books. Many sellers, both professional and amateur, inhabit the site, with different ways of doing business, different levels of professionalism, and different methods for describing and merchandizing their books. Like any online platform, getting the things you want in the condition you want in the timeframe you want is a matter of savvy shopping and the ability to look for warning signs when they appear.
In this 2-Part series of blogs, we'll quickly go through what to watch out for as you navigate the minefield that is Amazon used-book buying, so that you and the book you want can be happily united.
The Basics:
1. As almost everyone knows, Amazon as a corporate entity sells books themselves. These are usually the ones associated with the headlined, one-click ordering options. In-print books fall into this category, and when you purchase from Amazon itself you will receive a new copy from one of their many US warehouses.
2. Out-of-print, used, and rare books are sold almost-exclusively on Amazon by Third-Party sellers (3Ps). These are businesses (like us) or individuals who have a relationship with Amazon, and who are permitted to sell on the Amazon platform for a fee.
(Of course, 3Ps can also sell in-print books on Amazon as well. In the example above, the $4.11 copy is sold by Amazon itself, and the "154 new and used copies" under "More Buying Choices" and starting at $0.01 are being sold by 3P sellers.)
3. 3P sellers have to follow Amazon's rules on things like returns, the condition-grading of items for sale, quick turnaround of orders, and delivery deadlines, but can set their own rules about some other things (pricing, the content and format of their book descriptions, shipping methods, and their standards for packing books). Amazon also does its best to 'police' 3P sellers to ensure that Amazon customers will have a good buying experience. (More about that in Part II)
4. Amazon 3P sellers may be based in the USA or may be operating from somewhere overseas. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which. (Again, more on that later.)
5. Although many 3P sellers store their books on their own premises or at nearby locations, many others ship all their merchandise to a centralized Amazon warehouse, and orders are packed and sent to you from that warehouse (in these cases you will see "Fulfilled by Amazon" somewhere in the Seller's listing).
5. You can message 3P sellers with questions before you buy using Amazon's "Ask a question" option. Amazon expects all 3P sellers to respond to messages promptly (the rule is a response within 24 hours) and courteously.
When you see a seller's name in the list of books for sale, simply click on the name and you will get a window that looks like this:
Complaints after buying are directed through the Your Orders page.
6. Some 3P sellers have earned what is called the Amazon "Buy Box," which is located at the righthand side of the screen as a yellow "Add to Cart" button.
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7. The only performance metric that the buyer sees for any given 3P seller is the Feedback score (calculated and shown as between 1 and 5 yellow stars underneath the seller's name), a positive percentage rate, the lifetime number of feedback ratings, and actual buyer comments by clicking on the percentage rate link. In the screenshot below, this seller has a 4.5-star feedback rating from buyers rating with 94% positive comments, and over a million individual comments from buyers.
But there are other 3P seller metrics that Amazon itself uses to keep 3P sellers in line (overall order dissatisfaction rate, slow shipment time, the percentage of valid tracking attached to an order, fast response to buyer messages, and so on) that buyers do not see. These metrics are Amazon's way of determining whether a particular seller retains selling privileges on Amazon, and (probably) whether the seller is eligible to win the Buy Box.
That means that when you have a choice of sellers -- sometimes a choice between many, many sellers -- for an old book that you want to buy on Amazon, you have to do some added detective work. Even reading and interpreting the Feedback scores that you CAN see is something of a challenge.
And hints for meeting that "challenge of choice" will come in Part II of this seres.
