A Primer for Buying Used, Rare and Out-of-print Books on Amazon (Part 2)

As we talked about in the last edition of this blog, Amazon.com can be a great place to buy used, rare and out of print books. But as we pointed out then, searching through the innumerable offerings from innumerable third-party sellers (3Ps) on World’s Largest [Books] Marketplace can be daunting.

How can you read a listing for a particular book so that you know the condition of the book you want? How can you tell if a particular bookseller has any books at all? (Yes, believe it or not, many 3P sellers list books they do not actually have -- more on that below.)  The people who contact us asking us to find a book for them because they are afraid to use Amazon are often those who have dipped their toes into what is colloquially called “The River” and have met up with a crocodile seller.

The good news for them, and for others who are hoping to connect with a long-sought-after book, is that there are ways to weed out the good sellers from the bad sellers, and the good copies of books front the bad copies,  just by a skilled reading the information provided on Amazon.

There are at least seven things to watch out for when buying used, rare and out-of-print books on Amazon and finding a reliable 3P seller from whom to purchase that book.

1.  The first (and easiest) thing to look at is the seller’s Feedback Rating.

Feedback ratings are given to each 3P seller in two forms: yellow stars (between 1 and 5), and a percentage of positive ratings out of 100%. These ratings are found above the seller’s name in the column just to the left of the yellow “Add to Cart” button in each book listing.

It is rare to find sellers with less than a 90% feedback rating on Amazon. Amazon’s expectation is that sellers will aim for 100% positive feedback, and if a seller’s feedback falls below 90%, she
will very likely be told that she is no longer eligible to sell on Amazon. Feedback below 93% or 94% is a red flag for buyers.

But here is where it is important to look further. If you click on the percentage itself, you will see all the comments made by buyers about that particular seller.  In addition, you can see any responses to that feedback made by the seller, along with a grid showing how many feedback comments (and whether negative, positive, or neutral) the seller has received over the course of her Amazon selling career.

Of course because many buyers who leave Amazon feedback are people who have had bad experiences, the numbers for any seller are slightly skewed in favor of the negative. Other buyers leave reviews of the book they have bought rather than seller reviews. But if there is a pattern of a certain kind of bad feedback (“Book was described as new, but was falling apart” or “Ordered this book four weeks ago and it still hasn’t turned up” or “Tried to contact seller several times but got no response.”) you will know that a seller has problems delivering on promises.

Looking at the seller’s responses to feedback can also be instructive. If the pattern is: “This buyer is an idiot!” you know that if you have a complaint about an order, you are unlikely to get satisfaction without a hassle.

2. Sellers with generic ‘boilerplate’ book descriptions. The seller’s condition notes (found in the second column from the left under the book’s condition grade) are especially important when buying used or out-of-print books on Amazon. Descriptions such as “may have notes, or highlighting” or “may be ex-library” or “100% guaranteed” (most Amazon orders are, by definition, 100% guaranteed) mean that the seller has never actually taken the time to inspect the book itself. Some sellers just “dump” lots of titles onto Amazon, and have not given any thought at all to the condition grading of the book or to any faults it might have.

(In the EU these kind of “may have” descriptions are unlawful, for obvious reasons. The buyer is purchasing something that cannot be checked against a clear description.)

3. Drop-shippers. Speaking of “dumping titles,” some booksellers on Amazon do not actually have ANY books in stock. They are called “drop-shippers,” (or more negatively “bookjackers”) and they simply attempt to list every book ever published on the Amazon website. Then when you actually order a book from them, they are forced to go out and find it from another online seller. This means that you cannot count on anything the drop-shipper says about its condition, or even on whether they will be able to find the book for you.

There are several ways to tell if a particular seller is a drop-shipper, none foolproof, but useful as a quick check. If you see a seller of a book with an outlandishly high price (in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars), you can be pretty certain that they do not have a copy of the book in stock and are hoping that no one will order it at the price they are asking.  

(The last two of these are bookjackers)

And again, generic descriptions are another sign that you are dealing with a bookjacker who has never seen the book listed itself:

Seller feedback that most often reports things like “waited a VERY long time for this book” or “seller cancelled my order saying they were out of stock” are telltale signs of a drop-shipper. When in doubt, you can always send the seller a question if you suspect that he or she does not have a book they have listed that you want to buy.

On their website, Zubal Books, a highly respected seller of used, rare and out-of-print books based in Cleveland, Ohio, has a good article about bookjackers, along with the list of those sellers the advise against: (“Bookjackers: Who they are, what they do, and why YOU should NEVER purchase from them.”)

http://www.zubalbooks.com/article-bookjacking.jsp

Their bottom-line advice: NEVER buy from a bookjacjer!

4. Small sellers vs. mega-sellers.  When you have a number of sellers to choose from for a particular book, you will want to decide whether to buy from a small seller or a large seller. There are pros and cons to each of these choices. We tend to opt for smaller sellers, finding them more reliable and more responsive when there are difficulties. Large-scale sellers with hundreds of thousands of feedback entries can afford cancelled sales and poor-quality items and still be on good terms with Amazon. Small sellers usually cannot afford problems, and rely heavily on good buyer feedback and successful order completion, giving the buyer more leverage.

The first seller below is clearly a large-scale seller. The second a small (probably part-time) seller:

5. Brand new sellers. It’s a good idea to stay away from what Amazon calls  ‘Just Launched’ sellers or sellers with only a very low feedback numbers. Amazon is a complex marketplace for sellers, with lots of rules and regulations, and it takes awhile for new sellers to get the hang of things: the grading of books (i.e., what counts as New, Like New, Very Good, Good, or Acceptable – more on that below), the specifications for packing, shipping and tracking, the Amazon return policy (30 days. No questions asked), answering buyer messages, restocking fees all take some getting used to.  Reliable sellers will still be there this time next year. Bad sellers will be gone relatively quickly.

and

6. Slow-on-delivery sellers. Look carefully at the estimated arrival date for any book on offer. (“Arrives between” on the first line of the third column from the left of each listing). If you order a book on August 1 in the normal way and are expecting it in 7-14 days, but the listing itself says “Arrives between September 7-16” it means that either the book is located overseas, or is being sold by a drop-shipper, or the seller has set his or her shipping settings for a long delay for some other reason. None of these is good news for buyers who want their books to arrive quickly. (But if a seller does miss a delivery deadline, Amazon will make things right for you as a buyer.)

So, note the difference between shipping times for these two offers for the same book, appearing one after the other on the Amazon list:

7. Scammers. Most sellers on Amazon are honest people trying to make an honest living. But there are occasionally those who use Amazon simply as a vehicle for separating people from their money. For example, some scammers open new seller accounts with Amazon, list lots of inventory priced well below market price, take in the proceeds from unsuspecting buyers, and then disappear without sending customers their purchases. It doesn’t happen often, and Amazon usually catches these guys pretty quickly and reimburses the scammed buyers, but it’s a real nuisance for everyone. (Too-good-to-be-true prices and lots of 5-star feedback using exactly the same wording are also sometimes clues)

One more thing: This is a completely personal quirk of mine, but I also stay away from sellers with stupid seller names. “Grandma’s Junk” and “Mr. Smelly” come to mind. Of course this is not always an infallible indicator, (“The Dusty Bookshelf” and the “Tattered Cover” are perfectly respectable sellers, but I do question their business savvy!)

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PS: We’ve talked about Amazon’s book grading guidelines over these two editions of this blog. Below is what Amazon itself says to expect from each condition grade:

“New: A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condition. The dust cover and original protective wrapping, if any, is intact. All supplementary materials are included and all access codes for electronic material, if applicable, are valid and/or in working condition. Books with markings of any kind on the cover or pages, books marked as "Bargain" or "Remainder," or with any other labels attached, may not be listed as New condition.

            Note: as of May 1, “new” books on Amazon have no further condition description attached to the  
            book listing. New is new. Period.

Used - Like New: Dust cover is intact, with no nicks or tears. Spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds of any kind. May contain remainder marks on outside edges, which should be noted in listing comments.

Used - Very Good: Pages and dust cover are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine is undamaged.

Used - Good: All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May include "From the library of" labels.

Used - Acceptable: All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, but the text cannot be obscured or unreadable.

Unacceptable: Includes missing pages and obscured or unreadable text. We also do not permit the sale of advance reading copies, including uncorrected proofs, of in-print or not-yet-published books.”  These books may NOT be listed on Amazon.

Of course, the bottom line is this: if a seller in question has the book you want, and you are having difficulty finding it anywhere else, you may have to take a chance, ignore these red flags, and buy. Amazon will, in virtually every case, back you up if there is a problem.

But if you do have a choice of sellers of a particular used, rare, or out-of-print book, taking these guidelines into account will increase your odds of having a great buying experience on Amazon.

Good luck, and happy shopping!