The listing was for an early printing of The Clue in the Crumbling Wall with dust jacket. The seller stated that the book was a first edition in the title of the listing. The seller's picture showed that the back panel of the dust jacket lists the Beverly Gray series to Beverly Gray's Problem, so the dust jacket is definitely not the first printing dust jacket. Of course since the front flap lists to The Secret in the Old Attic, most buyers who do not have a Farah's Guide would assume that the book is the very first printing.
The seller received an informative comment from someone who was hoping to help the seller avoid a bad situation.
Question: According to Farah's Guide, the generally recognized authority of ND books, this is a 2nd -5th printing. The first printing shows Judy Bolton 1-15 titles on the back panel. The 2nd printing has a wartime conditions statement on the title page. The 2nd- 5th printings also list to Attic on the front flap with BG 1-13 on the back panel. Experienced collectors know this, but the novice lookers seem to take everything the seller says as 'gospel' and then don't exhibit any sense of humor, even over an honest mistake. It can be ugly. Good luck!The seller's response annoyed me tremendously. It sounds like the seller knew from the beginning that the book was not the first printing, but chose for whatever reason to leave that information out of the description. Not only that, it sounds to me like the seller thought that using "first edition" was all that mattered. Who cares which printing the book actually is? Gee, thanks.
Answer: Hi, Thanks for the e-mail....according to my source (AbeBooks.com) this is the 2nd printing of the 1st edition. I use AbeBooks.com as my reference source for rare and out of print books. Thanks for your information.
If the seller had found through research that the book was the "2nd printing of the 1st edition," then why on earth did the seller not place that information in the listing?
6 comments:
I think I recall this listing, and I too was wondering if it might be a first printing.
As someone who often emails sellers -- to advise them of missing facts or errors, or most frequently, to tell them there book is not a 1st edition (and why) -- I would say most likely withheld the information deliberately. Why you ask?? Because they want people to THINK it is a first edition, so that there will be more & higher bidding, and they (the seller) will pocket more money. Greed over honesty.
Another frustration is when sellers answer questions privately and don't post the answer for others to see. However, this is not always bad -- if their answers confirm a book is a 1st printing -- it's better (as a buyer) if others don't know.
After reading your post I felt inclined to comment. I am a seller on eBay. I sell many things, including fixed-price lots of books. My prices tend to run low. My goal is to bring in extra money into the household, not to become filthy rich selling on eBay. I find your comments mean and downright spiteful. I pack everything I sell the way I would want to receive a package. I don't base it on the dollar amount, rather, the Golden Rule of ..."do unto others....." I am an honest seller and I DO know what I'm doing.
You seem to loathe eBay and many of the sellers. Why do you go back?
And watching someone's feedback crumble? That's just wrong.
To respond to the first comment, I feel that the seller withheld the information on purpose, but I do not wish to be accused of defamation of character, so I waited to publish this comment. I really do not wish to harm any seller, which brings me to the last comment...
Hmm...interesting that someone would take such offense at my comments. You aren't by any chance that seller are you? If not, then I was not speaking of you, and you had no reason to take offense.
Are you the seller who defrauded me? If not, then you had no reason to take offense.
Are you someone who packs badly, therefore allowing valuable, collectible books to get damaged? If not, then you had no reason to take offense.
Guess what? I have two lots for sale on eBay this week. I am an eBay seller (at least occasionally), yet I take no offense when people belittle eBay sellers. I know whether their comments refer to me.
As to enjoying watching the feedback crumble, I'm sorry you think I enjoy it. I have been defrauded by that seller of more than 30 dollars. I am not very happy about it. I don't know why someone would not understand how I feel when I have lost money, and more importantly, when I am not going to receive a purchase that I very much wanted to receive. I am a victim, just like when people are victims of crimes. Don't they want the perpetrators to be punished? I want my seller to be punished.
I meant the title of that post to be kind of humorous, but obviously you had to take it personally. Of course I am going to take interest in watching the feedback go down. Yes, I want retribution. I feel that bad sellers deserve bad feedback. I suppose that makes me a bad person.
It is a fact that in general sellers who sell series books on eBay at very low prices tend not to pay attention to detail. This does not make them bad sellers. It does provide me with some interesting content for this blog, which of course some people choose to take personally. There is nothing wrong with selling items for low prices. There is nothing wrong with packing badly, except that it stresses buyers out who want to receive their books in good condition. There is nothing wrong with defrauding buyers...no wait, there is. I don't care if this post makes more people angry. I just don't care.
"I feel that bad sellers deserve bad feedback. I suppose that makes me a bad person. "
No you're not a bad person for feeling this way. I can totally understand where your coming from. Poor service results in bad feedback- and there are some shockingly rude and thick people on ebay! Not everyone, but some. That's ebay! If it wasn't for those occasional good finds I wouldn't bother either.
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