Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Series Book Questions Winter 2014

What does "front flap is price-clipped" mean?

"Price-clipped" is when a past seller has cut off the price code that appears in the upper corner of the front flap of a dust jacket.  This was usually done so that the seller could charge a higher price and most likely occurred when the book was up for sale when first printed.


The above image shows two front flaps.  The one on the left has been price-clipped.  The one on the right shows the price code of 7575, which means that the book was to be sold for $0.75.

I decided to print the following question exactly as it was sent to me by the prospective buyer.

Hello, I just would like to know why don't you ship to France ? Because I precisely live in France and I m interested in buying this book ? It is not fair ! thank you for your answer.

I do ship internationally, but some scattered listings show United States only.  This is because I create new listings from old listings.  Really, it's just an oversight, although I know how annoying it must be for international buyers to have to ask.  I told the buyer this right after I got the listing changed over to international availability.  I suspected that the buyer just wanted to vent for whatever reason, and I was not at all surprised that I never heard back.  The buyer did not make a purchase. 

Writing about this reminded me of a question I received years ago from someone who was not interested in my item.  That contact taught me never to mention certain things in listings, because some people troll eBay just so that they can vent at sellers.  For a brief time years ago, I put in my listings that the books would be wrapped in plastic to protect against moisture exposure.  An environmentalist searched eBay for "plastic," found my listing, and sent me a message.  She told me that to save the planet that I should please only use secondhand plastic bags for my items rather than new plastic.

Yeah, I'm really going to take those plastic bags from Walmart that I use for my small waste baskets and begin using them for my books.  Do you know how often people use those things when mailing books to me and how often the bags feel gritty and dirty?  Yuck.  I don't know where they keep them before using them, but it isn't in a clean place.  I'm thinking of how my buyers would feel if I were to begin using grimy bags on the books.

Anyway, I now know never ever to use the word "plastic" in a listing.  When I do mention how I pack, I simply state that I protect against moisture exposure.  That way no one tries to convince me to use some other method.

1 comment:

seriouslybookin said...

G&D, or perhaps Kingsport themselves were the biggest offender here, though I suppose some individual bookstores also too a few whacks with the scissors.