The last picture tells the story the best. I have never seen so many softcover books stuffed into one padded envelope — 34 to be exact. Notice that in the last picture that the sticky side of the tape is up against the books. Yeah, the books are okay, but that does not mean that the books should have been packaged this way.
As with the two other bad packaging jobs that I have mentioned recently, this too was a Buy It Now purchase for a reasonable price. It seems that any eBay seller who uses low Buy It Now prices usually packages the books like they are not worth much of anything. I pack my low value books the same way as my high value books. Just because a book has a perceived low value does not mean that it deserves to be abused.
7 comments:
I have to say, 34 books is pretty impressive. My latest underwhelming packaging involved a book coming all the way from England, with the dust-jacketed book being put directly in a non-padded paper envelope. Luckily I have a thoughtful mail lady who takes packages to my covered porch.
I had a similarly-packaged package in the past, a wartime edition Judy Bolton, that managed to get a crush injury that translated to tears in the dust jacket, extending into the foxed pages, causing a chunk of pages to literally break and get pushed into the other pages. Probably the worst damage I've ever had.
Paradoxically, sometimes overzealous packaging really annoys me. Particularly, bubble wrap, paper, plastic, cardboard, etc., wrapped around the book(s) and COATED with packing tape, so that you have to very delicately cut through it--narrowly avoiding cutting the book or dust jacket, with any luck.
I had someone throw 24 Nancy Drews with jackets into a HUGE box with absolutely zero packaging material or wrapping so there were bits of jackets all over the box by the time they bounced their way to my house.
I should have guessed that the packing wouldn't be stellar since this woman took my same-day payment and didn't ship the books until a month and a half and many angry emails later. She told me that she lived really far from the P.O. so she just hadn't had a chance to go there. I told her she should probably rethink selling on ebay in that case. I think she ended up getting suspended for too much neg. feedback before I could leave her one.
Having purchased a couple thousand books through the mails over the years, both as a collector and in my bookstore days, I have seen some horrendous damage through sloppy packing.
In one example a 1970 copy of Children's Books in Print (not expensive but important to us for a reference at the shop) was put in a padded envelope and at some point in the transit was run over by a forklift or other wheeled vehicle. This tore the front boards about 1/3 from the foreedge towards the center of the book. In the dozen years I was managing the shop, we never saw another copy of this volume to upgrade the damaged one.
I had a pair of inexpensive paperbacks sent in an unpadded envelope which were literally folded in half. They never have gone flat again.
Recently I received a YS ND signed by Harriet Adams. It was not cheap but arrived in a padded envelope. Fortunately it was OK. I expressed my concern and the seller seemed to take the suggestion in a positive light.
The curious thing is that these bubble wrap envelopes are easy to use but they are rather pricey -- often more than a box. In most cases I am willing to upgrade to priority if given the option to get the seller to use the Post Office's free Priority Mail boxes.
I agree that some packing is very difficult to unravel without damaging a fragile item being "protected." Many clear box tapes will hold but can be peeled off without too much hassle.
For my own packing I usually try to first wrap the book(s) in plastic with Scotch tape. Jackets are in Demco covers, of course. It is very rare that I do not use a box. Sometimes the only time I recycle a padded envelope is when I have an Amazon purchase where the amount they allot for shipping is not sufficient for a boxed media mail packing job.
However, that said, I don't list too much on eBay or Amazon these days so I mostly see it from a buyer's perspective.
James
I can think of at least one package in which pieces of the dust jackets were scattered everywhere. I cannot remember how bad the packing job was, but I do recall that the jackets were brittle ones from the early 1940s which cannot take any handling. I recall it took forever to extract all of the pieces from the box.
I dislike receiving books in envelopes, although they do arrive okay the majority of the time. The first few years that I sold my extras on eBay, I used bubble mailers. As far as I know, the books arrived okay. It was after I began receiving damaged books that I realized that I needed to use boxes to guarantee safe arrival.
It is true that the boxes do not cost as much as some people think they do. I think mainly people like the convenience of using a envelope, and I remember how easy it was when I used them.
I recently gave my thoughts on using envelopes to mail books on message thread on Bonanzle. After I posted my thoughts, I was so annoyed that people kept chiming in about how envelopes are the best thing to use for books. Argh! I almost replied again, but I decided to stay out of it. I was gratified that at least someone finally mentioned that books with a high value should not be mailed in envelopes. I have really strong feelings on this topic.
Someone in the thread said none of their books have ever been damaged, but they don't realize that many buyers will not complain. I usually say nothing to sellers unless the damage is catastrophic.
My beige spine picture cover of Dana Girls #29 is in very nice shape, but it has a scuff mark on the cover. Do you know why? The seller used an envelope, which got a hole gouged in it, and the cover was scuffed.
I have also had to extract books from overzealous packing. I had a recent one in which the book was wrapped very tightly in plastic which was then taped very well with packing tape. I could barely cut into the plastic without cutting the book.
Jennifer, I don't know if you feel comfortable answering this question, but I will pose it. I am fairly new to buying online but already I have received some carless packaging that has damaged dustjackets on two books that are important to me (they were just sloshing aroun in a bubble-envelope from an eBay seller who brags she's never had complaints. I'm so paranoid about causing unfair hassle for the sellers, I feel very reluctant to leave negative feedback or even rate 3 or 4 out of 5 on something. Did you send any message to the seller about your astonishing 34-book example? Woudl you do that privately and leave positive feedback.... what is the right thing to do?
For the 34 book transaction, I did not say anything because it was a below value Buy It Now and the best books were probably not damaged. I pretty much expect that all below value Buy It Now lots will be packaged horribly, and I take that into consideration.
Whether I say anything to the seller depends upon how angry I am about the situation. I do sometimes bring it up. I tend to let it slide for situations like the one above, because it is not worth the rise in blood pressure. I find that most of these sellers think they are not responsible when anything goes wrong, and they do not realize that when they package poorly, that it is their fault.
When the damage is catastrophic or when I am upset that an important book is damaged, I do usually contact the seller. I received some dust-jacketed Nancy Drew books one time. The seller showed a blurry photo that showed some water staining on one book, and nothing was mentioned about the condition of the jackets. The jackets looked great in the photo. The jackets were all in mylar covers and the books had been soaked at some point in the past. The jackets had stuck to the mylar covers and then pulled away after drying so that at least half of the illustration was stuck to the cover. The jackets were completely ruined and worthless. I was furious and contacted the seller, who claimed that the photo revealed the water damage. We went back and forth a few times, and then finally the seller decided to let me return the books for a full refund to get rid of me. She didn't think she had done anything wrong.
I even posted about the above fiasco on eBay, and the fool sellers there told me that it was my fault for not asking questions. Idiots. I shouldn't have to ask a long list of questions about everything that might be wrong with a book. It's people like that who have given eBay a bad name.
For your situation with the two damaged dust jackets, I would definitely bring it to the seller's attention, especially since the seller has "never had problems." The seller needs to be educated that the envelopes are damaging the books. Most buyers will say nothing because it is just not worth the trouble. They do need to be told, especially because the books are important to you.
On the feedback, it depends upon how the seller responds. If the seller responds with something like, "Too bad, so sad, I'm not responsible" then a negative might be justified.
On the star ratings, you might want to mark the seller down on the description and shipping stars. It's hard to say what to give since a one can be quite damaging, but I'd probably not give fives.
First & foremost, every jacket that has ever crossed my desk has had a jacket protector put on it. If it doesn't have a jacket protector yet, I handle it with the utmost care when unpackaging it and immediately place it in one.
I get the very highest grade archival covers. In fact, I will often remove a lesser economy grade or unlined jacket protector and upgrade it to an archival one. This goes for books that I buy, as well as books that I sell.
Oh boy, I've faced this shipping dilemma before. I haven't sold in a LONG time, but my motto was to apply the golden rule to my shipping. "Ship books unto others as you would have them ship books unto you."
Therefore, I followed these guidelines.
Each parcel must be:
(1) water resistant;
(2) tear resistant;
(3) puncture resistant;
(4) impact resistant;
This required, respectively:
(1 & 2) a plastic bag of some kind -- preferably Tyvek or some similar strong material;
(3) a sturdy box -- or, if using a bubble mailer -- sandwiching the book between two or more heavy pieces of cardboard AND reinforcing the edges with scrap cardboard;
(4) plenty of bubble-wrap, foam and/or packing peanuts.
I'm also a HUGE fan of:
(1) Delivery Confirmation (I was one of the very early adopters of USPS Shipping Assistant), and
(2) marking packages (in several places) DO NOT BEND and HANDLE WITH CARE
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