Why I Don't Want to Sell Certain Books on eBay

Scattered throughout various blog posts and comments made on my Facebook page, I have shared why I don't want to sell certain series books on eBay.  It all has to do with avoiding a specific buyer.

This is someone who sells series books on eBay and uses another ID on eBay to purchase those books.  There are probably at least two dozen people who sell series books on eBay and who also purchase their books on eBay, so it's not like you are going to be able to guess who this is.  Obviously, I am not going to give enough information here for you to figure it out.  Just remember if you sell series books on eBay, look at your buyers' feedback left for others by running the IDs through Toolhaus.org.  Toolhaus.org has all the tools you need to sleuth out the solution to the mystery.

Here is a statement I made in "eBay Store Update, DSRs, and Facebook Promotion" on July 22, 2013.

Last year at this time, all four of my DSRs were taking a nosedive.  I had one repeat buyer, and I used eBay's tool to figure out that he was giving me a four on all four DSRs.  This should not have been a problem, except that he alone was 30% to 40% of my transactions.  Even fours drag a seller's average down quickly.

It was after that buyer pulled down my DSRs just by leaving one four after another that I began to follow him more closely.  I learned his selling ID, which wasn't hard, because I noticed the books I had sold him up for sale by the selling ID.  I ran both IDs through Toolhaus.org, and I saw the big picture.  That's why I blocked him.

I'm not going to connect all the dots here, because I want to leave the IDs a mystery in order to protect myself.  However, I do have some screen captures to show you.  First, though, I want to avoid confusion.  Let's call my blocked buyer "eBay Seller #1," since I am going to mention some other sellers.

The above image shows the DSRs for eBay Seller #2 from whom my blocked buyer (eBay Seller #1) has purchased.  The blocked buyer is still leaving fours for all DSRs for all sellers who receive positive feedback.  The above seller has bad average DSRs as a result of receiving many feedback ratings from the one buyer who has purchased many lots from this seller, just like what was done to me in 2012.

Some of you are thinking that DSRs of 4.7 and 4.8 are not bad.  They shouldn't be, but eBay sees them as bad.  I have read many reports of sellers getting permanently suspended from selling because one DSR had gone down to 4.6.  While 4.6 is a 92% rating, eBay views it as failing and kicks sellers off.  So a buyer leaving fours for all DSRs and buying dozens of items from a seller can single-handedly get that seller removed from eBay.  That's dangerous.

Now check this out.  The following image shows the negative feedback that my blocked buyer left for eBay Seller #3 above the pertinent information from eBay Seller #3's item description.

Notice that the buyer complained about a shipping delay and a handling fee of $4.  Both points were addressed in the listing, and when the buyer purchased the item, he agreed to the seller's terms.  Yet he left the seller negative feedback.

Even one negative or neutral feedback rating can destroy a seller.  Another seller, eBay Seller #4, is trying to recover from bad feedback.  eBay Seller #4 used to be the top seller of series books on eBay, in my opinion.  This person has always been very popular.  This person has received a few negative and neutral feedback ratings in the last year.  This person used to be a top-rated seller and lost it because of those feedback ratings.  This person's sales have declined significantly.  Whenever a seller receives a bad feedback rating, even one, eBay demotes that seller's items in search, and that seller will be unable to recover until an entire year has passed.  That's huge.  That's harsh.

Going back to eBay Seller #3, I love his response to the negative feedback rating:  "did you READ the auction info?  no, no you didn't.  perhaps you should next time."

I know from past experience that many of the people buying books on eBay in order to resell them do not read descriptions.  They glance at the pictures, make a quick decision as to value, and either make the purchase or place a bid.  That can make them very difficult buyers.  I had a buyer from years ago who I will call eBay Seller #5, who purchased a book in which I stated that the top corner of the front free endpaper had been cut off.  As soon as he received the book, he complained that the front free endpaper was not price-clipped and that the corner was gone.  Right, that's why I said the corner was cut off.  I agreed to accept a return while making a pointed remark about how the description mentioned the flaw, then I added him to my blocked buyer list.

Since the current problematic buyer loves to purchase certain series books, I am trying to rid myself of the types of books that he purchases.

Tainting the Book Supply

The actions of some sellers taint the book supply.

One seller has created large numbers of reproduction dust jackets for the Nancy Drew Cameo editions.  When these books get resold, the person selling the books may not realize that the jackets are reproductions, which causes the buyer to be unintentionally defrauded.  Other times, the person selling the books may be quite aware that the jackets are reproductions but may choose not to inform prospective buyers.

Recently, I discovered that a seller is using marker to touch up many of the books and dust jackets that he sells.  This seller has purchased hundreds of series books in the last year and is making a business out of selling them.  I am certain that the majority of this seller's buyers are not aware that the books have been altered.

The above image shows a jacket before and after the seller altered the jacket.  I would personally rather have a jacket with worn areas than a jacket with the worn areas crudely colored in.  The touching up of this jacket is much more significant than what has been done to other jackets, probably because the seller sold this book as a part of a large set and knew that the photos would not be scrutinized by most buyers.

I have been informed that this seller has touched up pinpoint areas of color lift with marker, and only holding the jacket in bright light will reveal those instances.  Those jackets are sold as being in superior condition and appear to be in superior condition.  The alterations cannot be seen in an online photo, and most buyers will never think to hold the jackets in bright light to check for small areas that have been filled with ink.  They will never notice a problem, and this is troubling.

Someone else who sells series books recently bought a few of this seller's books.  I do not believe that person is someone who collects, so I suspect that he purchased the books to resell.  When he does, he will have no knowledge that something could be wrong with the books.

Another seller uses black marker to make the tops of Nancy Drew tweed and picture cover books look as good as new.  She uses red marker on the thick blue books.  Even though the books look very nice, they have been damaged by her actions.  She has sold quite a few sets of Nancy Drew books in which she has applied marker to the tops of all of the books.  Since she has sold quite a few partial and complete sets of Nancy Drew books, she has most likely applied marker to several thousand Nancy Drew books.

I bought the following book from the seller who applies marker to the top edges of books.

The above book is special because it has digger endpapers inside a binding that came before the creation of the digger endpapers.  The only explanation is that somehow the cover stock used for the binding was not placed on the binding until years later when it was placed on a text block that had digger endpapers.

This book is very special, but I hate the fact that marker was applied to the top edge.  In fact, I was suspicious that the presence of the digger endpapers was also a trick due to the fact that the seller had tampered with the book.  I believe that she reduced the value greatly by applying marker to the top edge.  The amount of marker used was extreme, and the top edge was still wet to the touch when I received the book.  I had to wipe many times with tissue to get rid of the excess marker.

It is due to the above purchase that I am aware that this seller applies marker to all of her books.  Since I know to look, I can tell that the tops of all of the books in her listings look absolutely perfect and can conclude that marker has been applied to all of them. 

These sellers have tainted the book supply.  Gradually, the people who purchased books from them will resell the books as they find upgrades or grow tired of the books.  I am uneasy knowing that all of these tainted books are now in the book supply and will be resold in the future.

My buying patterns are such that I try to obtain books that are fresh to the secondhand market, straight from estates.  If I restrict my purchases to books that appear to be new to the secondhand market, I greatly reduce the chances of inadvertently selling one of these altered books.

eBay's New Search Uncovers a Shady Seller

On January 3, I had the misfortune to be opted in to eBay's latest new search.  eBay has placed me in test searches in the past, and I have never enjoyed the experience.  As before, I cannot opt out, so I am stuck until they release me from the test search or make it work properly.

Apparently only a small percent of eBay's users were opted in on January 3.  Let's say that one-tenth of one percent of eBay's users were opted in.  Assuming that eBay has 100 million users, that would be 100,000 people.  100,000 people is enough to get a good many people to go to eBay's Search message board to complain.  The Search message board normally has a low amount of activity, but that has not been the case since January 3.

Remember that you can click on images to see larger versions, and you will need to do so on most of the images presented here today.

Buttons that used to be on the search results page are now missing for no good reason.  I guess the eBay programmers thought that we didn't need a search box at the top of the screen and that we would rather hit the back button and start over.  They thought it would be nice to make it harder to toggle between "title only" and "title and description" by removing the option and making us click several times to find it in a hidden menu.

I was quite upset at first, especially during the hours that the search box was completely missing from the top of the page, as seen below. 

By January 4, the search box had returned.  I really think eBay opts some of us in knowing that we will alert them to what is wrong by complaining on the message board.  They read the complaints and slowly begin fixing what doesn't work right.  I would prefer not to be one of the guinea pigs, but perhaps someone at eBay is trying to help me write good content for this blog.

My main problem now is that the new search hangs and crashes my browser.  We have figured out that eBay.com is the only site that has the new search.  A number of us have begun running searches on eBay Canada.  I change the currency to U.S. dollars, make sure the box for worldwide is checked, and run searches that load properly in the old familiar fashion.  Not only that, but I get to see all of the items that eBay.com has been hiding from me.  I had forgotten that eBay changed several years back to where sellers on the international sites have to pay extra for exposure on eBay.com. I have been missing out!

While I pretty much hate the new search, it does have one very nifty feature.  We can click on sold items, and the results page shows all auctions and all fixed-price listings that have sold with no unsold items mixed in.  That part is awesome!

I ran a sold items search on the entire Books category and narrowed it down to children's books.  I sorted by highest price first and scrolled down the list.  I paused when I recognized a faded Nancy Drew book with dust jacket that had sold.  I had seen that book before.  I noted that the seller was located in a certain state.  Hmm....  Had I just spotted the selling ID of a certain buyer who has purchased hundreds of Nancy Drew books since summer?

I was intrigued and wanted to know the answer just to satisfy my curiosity.  I do have a little Nancy Drew in me, after all.  I brought up the buyer's feedback page and also looked at the seller's feedback page.  I began checking the books that this seller had sold up against the buyer's purchases.  I found a match, which proved that both the buyer and the seller are the same person.  While I was excited to prove a match, I was quite disturbed to see how the jacket had been touched up.

I created the following image that shows the dust jacket that the seller purchased alongside the same dust jacket that he sold.  The image at the left is the jacket as purchased, and the image at the right is the seller's image from when he sold the book.

I believe that the seller used pink marker to make the area of color lift near the center right look less noticeable.  The seller may have used blue marker in other locations, such as in the upper right corner, but he may have just edited the image to remove the flaws from the image.  So, I believe two different techniques were used to make the jacket appear to be nicer than what it actually was.

I have seen some shady behavior by different eBay sellers over the years, but this ranks as one of the worst.  I am actually a bit shocked that the seller is so blatantly editing images and touching up flaws with marker.  I spent quite a lot of time looking at this seller's listings.  I found a few cases of marker being used to cover flaws and other cases where the images were edited to make the books appear nicer.

I was able to match another book that the seller purchased to a book that he had sold.  In the below image, the jacket seen at the left is the one he sold.  The jacket to the right is a composite of two images of the book that he purchased.

Somehow, the spine crease disappeared in the seller's image of the jacket as did the tear that runs through "The" on the front panel.  The chip to the lower spine and rubbed area at the top spine are the same in both listings, proving that the images are of the same jacket.

The bottom line is to be careful when purchasing books on eBay.  Look for edited photographs and look for areas that have been touched up.  Make sure you use the "zoom" feature that eBay provides.  The touched up areas can only be seen by zooming in.

I have been given information that suggests that this seller has touched up even excellent condition dust jackets.  Those alterations will not be visible in the listings.  The jacket will have to be in hand and examined under a bright light in order to spot any touch-ups.  I also have reason to believe that this seller could be touching up the flaws of hardcover books that do not have dust jackets.

Always check the feedback of all sellers before you commit to a purchase.  eBay has a feature on the feedback page where you can click to see any negative and neutral feedback comments that have been left in the last 12 months.  A very useful site is Toolhaus.org.  You can enter an eBay user's ID and have Toolhaus bring up all negative and neutral feedback comments received in the entire time the user has been on eBay. 

Also important is to leave a seller appropriate feedback should you ever fall victim to this type of situation.  That way, future potential buyers are forewarned. 

Be Wary of Certain Selling Practices

I have seen quite a few listings which are not accurate as to the scarcity or value of the book that is up for sale. In this blog post, I will be citing some specific examples, but I will not be linking to them. I thought about trying to smooth over what I am about to write with a few opening statements, but I decided not to worry about it. No doubt, I will upset a few people.

Using Farah's Guide values to justify high prices

I see this practice quite often and by a number of different sellers. As an example, let's say that a seller has a first printing of the Nancy Drew book, The Mystery of the Fire Dragon, in dust jacket, which that seller has priced at $100. That seller tells buyers that the book is valued at $250 in Farah's Guide. The implication is that the seller is offering a great deal at $100. Not so, since Fire Dragon seldom sells for more than $50 these days.

Be wary of any listing that uses the Farah's Guide value to indicate the true worth of a book. My thought is always that if a book is worth $250, then why does the seller not ask that amount? The seller must feel that the book is worth less than the guide value.

Misinterpreting Farah's Guide

Sometimes, a seller misinterprets Farah's Guide without realizing it. I'd like to give the specific example, but all of you would immediately be able to find the listing. I have already given my opinion of listings that use the outdated Farah's Guide values to make the book seem more valuable. This listing falls into that category but goes even further, giving an incorrect reason why the book is worth even more than the Farah's Guide value. It has to do with thinking that two variants are the same printing when in fact Farah has separated them into two printings with different stated values. Always be careful of any listing that uses any means to magnify the value of a book.

Exaggerating the condition of books

Many sellers over-describe the condition of their books. One seller's books are always in "fine," "near fine," or "about fine" condition. My only comment is that the seller's pictures often tell a different story. In many cases, buyers are better off ignoring all of the seller commentary and focusing on what can be seen in the pictures. However, make sure you do read the seller's description for mention of any flaws that cannot be seen in the photos.

I caught another seller stating that a book had "absolutely no chipping anywhere to the jacket." If so, then why were small pieces missing at the extreme corners? True, the pieces were very small, but that would seem to negate the statement "absolutely no chipping." According to this site, "chipping" is "a small piece missing from the edge of a dust jacket."

Exactly.

Ignoring water damage

This one falls into the previous category, but it deserves its own section. Look carefully at photos for evidence of water damage. Even some collectors and knowledgeable sellers fail to disclose water damage. I saw one instance of a knowledgeable seller not disclosing what I could see in the photo. Not surprising, the buyer paid way too much, and then complained about the condition in feedback.

Below is a picture I took from a listing this fall. I don't know if the books had water damage, but The Haunted Bridge, which is second from the left in the top row, has the appearance of a water-damaged book. The whitish stain is how water damage often appears in photos.

Also notice the tape and stains from tape on many of the books. Sellers often fail to disclose old tape on books and jackets.

Stating that a common anomaly is a rarity and more valuable

Most people who sell extras of the UK edition Sampson Low Nancy Drew books with dust jackets mislead their buyers about the rarity of the books. Some sellers indicate that the books are rare because of the Dana Girls endpapers. Nearly all of the Sampson Low Nancy Drew books have Dana Girls endpapers, because Sampson Low apparently wanted to use the Dana Girls endpapers. The use of the Dana Girls endpapers may make the Sampson Low books interesting, but it does not make the them any more scarce or valuable. They are what they are.

Two Sampson Low books have misprints on the front covers. The Mystery of the Fire Dragon is "The Mystery of the Fiery Dragon" on the front cover. The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes is "The Clue of the Whispering Bagpipes" on the front cover.

I have seen multiple sellers charge really high prices for those two books as compared to other Sampson Low books based apparently on the very rare misprint. I have never seen a Sampson Low Fire Dragon without "Fiery Dragon" on the front cover, and I have never seen a Sampson Low Whistling Bagpipes without "Whispering Bagpipes" on the front cover. What would be rare would be a book without the error.

Pay the really high price if you want the book, but be aware that those books are worth no more than any of the others.

Stating that a book is the "true first edition" or "true first printing"

The part that bothers me is the use of the word "true" in front of "first printing" or "first edition." Using "true" indicates to me that the seller is 100% certain, when the seller really has no idea for any series that does not have a published guide, such as Connie Blair, Vicki Barr, the Dana Girls, and many others. The only series in which published guides exist that establish "true first printing" status are Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Rick Brant, and Judy Bolton. Statements made about any books in any other series are pure speculation, so the word "true" should not be used.

I try to be very careful about when I give first printing status. For instance, I am quite confident that the first picture cover printings of Dana Girls #1 through 23 list to Sierra Gold on the back cover and Nancy Drew to Dancing Puppet/Dana Girls to Sierra Gold on the inside. I have not made notes about the books past #24, so I would not feel comfortable absolutely guaranteeing first printing status for #24 and up. View the last part of this blog post to see how I found out that a certain book is not the first printing.

While published guides establish what we believe to be the true first printings, we really do not know for certain. Even the guides have used speculation to establish which books are the first printing. However, the guides have established what is accepted to be the first printing for each title, so sellers are fine in citing the guides and stating that a book is the true first printing.

In conclusion, I caution you to be careful about how you respond to the excellent salesmanship qualities that some sellers have. These sellers are very good at making their books seem quite desirable, but often, the books are less desirable than how they appear.

Deceptive Book Listings

I am always bothered when I see buyers pay too much for books that are not the advertised first printings.

This summer I spotted a Nancy Drew book that was advertised as a first printing, yet it was not. I am not going to identify the seller, who is probably not a collector.

The book is not the first printing because the back panel of the dust jacket lists the Dana Girls #1-15 followed by #17. The first printing dust jacket lists the Dana Girls #1-15 only.

The book sold for $39.99, which is way too high in the current market for a book that has a dust jacket that is not the first printing and has a faded spine. It is a shame.

The seller stated the following in the description.

Dust jacket lists to this title "The Scarlet Slipper Mystery #32" on inner sleeve as well as on the interior pages making this the 1st printing of this title.

While the seller could have been purposefully deceptive, I believe that this seller likely thought that the book was the first printing. In any case, I am willing to give this seller a pass. Unfortunately, the outcome was that a buyer paid too much for a book that does not have a first printing dust jacket.

Before finishing up this blog post, I wanted to see if any of you could find this listing by searching for it on Google. Much to my surprise, I found another Scarlet Slipper listing misidentified as the first printing.

This auction ended right before the other one was listed, so the other seller probably used this auction as the basis for the first printing identification. The lesson is never to use another listing as the means for making a first printing identification, unless you are absolutely certain that the seller is a knowledgeable and honest collector. Even then, you may have to be careful.

Some collectors appear to mislead their buyers on purpose. In fact, several collectors are vague about certain printing points, perhaps hoping that buyers who do not own Farah's Guide pay too much for books that are not firsts. Be very careful, especially if you do not own Farah's Guide.

Avoiding Shopping Cart Abandonment

Recently, I participated in a message thread on Bonanza about shopping cart abandonment. I made the following comments:

I have abandoned two shopping carts in the last couple of months. In the first case, it was on a seller’s individual website in which a shopping cart system was set up. The site clearly stated that PayPal was accepted, but when I went to check out, I was prompted to enter a credit card number. The cart had no way to pay through PayPal. I did not want to pay by credit card, and I did not want to have to contact the seller to work out how to complete the purchase through PayPal. I left. 

The other abandoned shopping cart was here on Bonanz[a]. I found a book I wanted to buy. I added it to my cart, and the cart showed no shipping. It stated to see the item description. I looked at the item description, and nothing was mentioned about shipping costs. I did not want to have to contact the seller to find out what the seller would charge. I did not want to submit an offer and wait to see what would happen. I removed my book from the cart.

After I made my comments, someone else made a response about never having left a cart due to no shipping quoted and seemed to think that someone who would is an impulse shopper. I wish to further explain my thinking.

The book was a common book, and I had many choices in my decision. Why on earth would I tie myself up possibly a day or so while waiting for a shipping quote? Furthermore, I did not want to submit an offer and risk having the shipping be more than I was willing to pay. I did not want to possibly be obligated to pay a higher than desired shipping amount. That is why I removed the book from my cart.

I understand why sellers on Bonanza and other sites do not have the shipping amount available when the items are heavy or irregular in shape. The alternative sites do not have adequate shipping calculators. For books, media mail is not zoned, and it is easy to figure out the correct shipping amount to all zones. I see no reason why sellers cannot have a flat rate media mail option for books.

I also want to mention other reasons why sellers fail to make a sale. I wanted to buy the two Penny Allen books since I am currently reading the Adventurous Allens series. The two Penny Allen books borrowed heavily from the plots of the Adventurous Allens books. I want to read them after I finish the Adventurous Allens series.

I was able to find one book easily on Bonanza with free shipping, and it was the nicest of any books up for sale at that time. That one was an easy decision. The other book proved to be more difficult. There were around 12 copies available, but none were on eBay or Bonanza. None of the available copies had pictures. None of them had good descriptions. Most of them were stated to be in "good" condition with few details. Some listings had a boilerplate description about how the book might have highlighting, etc., like an old children's book would have highlighting. Please.

I would have gone with a slightly higher-priced copy if a good description were present. Since none of the sellers could bother to describe the books, then I had nothing to go on. I went with the second lowest priced copy and hoped the condition would be okay.

Sellers need to have a clearly stated postage amount for books, and they need to have a good picture of the book with an adequate description. The description does not have to be long but it should state if the binding is secure and should mention any flaws. If a listing meets all three criteria, then I will be much more likely to purchase that book than a different one.

Listings That Make You Go "Hmm."

Sometimes I read an eBay listing, and I have to shake my head in wonder.  Here are some examples.

1931 1st Red Covers LINDA CARLTON'S ISLAND ADVENTURE DJ

This auction is for a Saalfield edition of Linda Carlton's Island Adventure which has a dust jacket. The seller wants $49.00 for the book. The listing states:

Very hard to find First Edition hardcover with dust jacket and protective transparent sleeve. A true 1931 first edition with red covers. Third in a series. 

Primary indications of a first edition: 

* last book title printed on jacket's back panel is "Island Adventure" * Book is bound in red cloth, typical of a first edition from 1931. * Copyright date printed in Roman numeral is 1931.

Saalfield was a reprint house, and as far as I know, none of the books were first printings. That in itself is all that we need to know. Island Adventure is the last title listed because Saalfield only reprinted the first three books. All Saalfield Linda Carlton books list to Island Adventure.

The part about the red cloth is just plain bizarre. Does the seller think that all red cloth books from 1931 must be first printings? I have to wonder if the seller is aware of the early Hardy Boys books in the red cloth binding and has the Linda Carlton books confused with the Hardy Boys books.

 What does the copyright date of 1931 in Roman numerals have to do with anything?

..........................................

Lot 3 CAROLYN KEENE NANCY DREW 1930 Facsimile HC Books

This lot is supposedly for three Applewood Nancy Drew facsimile editions. My problem is the photo.


 These look like old Grosset and Dunlap books to me. Perhaps the color is way off on the seller's photo, and they are really Applewood editions. Most Applewood editions have been kept in nice shape, and these look like old books with some wear and tear. I also see a few stains. ..........................................

Beverly Gray Treasure Hunt, Clair Blank DUST JACKET 1ST

A reader of this blog brought this one to my attention. First off, the seller plagiarized a large portion of my Beverly Gray page. I never understand why sellers do this. Do they not realize that anyone who actually cares about buying a Beverly Gray book is already aware of this information?

The "Hmm" part is this portion of the listing, which is one of the few parts that I did not write. The seller stated, "I believe this may be a First Edition because this title is the last title listed on the Copyright Page which is usually good evidence. However, the dust jacket list extends to 'Beverly Gray's Mystery' so I am not sure."

The copyright page is never accurate. Aside from that, if the jacket lists to Beverly Gray's Mystery, isn't that a good sign that the book was probably not printed until around the time that Beverly Gray's Mystery was first published? This book is not anywhere near a first printing.

..........................................

The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene (1932, HC)

This one is funny. Here is a screen cap of the title and subtitle.


 I have to buy thirty books to get free shipping! Isn't that a bit extreme? My first thought is that this is a typo, but the seller has dozens of listings with the same subtitle.

On the Subject of Image Theft

I wrote of image theft in this post. You should read the recent comments where someone took me to task.

The Outdoor Girls in Desert Valley - Laura Lee Hope

I wrote most of the seller's description, since the seller lifted it off of my website. I suppose that general information is more important than specific information about the condition of a valuable book and jacket. Who knew?

Even worse, the image is my image of Desert Valley from my website. I knew that it was my image at a glance, but I enlarged it and compared the two images side-by-side. The two images have identical patterns of pixelation. The images are the same image.

The seller says that the jacket has "wear and tear." What does that mean? The image makes the jacket look perfect; it should, since I edited out all the flaws. This is when I get angry. Buyers may assume that this valuable jacket is in far better condition than it is, and the winning bidder could end up very unhappy.

I have contacted the seller with my concerns. This is when I do not stay quiet. The image cannot be removed, but hopefully, the seller will add a note about the image to the description. My message may get added to the description.

Anyway, I decided to mention this since one person thinks I jumped to conclusions about image theft, and it happens all the time. Not only that, buyers get deceived when the image does not depict the actual item up for sale. Unfortunately, eBay condones this behavior, since they now have a database of stock images. For all I know, some of my images may have been added to that database. In fact, if this particular seller has not opted out of the automatic submit to the database, then my image of Desert Valley will become part of eBay's data base. OMG.

Be Careful of High-Priced Listings

People who are new to collecting are easily deceived by sellers who overstate the condition and rarity of their books. If you are new to collecting, be wary of all sellers until you figure out the true value and scarcity of the books. Yes, you should even be wary of me until you figure out what the books are really worth.

In this post, I gave examples of how inflated the prices are for Beverly Gray at the World's Fair. The prices are inflated because the sellers all copy each other's insane prices.

Many sellers on eBay and Bonanzle quote the high fixed-price listings as evidence of how valuable certain books are. Some of these sellers mistakenly believe that the prices are indicative of the value of the books. Remember that anyone can price a book at any amount. Never use a fixed-price listing from Amazon, the Advanced Book Exchange, Alibris, or anywhere else to justify the price of a book.

It does not matter if a book is unavailable at a low price. Beverly Gray at the World's Fair is unavailable for under $332.45. However, Beverly Gray at the World's Fair does not bring a price of $332.45 without a jacket; yet, the fixed-price listings are all at or above that amount. The sellers have copied each other's prices.

I personally avoid all listings in which the seller quotes a high-priced fixed-price listing as proof of a book's value. Most of the sellers probably do not know any better, but some of the sellers are deliberately misleading their buyers. If you are new to collecting, be careful. Just because someone wants $200 to $300 for a book does not mean that it is worth that much. Even if the $200 to $300 book is the only one up for sale, the book may still not be worth that much.

Buyers can be easily swayed into believing that because there are no inexpensive copies available that the books must be worth that much. Do you know why there are no inexpensive copies? They have sold. Duh. The expensive ones remain untouched. There is only so much that the market will bear. Even if only one copy is available, most people are not so desperate as to pay three to four times the true value. Most buyers realize that additional copies will surface in the future.

Consider this: If a book is worth the price a seller has set, exactly why do some sellers feel the need to justify their prices by quoting the fixed-price listings on Amazon, ABE, and elsewhere? I also put the people who quote the Farah's Guide values into this same category. The Farah's Guide values are not indicative of the current value of Nancy Drew books. Some of the values are far higher than the current market while others are far lower.

When a seller has a book up with a $50 Buy It Now and quotes Farah's Guide has having a value of $250, do you really believe the book is worth $250? If so, then the book should be priced at $250, right? At the very least, the book should be priced somewhere near $250.

Recently, someone was selling a blank endpapers edition Nancy Drew book on eBay. The book was in rough shape, and the seller had the book priced at well under $100. Near the end of the description, the seller stated that the book was purchased for $200 and that he or she was taken advantage of by the seller.

Of course I immediately thought of one specific seller who is particularly guilty of asking far too much for the blank endpapers editions. So, I had this suspicion... I clicked on this person's feedback and then looked at the feedback received as a buyer. I did not have to look very far before finding feedback left by the seller who grossly over-exaggerates the condition and rarity of books. While I cannot be sure that that particular seller is the guilty one, I strongly suspect that I am right.

Buyers who are new to collecting can be easily misled, but they do figure out the true value of the books eventually. I am thankful that I was always cautious in the early days of my collecting. Sure, I have gotten involved in bidding wars and paid too much at times, but for the most part, I have cautiously avoided overpriced books.

Using Stock Photos for Listings

When I buy books, these are my two most important considerations.

1. The picture shows the actual book for sale.
2. The total price of the item including shipping is within what I am willing to pay.

The seller must meet my first expectation or else I will not consider buying the book. If I have any suspicion that the seller's picture is not of the book for sale, then I do not care about the price.

On a related topic, some sellers put their listings up without photos and then add the photos days later. I'm sure they have a reason, but they lose me and possibly many other prospective buyers. I am relying on eBay's newest first sort more than ever, and when these sellers do not have the photos up, I have no photos to view.

I am not interested in bookmarking their listings and checking back repeatedly to see if pictures are there. My searches are too cluttered for me to go back and check previously viewed listings again. If a lot has no photo, then I'm out of there.

The sellers should photograph their books before the books are listed, especially when the listing is a seven day auction. Why would a seller not have a photo up for the first day or two of a seven day auction?

To go back to the main point of this post, I will only buy a book if I am relatively certain that the photo is of the actual book up for sale. When you buy a book, don't you want to see the actual book up for sale? Do you want to see a photo of a similar book? I am often upgrading books in my collection, so the number one most important part of a listing is the photo. I don't care as much for what the seller states about the book, although I do read it to make sure the book does not have unacceptable flaws not seen in the photo. I want to see the book, and I want a good photo.

Whenever I find a listing for a book I wish to buy, I always take a look at the seller's other listings to see if the photos match in style. Most sellers have at least some variance in style, and a minor variance does not set off alarms. I look for sellers who use too many different styles. I also am concerned about sellers whose pictures look a little too similar to the photos of other sellers, if you know what I mean.

No matter how hard I try, I cannot photograph my books exactly like another seller does. My camera has its own unique quirks, just like anyone else's camera. My photos all come out looking a certain way. If some of my photos should suddenly look almost just like another seller's photos, you should get concerned about photo theft.

I am particularly concerned about this issue right now because I recently became aware that a few sellers of series books are not taking their own pictures. I have compared their photos to those of other sellers and have found the sources of many of the photos. Some of the photos can be found in the completed item searches. Other photos are from Google's image search.

The sellers who "borrow" images have at least half a dozen "photography styles." Their pictures have a multitude of different backgrounds such as tables, blankets, etc. The pictures are also of varying quality from high to low. Some of the pictures have no visible pixelation while other have obvious pixelation. Sellers who have a wide variety of photography styles with many different backgrounds and who have pictures of varying quality have taken images from other listings and from websites.

Those of you who have books up for sale really need to look at the photos of the books other people have up for sale on eBay and Bonanzle. Really, you need to check. You may not care that your photos are getting used, but I think you should at least be aware of it. I was surprised at how many different sellers' photos have been used. I am also surprised that as far as I can tell, none of my photos are being used.

Describing Books as Better Than They Are

This is an old post from last year that was never published, mainly because I wanted to wait until the listing could not be easily found. I forgot about the post, and it was never published. Here we go... and prepare yourselves...

THIS is in "very fine" condition?


 I am speechless. To be fair, in the description, the seller does differentiate between the condition of the book and the dust jacket. The seller states that the book is "very fine" with almost no shelf wear. I do see wear to the edges of the book, and to me, that is not "almost no shelf wear." If there is almost none, then I should not be able to see it from a photo that is not close up.

The dust jacket is stated to be in "fair to good" condition. In my opinion, the dust jacket is in poor condition. The jacket is awful!

Buyers are not stupid. When sellers describe books as better than they are, buyers do notice and tend to think of the sellers as unethical and dishonest. At the very least, buyers think of the sellers as unprofessional.

Using RARE Is Silly

I was looking at a completed auction for a complete set of the matte yellow Nancy Drew picture cover books — in fact the auction mentioned in a recent post. The sellers like to describe these sets as RARE. Check out this screen capture of what I saw right above the completed listing: Click on it to see a larger version. Four complete matte sets of #1-56 are pictured, and I do see RARE as a descriptor. Wow, four sets available all at once, and they are RARE? So if only two sets were available I bet they would be super RARE. If only one were available, it would be extremely super RARE.

How about using "hard to find" instead? You know — "HTF." "HTF" uses fewer characters, and at least it is not exactly a lie. It can take some time to compile a complete set of Nancy Drew books but the sets are definitely not RARE. If the sets were RARE, then only a few of us would have complete sets. Oh, I know — the buyers love seeing RARE, but the sets will sell with or without that word. Trust me on this. I have sold complete sets for $150 to $450 in the past and never described them as RARE.

By the way, it is not as hard to get a complete set of the matte yellow Nancy Drew books as sellers would have you think. When I used to sell complete sets, I compiled them the same way that these other sellers do. All you have to do is buy a few of the incomplete lots that sell for relatively low prices. The aim is to buy the books for no more than around $2.00 each, so a seller can buy a set of 50 of the books for around $100.00 and then get the last few missing titles from another purchase. Voila! The seller then has a complete set of Nancy Drew books which can then be sold for $250.00 to $500.00. This is why the same sellers who offer the RARE complete sets also frequently offer partial sets for lower prices. They have to get rid of all of the extras that they purchase.

Ethics in Bookselling

The discussion of ethics in bookselling is a frequent topic of discussion on the eBay Bookseller's Discussion Board. The topic typically comes up when a listing is discussed in which a seller appears to be purposefully deceptive. Other times, as in the case this week, the topic is discussed because a seller comes to the board asking for advice and does not correct all of the mistakes in his or her listings. The consensus is that deceptive sellers hurt everybody—they hurt the buyers, and they hurt the sellers who do not practice deception.

This particular message thread has some good points made by several sellers. The message threads frequently disappear from eBay without warning, especially when the person who started the thread does not like the direction it takes, so I'm going to post a couple of quotes here. First, southernbrat makes this point:

The booksellers on this board have a stake in bookselling. When one of us misrepresents a book all will eventually suffer as the buyers will begin to harbor distrust for all sellers. Anger enough sellers and the business dries up. It is hard enough to make a go of this for the everyday seller with everyday type books with the awful rules eBay has implemented so the seller has to be extra careful to not sabotage themselves without eBay's help.

and also this one:

The booksellers on this board are only watching out for their reputation also. You only have one name, so protect it. (or you can be like many I have watched, NOT on this board, change their ID so many times you create a line of ID's that will rival your ancestry history line.)

There have been quite a few cases in which buyers have asked me questions about my listings, and I can tell that they are asking because they no longer trust sellers. They ask me questions like:

"Are there any missing pages?"
"Is the book water-damaged?"
"Does the book smell musty or like cigarettes?"

If I am selling a book that has any of these flaws, I will mention it, but the buyers don't know that. They've been burned by other sellers, so they no longer trust anybody. Or, perhaps they have won an auction and they request that I wrap the book in plastic to protect from moisture exposure. I always do that, but I don't always mention it in my listings, particularly after I had an environmentalist take me to task for it.

I guess there are a bunch of people out there that never have problems with wet mail. I once had a thick blue Nancy Drew book with glossy internal illustrations and a nice dust jacket get damaged because it arrived on a rainy day and the seller had not used plastic. My postal carriers make no attempt to keep my mail dry, and I suspect this is the case for many people across the country. My mail arrives wet at least a dozen times per year.

To go back to the eBay message thread, fine.books makes this point:

The bottom line is simple: don't fudge. Don't try to find work-arounds. Don't throw any pass over 40 yards. If a book is rare, say so - but if there's the slightest chance that someone will come along and prove that more than ten copies still exist, don't lump yourself in with the thousands of people on the internet who are selling books by misrepresentation and chicanery by using the word.

Many serious booksellers use the definition of rare that means that a rare book is one in which no more than ten copies remain in existence. Is this actually the case for the many series books that are advertised on eBay as RARE? The only Nancy Drew books that may actually fit the correct definition of rare are the three breeder set Nancy Drew books with intact dust jackets. As far as anyone knows, there are likely fewer than 10 existing dust jackets of each of the first printings of the first three Nancy Drew books. This is something to think about when you see a series book advertised as RARE, and it comes up for sale all the time.

Let's discuss one of my favorite scarce-but-not-RARE books, the 2nd art dust jacket edition of The Message in the Hollow Oak. There is one up for sale right now, described as RARE:

NANCY DREW MESSAGE IN THE HOLLOW OAK Wrap Orig DJ RARE! Item #120276963394

It is so RARE that it also showed up in these recent closed listings:

NANCY DREW #12 "MESSAGE IN THE HOLLOW OAK" WRAP SPINE!! Item #140242099227 which closed at $61.00

Nancy Drew #12 Message Hollow Oak w/2nd Art DJ NICE Item #260250241792 which closed at $225.00.  I sold this one and notice that I did not describe it as RARE!!!

Nancy Drew #12 Message Hollow Oak HC Wrap DJ Rare Item #230260187936 which closed at $187.50

Nancy Drew-Message in the Hollow Oak 2nd art DJ, NM! Item #290240717234 which closed at $174.99

Nancy Drew Hollow Oak w/ RARE Wrap DJ! Item #230257981534 which closed at $202.38

Keep in mind that I have another extra one that I need to sell! So, the 2nd art dust jacket of Hollow Oak is not so RARE after all.

Note: I am not saying that people who describe their books as RARE are being deceptive. Many of them probably don't know any better or are casually using the word. After all, I posted an old discussion group comment of mine in this blog a few weeks ago, and that comment stated that a certain book was "extremely rare." So, I have even misused the word.

Using Images from Websites

Frequently, sellers on eBay swipe images from various websites in an attempt to spiffy up their listings. Some sellers seem to think that it is better to use one of these images instead of an image of what is actually up for sale. I have never understood why some people think it is better to use a generic borrowed image instead of an image representing what is being sold, but then I'm not the type of person who takes shortcuts. I usually ignore such listings, even when the image is an image of a book from one of my cover art galleries.

The only time that I request the seller to remove the image is when the seller chooses a certain image that is connected solely to me. The Nancy Drew image that is currently used in this blog, also pictured at the top of this post, seems to be the favorite one that sellers like to swipe from my series book site. I greatly dislike it when this particular image is chosen, simply because some buyers will assume that I am the person who has listed the auction. I never use any of my website images in any of my listings. I have only used this image in this blog, on my website in the Nancy Drew section, and currently on my eBay "My World" page.

Months ago, I changed the name of this image so that it would not show up so high in in the Google Images search. Unfortunately, someone has swiped the image for their site, and their copy of my image is now high in the search results. This is undoubtedly why the image is getting swiped again for eBay auctions. It is frustrating.

I have another website which is devoted to a certain version of Zorro. There is an image prominently pictured on that site which is a collage, and bootleggers decided to use it on copies of their bootleg discs. At a result, additional bootleggers decided to use the image to sell their copies of the bootlegs. It is like the bootleggers thought that my image was an official image for the series. So what happened is that the image was used as the picture on an eBay listing. I was unaware until someone contacted me to ask whether I was the person selling the discs. This person thought that because my image was in the listing that I was the seller, or at the very least that I had endorsed the listing.

In some ways, the situation was funny because the image had taken on a life of its own. I could not help but find it amusing in that respect. However, the situation made me very uncomfortable because some people were assuming that I was the seller. I was not happy that my reputation could be damaged by people buying from a bootlegger and thinking that I was the seller. What if the buyer ended up not pleased with the discs and thought that I had ripped them off? This was not good. My solution was to place a message on my website under the collage stating that the collage was used on bootleg listings and that I had nothing to do with it. I have left that message there ever since, and it is rather tacky, but the bootleggers don't use the image anymore. They don't like my message identifying any listing with that image as a bootleg!

So to go back to the Nancy Drew collage . . . if you see it in a listing, I have nothing to do with it!