Books, Who Are These Booksellers, Anyway?


by TONI ANNABLE - Date: 2008-07-31 - Word Count: 458 Share This!

Okay, so you go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Abe and other famous, big time sites to buy a book. But all you see when you search your title is a bunch of unknown booksellers. Who is WXYZAB Books? And what are they doing on Amazon and Barnes?...


The small bookseller is an individual or company that has a copy or two or ten of your book. They live in Boise, Landmark, Covington or Podunk. They are a one-man, two-man or 10 man operation. (Some are bigger - much bigger, but they are not as big as Amazon!) They have their inventory in a warehouse, garage or back bedroom.


So - tell me again why I'm buying a book from this guy?


First off, he's probably got a nice copy of that mystery book you want for a really good price. Discount books. That's a positive. He will get it into the mail quickly. His livelihood depends on his customers being happy or else AZ, BN etc, etc, will kick him off their listings, so you'll get pretty good service.


On some of those venues, like AZ for example, you'll see star ratings. A word about ratings. WXYZAB has probably sold 10,000 books, but only 200 buyers ever bothered to leave feedback. There is a big tendency in the buying public, not to bother with leaving a comment on the service if they are content with it. So you may see that this guy has only 3 stars. Should you rule him out? No Way!


Rembering that most of his contented buyers left no comment at all, ant the general per cent of chronic complainers is about 5, WXYZAB has about 9,900 happy campers out there. And the venues, like Alibris, Ebay and the others are keeping a close eye on him. So is your credit card company and PayPal.


Bad sellers will be quickly weeded out. New sellers are working hard to build their reputations, so the risk from buying from someone who has no ratings yet, or only 10 or 12, is low. One seller I know sold 300 books on Amazon one month and got no feedback at all. So even one single negative comment would drop him to no stars for the month! Fortunately, the venues usually rank the stars on lifetime reviews, so he's okay.


Another seller got a negative comment because the buyer got seller feedback confused with book reviews and didn't like the plot! My advice is, if you have a question about a seller with less than 4 or 5 stars - read the feedbacks.


Venues aren't the only ones keeping an eye out, though. Reputable sellers like T-Bell's Books are, too. Check out this excellent seller or new and used books.


Related Tags: discount books, new books, used books, buy books online, best online book buys

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