From The Buyer's Viewpoint

I should be moaning, groaning and popping Advil like mints today, but amazingly after a full day of manual labor I am none the worse for wear. As mentioned earlier, yesterday we had to go back to the scene of Saturday’s auction to retrieve the remaining books.  Just to be on the safe side after the theft of the two boxes at the curb  we got there early and were pleasantly surprised to see that the house was already open and we were the first dealers on the scene. Everything was where it was supposed to be and other than wrestling heavy boxes down the stairs and into the truck we were cheerful as a pair of Pollyannas. Eric got them down and I lugged them to the street, a system that worked like a well-oiled assembly line.  For a hundred pound weakling with metal in both wrists from old fractures I can schlep an incredible amount of weight (she says modestly). But of course there was the unloading on the other end, the sorting, and the lifting again. It was all worth it though, as I scored another sixteen books with values in excess of $45 each.

I am not going to belabor the auction any further, as another experience I had yesterday is more meaningful. As you know, we have struggled with acquisition issues since the summer. Although I am no longer an ebay seller due to their Best Match algorithm and other disagreeable practices, I have been buying quite a bit on the site to augment our inventory during  the dearth. Yesterday our porch looked like Christmas minus the lit tree and our adorable grandsons spinning around it like little dervishes. We weren’t home when the loot arrived so the mailman piled it inside the screened porch as he so kindly does. By the time I retrieved it all it was late and I was wound down, but give me a package with a book inside and I will snap to life faster than a delayed response plasma TV.  I brought the packages inside, piled them on the kitchen island and began unwrapping.  WARNING – the results are fairly scary. If you're wondering why the photo above has nothing to do with books here's the reason-- the view of my backyard at dusk after a rainstorm last night is meant to fortify you for the picture to come.

Book one was brand new. Its seller, however, decided that the best way to ship it was unwrapped in a manila envelope – and NOT the kind lined with bubble wrap either. All things considered, the post office should be applauded as the “only” fault was a tear to the envelope which resulted in a corresponding tear to the dustjacket.

Book two was also brand new. This one was  inserted unwrapped in a free priority envelope and THEN placed inside an unlined manila envelope. Other than the fact that the post office got ripped off, it arrived fine.

Book three, also brand new, was perfect in every way.

Book four, an antiquarian title for which I paid $80, looked like it had been left outside on the front lawn during a rainstorm. The seller took numerous gorgeous pictures of the pages, but failed to mention the SERIOUS dampstain to both front and back endpapers and to the gilt at the top of the text block. This one was described as very good and the most beautiful copy ever seen by the seller. The latter may be true if it’s only copy she’d ever laid eyes on.

Book five, also antiquarian, had me dancing around the kitchen  until I turned it over and saw that the seller had failed to notice that the entire back board had been discolored from previous mold.  At least he knew how to wrap a book.

Book six, a rare art catalog – perfect.

There should have been a  book seven, if not yesterday, then sometime in the next couple days, as all of these books were purchased last  Tuesday. There won’t be, however,  because the silent seller just got around to telling me this morning that the book shipped today.

Of course I realize that this is a too small a sampling from which to draw any definitive conclusions, but two weeks ago I also bought a rare ephemera item from another site and pulled it from my mailbox bent and sopping wet on the end that stuck out of the box. That guy, too, was fond of unlined manila  envelopes.  If only he liked plastic and cardboard as much …

What all this means is that the internet abounds with sellers who are less than conscientious in both their descriptions and their shipping practices. We can look to our own professional standards and perhaps feel smug, but the sad part is that these sellers  hurt US every time this happens. Buyers get tired of sending stuff back – consider what I will have to do today – and may eventually stop purchasing books online altogether. 

As much as I hate to say it, it kind of makes me understand why ebay has begun acting like the Gestapo. The emphasis is on "kind of" though, as I also find it sad and degrading that so many listings there show good sellers begging, even pleading, for five star ratings so they can afford the fees which  these days are based on the almighty stars. 

Maybe  the real problem is that the "book sellers" outnumber the  booksellers.