eBay's International Shipping Program

eBay's international shipping program makes international shipping much easier for sellers, who don't have to figure the shipping costs.  eBay also assumes all the liability, so this increases the likelihood that an eBay seller will be willing to ship internationally.  It can also save the buyer some money.  This is a win-win situation.  

Currently, eBay's program does not offer combined shipping.  If you are an international buyer and want to purchase multiple items from a seller, ask the seller to put them in one listing.  For instance, I had a buyer from the UK wish to purchase two Sweet Valley High books.  eBay was going to force the buyer to pay twice for shipping.  I created a listing with both books included, and this cut the buyer's shipping charge in half.  I didn't have to do anything special except place the two books in the one listing.

Every so often, an international buyer feels that eBay's shipping charge is too high and wants to negotiate with me.  Each time I receive an request like this, I play along but know immediately how the situation will unfold from start to finish.  Spoiler:  The buyer ultimately will decline to make the purchase because the shipping is too high.

I recently had an inquiry about this bulk lot of blue tweed Nancy Drew books that are in rough shape.

The bulk lot was priced at $59.99 with free shipping to United States addresses.  When I price these bulk lots, I am always giving the books away at cost or at a slight loss.  My expenses include the cost of the books, the shipping cost, the packaging cost, and eBay's fees.  All that combined meant that I was taking around a $5.00 loss on this lot at my price of $59.99.  I have no room for negotiation since I'm already taking a loss.  I seldom explain any of this to potential buyers, since it's irrelevant and doesn't impact them.

I would rather sell the books at a slight loss and send them to someone who wants them than drop them off at a thrift store.  I would get nothing if I were to do that, and I also would risk the books getting thrown away.  The books and I are both better off if I sell them at a slight loss.

An international buyer contacted me, offering me $70 including postage cost.  I didn't respond, for several reasons.  I don't accept offers, and I could not possibly accept just $70 including international postage costs.  I also didn't know what the buyer was seeing on their end, so I didn't have enough information to know what their costs were going to be.

The buyer then sent me another message, to which I replied:  "I never see what eBay charges for international postage, so I have no point of reference.  I don't know what I would need to take off of my price to get the total to be $70.00.  I suspect that the amount is higher than what I can do, but I have no way of knowing since I don't know what eBay's international postage charges are.  They hide it from us."

The buyer's response (paraphrased) observed that eBay makes money off of us sellers and that they would rather the money go directly to me.  They wanted me to avoid eBay's international shipping program so that I could figure the shipping myself and pay for the label directly.

Even if the money for shipping were paid to me instead of to eBay, I still would never see it.  I have to pay for the postage label which takes all of the funds.  Also, it should be noted that I pay fees on shipping, so I would then pay fees on the high international shipping charge.  If I charge directly for shipping instead of using eBay's international shipping program, then my eBay fees are much higher.  This isn't beneficial to me.

As I already stated, I knew that this wouldn't result in a sale.  Nevertheless, I retrieved the stack of books and weighed them.  I figured out the postage cost and added $18 to it to cover the eBay fees on the postage.  Since I was already taking a loss on the lot, I wasn't about to add $18 to my loss.  

I wrote in response:  "I doubt it will be cheaper for me to pay the postage directly.  I figured the postage, and my cost is $135.00 to mail the books.  This would make the total $194.99.  We are no longer able to use surface mail.  I have to use priority mail international."

I have no idea what eBay's international shipping was going to charge the buyer.  However, it was apparent by the buyer's reaction that what I quoted was even worse.  The buyer declined to proceed.  

So, eBay's international shipping does save the buyer money, besides being easier for the seller.  

Low eBay Sales Caused by eBay's Category Removal

Sales are currently lower than normal on both eBay and Etsy.  This is no doubt tied to the economy and high inflation.  Sales also tend to be lower in the weeks before Tax Day.  Nevertheless, something else is at play on eBay.

In my previous post, "Using the Copyright Year in the Title of eBay Listings," I wrote:

My Nancy Drew books tend not to sell on eBay, but they sell just fine on Etsy.  Something is wrong on eBay, and I've felt for a long time that buyers cannot find my Nancy Drew books in the search results.  This is probably partly my fault.

I have not been consistent in using item specifics.  I find it hard to believe, however, that most Nancy Drew buyers rely solely on item specifics instead of looking at the items that are returned in their searches. So, I feel like it's more than just the item specifics. 

I know that more is going on.  My eBay Nancy Drew sales tanked sometime in the middle of last year.  Last summer, I created a bunch of small bulk lots of Nancy Drew original text picture cover books.  The books that were listed in those lots had condition problems and often had bookplates.  I didn't feel that those books were advisable to list individually, so I put them in the small bulk lots.  The lots were priced at from around $18 up to around $25 for three or four original text picture covers.  Shipping was free on the lots, so the buyers were only paying sales tax in addition to the cost of each lot. 

Years ago, the lots would have all sold within a few weeks.  The lots went mostly unnoticed.  Gradually over the months, the lots sold one at a time.  I still have one of them, and it's been close to a year since it was first listed. 

$6.66 per book plus sales tax is not a bad price.  While the books have wear, they are not in bad shape.  They are perfectly respectable copies, just like the others that took months to sell.  I have been astonished that these bulk lots have been so hard to move considering the high interest in the original text books.  

I can pinpoint exactly when the drop in Nancy Drew sales occurred on eBay.  I have taken several breaks from selling during the pandemic.  I reopened in March 2021 after a lengthy break.  At first, my Nancy Drew sales were fine.  My Nancy Drew sales began to drop by summer, although I didn't notice.  I was going through a lot at that time and was selling plenty of other books.  

I did notice that my original text bulk lots weren't selling, which was odd.  But I didn't stop to think about it and didn't notice that my Nancy Drew picture cover books priced individually had quit selling on eBay. 

I closed my store again in early August 2021 and reopened in late October 2021.  That was when I noticed the drop in Nancy Drew sales on eBay.  The books just weren't selling anymore.  I have had the same picture cover books listed since last year, and they don't sell.  Meanwhile, my Nancy Drew picture cover books sell on Etsy just fine.

I do know why this has happened.  In May 2021, eBay removed most of its categories.  Yes, you read that right:  eBay removed most of its categories.     

This image shows the subcategories available within eBay's "Books & Magazines" category.

There really aren't any.  There is a subcategory for "Antiquarian & Collectible" books and another for just "Books."  The "Books" subcategory has no subcategories of its own and is for all books from all genres.  

The children's book category is gone.  Vanished.  It no longer exists.  I mean, who would want to separate children's books from other kinds of books?  Certainly, none of us, right?  

The item specifics are supposed to take the place of the categories.  There is an option for "children's" in the item specifics.  The idea is that buyers can find the option for "children's" in the search results and select it to see children's books.  It sounds great in theory, but there's a problem.  Most sellers don't use that item specific for Nancy Drew books.

This image shows most of the topics used by sellers for their Nancy Drew listings along with how many listings were assigned to each topic.

Click on the image in order to view it clearly.  Some sellers did label their books as children's books, but many sellers did not.  The only way to use the item specifics to see all of the Nancy Drew books is to click on each one in turn, which would take forever.  Just running a search for Nancy Drew like I do, and looking at everything without using item specifics, is the only feasible way to do it.

Aside from that, many of the topics selected are rather... strange.  Notice that over 100 books are categorized as "farming."  I checked that one out and found many Red Gate Farm books and a number of the ND Diaries Black Creek Farm books.  How stupid.

When I was editing the item specifics for my Nancy Drew listings, I found that eBay automatically generates item specifics inspired by keywords from the titles.  That is how a large number of Nancy Drew books are categorized as "farming" books.  Not helpful, eBay.

The bottom line is that eBay's children's books category no longer exists.  Buyers are now on their own trying to find children's books.  Buyers are reliant on sellers properly using the item specifics, yet eBay hinders sellers by suggesting completely wrong item specifics in many cases.

Think of going to a library book sale with hundreds of thousands of books for sale, except all of the books are piled in bins and unsorted as to topic.  That is what eBay is like now.

None of this is a problem for searches that return few results.  I find that all of my books aside from Nancy Drew do fine on eBay.  A search for Nancy Drew returns over 25,000 results, so buyers are overwhelmed and unable to find what they want.

I found an article that indicates that eBay is trying to get rid of buyers and has apparently succeeded.  

Is Management Strategy or Reopening Economies Driving Customer Losses for eBay?

I have trouble understanding how getting rid of buyers is good.  However, the people who have run eBay over the years have sometimes shown very poor judgment.  For instance, a team of now-former eBay executives and employees allegedly executed a harassment campaign against the Steiners of eCommerceBytes a few years ago.  

Former eBay employees harassed couple who wrote critical newsletter articles, prosecutors say

Couple harassed by former eBay employees sues company and former executives

Former eBay executive to plead guilty to cyberstalking campaign targeting couple

With people like that connected to eBay, we shouldn't expect wise decisions.

Using the Copyright Year in the Title of eBay Listings

My Nancy Drew books tend not to sell on eBay, but they sell just fine on Etsy.  Something is wrong on eBay, and I've felt for a long time that buyers cannot find my Nancy Drew books in the search results.  This is probably partly my fault.

I have not been consistent in using item specifics.  I find it hard to believe, however, that most Nancy Drew buyers rely solely on item specifics instead of looking at the items that are returned in their searches. So, I feel like it's more than just the item specifics.  

I began by working on the item specifics of my Nancy Drew listings.  I found that some of them had none of the item specifics (publisher, author, subject, language) completed.  Perhaps getting those filled in will help some. 

Next, I ran a search for "Nancy Drew" and selected "sold" listings so that I could look at the titles of the sold listings.  I wanted to see if there were certain words that were used that I could add to my titles to perhaps help my books sell.

I was struck by how many of the sold listings have the copyright year listed in the title.  This is interesting.

Years ago I used to put the copyright year in the titles of my listings.  I had a specific reason for doing that.  I have always used the copyright year to tell whether a book has the original text.  I started using this method before I was ever online.  When I got online in the late 1990s, I learned that everyone else checks the number of chapters in the books. 

Since collectors just look at the number of chapters, they pay no attention to the copyright year or to the appearance of the books.  This is why so many people ask sellers how many chapters the books have instead of just using clues that are visible in the listing.  I have created multiple pages on my website and have many posts in this blog that show buyers how to tell which books have the original text without having to ask questions.

Original and Revised Text Books
Picture Cover Gallery (cover art identified as original or revised text)

I feel like my efforts have been futile, since people now just try to use the Facebook groups to mine for information.

Back when I put the copyright year in the title of my listings, I felt that was the easiest way to convey to my buyers that the book had the original text.  I explained my reasoning in my post, "Using the Copyright Date in Listings":

As already stated, I find the copyright date to be a super easy way to determine whether the book has the original or revised text. 1956 is the key year. 1956 and earlier copyrights are for books with 25 chapter texts. After 1957 copyrights are books with 20 chapter texts. With this method, you don't need to worry about obscure little details or whether your seller knows that "XX" is 20 or that "XXV" is 25.

It just made sense to me to place the copyright year in the title of the listing so that buyers would know immediately that the book contained the original text.  After I received some criticism, I removed the copyright year from my listing titles.  The post "Using the Copyright Date in Listings" also details the criticism that I received.

Now it's 12 years later, and my Nancy Drew books aren't selling on eBay.  When I looked at the sold books, I saw that a good many of them have the copyright year in the title of the listing.  I do believe that some buyers are using the copyright to find the older books. 

I feel that I must start placing the copyright year back into the titles of my listings just so that my books have a chance of being noticed in the vast ocean of more than 25,000 Nancy Drew listings on eBay.  I am a little hesitant, since the judgmental people will think I'm attempting to defraud buyers.  

It is true that I can place a statement in my listings giving an idea of the age of the book.  I might do that if I decide to put the copyright year back in the titles.  I won't give specific Farah's Guide printing numbers or specific years.  I try to keep my listings as simple and streamlined as possible.  I need to list many books quickly, so I don't go to a lot of trouble.  These days most everyone has a short attention span, so listings need to be short for that reason.  A wall of text won't be read, so I want my listings to be as short as possible.

I will continue to mull over the situation before I make a decision.

Late October Selling, Postage, and Search Problems Update

My eBay and Etsy stores are now both open.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay 

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Many of my current Etsy listings expire in just a few days.  I went ahead and activated everything that had not yet reached the four-month expiration date.  My inventory will decrease once those listings expire, since some of them, like the Nancy Drew Files, will be moved to bulk lots.

I do not expect the school year to get any easier than it is at present.  This school year is far harder than last year.  We are trying to rebuild students' skills and work ethic while we continue to deal with all the assorted problems of the continuing pandemic.  We already have the mental fatigue that we usually don't reach until near the end of each school year, and we still have 6 1/2 months to go.  

For that reason, I am keeping many of my current listings inactive for now.  I want to make sure that I can handle selling before I allow all of my listings to be available.  By keeping many listings inactive, my sales will stay at a relatively low level.

I plan to reopen fully at about Thanksgiving, but that depends upon how everything goes.  I could end up changing my mind.

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

eBay suddenly changed the store design last week without any notification.  This wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't made the design less functional.  Why is it that the new version of everything is always worse?  

It doesn't look like I can set a default sort for my store.  That functionality was removed.  When buyers follow a store, they like to see what is new.  I know this because I am a buyer.  I check the new listings.  I don't want to see whichever random listings eBay thinks I should see.  For that reason, I have always had my store set to display newest first.  

Another problem, which I consider a big one, is that eBay removed the category list from the sidebar.  Presumably this was to optimize the stores for mobile devices.  Buyers must now open a drop-down menu.  In the below image, I circled where the dropdown menu is located.

The next problem is the disappearance of the category hierarchies.  Actually, that was already a problem that I wanted to fix.  The category hierarchies have never been apparent until after the top-level category has been selected.  That has always bothered me, and this change certainly isn't helping the situation.  This next image shows how hard it is for buyers to notice that subcategories exist.  I circled the symbols which are rather hard to see.

I removed the hierarchy and now have all of the subcategories as top-level categories like I do on Etsy.  It is much better.

With these changes, I now believe that Etsy has a better interface.  Etsy does have some limitations which I dislike.  Sellers can have only 20 categories and only 25 characters in each category title.  Those parameters are too restrictive for me, but I manage to do what I need in spite of the limitations.

eBay allows up to 300 categories and 30 characters in each category's title.  Having 300 categories is far more than I need and is fantastic!  But what good is having 300 categories when buyers don't know where the categories are?  

Etsy allows me to have the default sort set to newest first.  Having my newest listings first is very important to me.  eBay no longer has this option.  Not good, eBay.  

I should mention that eBay does have a place where the buyer can change the sort to whatever is desired.  My complaint is that the seller should have the option to set a default sort that the buyer can then change if desired. 

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

Media mail is significantly higher in cost than it was in early August.  USPS has a holiday surcharge in place currently.  While I have not seen media mail specifically mentioned, it must be subject to the surcharge because the rates I am paying for packages are noticeably higher.  My $3.95 postage charge for one book is woefully inadequate.  My cost to mail one book is now between $5 and $6.  This includes the cost of packaging.  

My continuing offer of free shipping on orders of $35 may need to be adjusted.  I expect that I will keep it, but I may have to raise the prices of my books to cover some of the postage cost.  Everything is getting so much more expensive.

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

eBay search continues to be massively screwed up.  If you sell on eBay, run a search on eBay for whatever you plan to list.  Look to see in which category eBay has placed your search results.  When a search is run for all items on eBay, the results are often restricted to one specific category.  When I run searches for most series books, eBay restricts the results to the "Antiquarian & Collectible Books" category.  I then have to select "all" to see everything else.

Many buyers will never notice the problem, so they won't see your books if they aren't in the specific category selected by eBay's search.  I have moved all of my books to the "Antiquarian & Collectible Books" category.  An added benefit is that I no longer need to fill in most of eBay's item specifics, so this is a win-win situation for me.

Pandemic Update: Risk Assessment and Changing Listing Practices

I mentioned the pandemic in three previous posts, linked below.  I find it helpful to read my previous thoughts so that I can tie them to my current thoughts.

In Book Prices, Increasing My Handling Time, and COVID-19, I revealed my concern about COVID-19.  I had wanted to publish this post for a few weeks, but I hesitated because of all the people who were bullying those who were concerned.  After I published the post, readers were supportive and mentioned their own concerns.

I mentioned how hospitals would likely be overwhelmed.  They weren't, but that's because almost all schools nationwide were closed for the rest of the school year, all sporting events were canceled, and many people stayed home for over two months.  Back in March, people said that if we succeeded in flattening the curve that naysayers would insist that we overreacted.  We did flatten the curve, and it appears that we overreacted.  However, it only appears that way because we were successful.

More people have died of COVID-19 in the United States in the last few months than have died of the flu during this entire flu season.  So yes, COVID-19 is worse than the flu, although a high number of deaths have been in nursing homes.

I also mentioned in my post that I was reducing my trips to the post office to just three days per week:  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

In Update on My Activities, I mentioned my fear about COVID-19 and how I was uninterested in listing books for sale.  I thought that school would end up being canceled for the rest of the year.  I was in mourning, since I had really good students this year.

The school year did end on March 13.  I went to the school yesterday to take care of a few things.

Time stands still in my classroom... a school year left unfinished.  I never did take a grade on those assignments since most students never turned them in.

Around one week after I published the above post, I pulled down all of my listings on both eBay and Etsy.  I was too paranoid to go into the post office at all.  I realized that going in was probably pretty safe with precautions, but I was too freaked out to continue to do it.

In New Experiences During the Pandemic, I mentioned all the apps and services that I had used for the very first time during the previous month.  I am certainly going to continue to use Google Voice for future student and parent contact.  I also will continue using Walmart Grocery Pickup for heavy items once I start going back into stores again.  Why struggle to get a 40-pound box of cat litter into a shopping cart?  A Walmart employee can put the litter in my trunk.

So here I am.  I have been carefully monitoring the daily updates on COVID-19 here in Oklahoma and nationwide.  Significant COVID-19 outbreaks are underway in both the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, but otherwise, Oklahoma looks to be trending down.

I am continuing to stay at home, out of stores and away from other people.  I became somewhat less paranoid after I read an enlightening blog post by Professor Erin Bromage.

The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them

If you are feeling scared about being around other people, please read Professor Bromage's post.  It really helps you to assess what your risk will be in various situations and help you figure out which situations to avoid completely.

I must begin to rebuild my confidence about being around other people.  I freely admit that I have developed a phobia about being in public.  I must work on this since I will be forced to be around others in June when I have to go in for lab tests and an appointment.

I actually want to start selling books again.  I really miss it.  I originally planned to wait until June to reopen my eBay and Etsy stores, but I realized that selling books will help me segue back into society.  If I start selling books again, then I will resume dropping packages off at the post office.  Going into the post office three times per week will build up my courage and confidence in being around other people.

I do have some other concerns about selling again, because the USPS is struggling to meet demand during the pandemic.  I have made a few purchases, and media mail is quite slow right now.  Each of my incoming packages gets stalled at the Oklahoma City distribution center for three to six days.  I have heard that many USPS employees nationwide are out sick or are missing work due to fear of the virus.  Some USPS personnel have died of COVID-19.

International shipping is very problematic right now, due to the decrease in flights.  It also remains just as expensive as ever.  In High International Shipping Costs and Free Domestic Shipping, I explained that the United States subsidizes shipping rates for China, which is why our costs are so extremely high.  Buyers think I am lying about the high cost, and it doesn't help that USPS only offers international airmail and no surface mail.

In a strange twist, the pandemic has caused a lot of the outbound airmail to go surface by sea.  This means that international buyers are getting slow service for the very high cost of airmail.  This is just not a good time to purchase anything internationally.

Here are a few USPS bulletins about the situation.

International Service Impact – Alternate Transportation: Air to Sea Diversion in Effect 
International Service Impact – Alternate Transport: Second Air to Sea Diversion in Effect
International Service Impact – Alternate Transport: Third Air to Sea Diversion in Effect

I have been preparing to reopen my eBay and Etsy stores since yesterday.  Since this has been a complete break from selling that has lasted for two months, I have had time for reflection.  Some of my practices must change.  I already had decided to drop my one-day handling time in March, and I will continue with a two-day handling time.  I refuse to play eBay's games.  I figure that I have enough of a following that I can do okay selling books even if eBay suppresses me in the search results.

I must fix some issues.  Etsy now truncates descriptions so that buyers do not see important condition information.  I changed my listing style in late January and early February for new listings, but I was not motivated to change all of my older listings.  Since all old items were deactivated, I decided to start adding them back in one at a time, changing each description so as to avoid truncation.

This is what an older listing looks like.  Always click or tap on an image to see a larger version.

All of the important condition details are hidden.  I don't think most buyers open up that description area, which could then cause those buyers to be dissatisfied about the book's condition.

Here is what my updated listing description looks like.

By removing the general book information, which is already in the title of the listing, I can avoid truncation in most instances.

I have added a warning about media mail shipping time to the main page of my Etsy shop.  I have also created a "priority mail upgade" listing on Etsy for those who want to get their books faster.

This is going to take awhile to get my Etsy shop back up, but here is a link to what I have up so far.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I want to add a message about media mail shipping time to each of my listings on eBay, so I will have to edit them individually just like I am doing on Etsy.  I also want to add a note about how I do not accept offers.  I receive lots of low ball offers on my listings via messages on eBay.  I typically do not respond unless the buyer begins harassing me.  I only respond to those buyers to shut them down.  Contacting me each day is not going to make me accept a low offer.

I realize that stating that I do not accept offers will not stop most people from trying.  I just hope that I might dissuade a few of them from trying.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Right.  Nothing is visible on eBay, but it will be soon.  I took the store off of vacation mode, but I first ended all listings.  So the store continues to be empty.  I will begin adding the listings back in one at a time just like I am doing with Etsy.

By the way, my eBay store is a bit messed up since I have my store in the old format on purpose.  I'm not sure why eBay still allows sellers to use the old format when we supposedly weren't going to be allowed to continue using it.  While we can somehow continue to use the old format, we cannot edit it at all. 

If you look closely at the left side of my store,  you can probably figure out why I keep the old format, even though I cannot edit the old format.  I have an incorrect message about free shipping, but there's also something else there that isn't allowed in the new format store and isn't an option at all in the new format.

This is such an odd situation.  While I can somehow keep the old format eBay store, I cannot edit it at all, so I cannot remove what is not allowed.  Ah, the mysteries of eBay.

eBay's Packing Slip Inaction

In June 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states can charge sales tax on purchases made from out-of-state businesses.  Prior to this ruling, most Americans paid very little sales tax online.  The only sales tax paid was on transactions with businesses that had a physical presence in the buyer's home state, such as Walmart.

As of June 2018, very few states had enacted laws assessing sales tax on online purchases.  As the few states which had enacted laws began to reap the benefits of having those laws in place, the vast majority of the remaining states quickly began passing sales tax laws for all online purchases.

This page on eBay lists the states for which sales tax is collected from buyers.  As of this writing, 38 states plus the District of Columbia charge sales tax on all online transactions.  This is problematic for me as an eBay seller, simply because eBay hasn't changed its packing slip to include sales tax.  What are they thinking?

I find that most all other sites quickly adapt to change, while eBay lags behind by a couple of years.  I am sure that eBay has been informed that its packing slip does not indicate the sales tax that has been charged to the buyer.  You would think that they would want to fix it in a timely fashion, but months have already gone by with no change.

I always print a packing slip and place inside the package simply as a safeguard in case the shipping label gets ripped off of the package.  I know of one past case when a shipping label did get ripped off of a package that I mailed.  The package was sent to the mail recovery center where it was opened.  The packing slip was found with the buyer's address, so the package was forwarded to the buyer.  

It is very important that the buyer's address is inside the package so that a damaged package can be recovered.

Most buyers probably do not look at the packing slip.  I toss all of the packing slips that are inside the packages that I receive.  However, some buyers might look at the packing slip.  If so, then the packing slip had darned well better have the actual amount that the buyer paid for the item.  That's where eBay is failing us.

The following image shows the eBay packing slip total as compared to the PayPal packing slip total for the same eBay transaction.

I feel that I will look bad if I use the eBay packing slip.  The eBay packing slip does not acknowledge the sales tax, like the money just vanished into oblivion.  As the seller, I never receive the sales tax.  The $0.79 collected by eBay never reaches my account and will be sent to the buyer's state.  However, the tax ought to be shown on anything that the buyer will see.  The PayPal packing slip shows exactly what the buyer paid. 

I now have to go into PayPal to print the packing slips.  It takes longer, and it annoys me.  Since I have to go to extra trouble, I have added the URL of my Etsy shop to the PayPal packing slip.  If I have to spend extra time getting the packing slips printed, then I'm going to advertise my Etsy shop on them.  I'm probably never going to get an Etsy sale from inclusion of the URL, since most buyers never look at packing slips.  However, I gain personal satisfaction in just knowing that the Etsy URL is on the paper.  Take that, eBay.

Recent Transaction Problems

I have had a number of problems with transactions so far this year.  Some of these problems caused me great stress and impacted how well I felt in the following days.  This is the worst stretch I have ever had with inconsiderate or overly emotional people.

USPS Inefficiency

The USPS was negligent in its handling of a package that contained a large number of international edition series books.  I would hate for any package to go missing, but this one would have been an epic disaster, since the books could not have been replaced.  By the way, I have never forgiven USPS for losing a set of A. L. Burt Beverly Gray books with dust jackets in the late 1990s.  But I digress.

The package that contained 23 international edition series books was mailed on February 25 and should have arrived in Florida by March 4-6.  The buyer contacted me on March 11 asking if I had any additional information about the package location.  I was quite bothered when I saw that the package had left my post office on February 25 and had disappeared without another scan.

I went to USPS.com and completed the form to initiate a search request.  I probably spent 30 minutes filling out the search request.  Trying to list books printed in other languages isn't easy.  I settled on using key words, like stating that a certain number of books were in Swedish with "Vicki" located somewhere on the front cover.  I made similar statements for the books from other series.  I wanted someone not familiar with the books to be able to spot them easily.  The contents have to be described so that they can be located if the package has been destroyed and the contents scattered.

Due to the nature and scarcity of the books contained in this package, it would have been a disaster if the package had been lost.  I was not happy.  Three days after I filed the search request, the package was apparently found in Dallas, which is where it should have been scanned no later than February 26 or 27.  I don't understand where the package was for the 17 days it took for the package to leave my post office and arrive in Dallas.  The drive from Oklahoma City to Dallas is no more than four hours.

I was relieved that the package had been located, but then it vanished again.  The package was never scanned as having left Dallas, so I was left hanging for six more days until it finally arrived and was delivered in Florida.  This was ridiculous.  Click on the image to see a larger version.

Fortunately, the package was fine and had not been damaged.  Lengthy package delays are typically caused when the package gets destroyed, but that was not the case with this one.  I have to wonder if the package was laying around somewhere getting ignored for 17 days.  I don't get it.

Seller Mistakes

I purchased the first printing of Judy Bolton #3, The Invisible Chimes, from an eBay seller in late January.  First printings of the first three Judy Bolton books with dust jackets that list to Invisible Chimes are just as scarce as the first printings of the first three Nancy Drew books with dust jackets that list to Bungalow Mystery.  The Judy Bolton books are worth much less, but they are just as impossible to find.

About a week after I purchased the book, I received a set of Charles Dickens books instead of my book.  I was quite dismayed, since I knew that my book had to have been mailed to another buyer.  I felt a little sick, because not all buyers will cooperate and forward packages mistakenly mailed to them.  I feared that the other buyer might even throw the book in the trash.  I posted about the situation on Facebook, where others insisted that it would work out.  I wasn't convinced, since I've read too many bad stories about similar situations.

I informed the seller, who had me mail the Dickens books to the correct buyer.  I was reimbursed for the cost.  The seller was not able to determine where the book went.  I personally think the book went to the Dickens buyer, but the buyer didn't admit it.  I never did get my book.  That's why I was so upset when I opened up the package that contained the Dickens books.  Someone received my book and kept it.  I just hope that they didn't throw it away.

I was also reimbursed for the cost of the book, but that didn't get me my book.  Someone has my book.

Buyer Meltdowns

I understand that some buyers are ready to believe the worst, especially when another transaction has ended badly.  However, buyers should not be so quick to judge without even reviewing the situation.

I often split large lots into two boxes.  Sometimes I do send a message to the buyer informing them, but regardless, I always write "Box 1 of 2" and "Box 2 of 2" on the tops of the boxes.  Just reading that simple message should be enough to inform the buyer that another package will be arriving, probably in the next day or so.  Besides, the buyer does receive two shipping notices, one for each box, which should alert them that two packages are coming.

I recently mailed a set of books to a buyer in the two boxes labeled as described above.  I did not send a message.  I actually was planning to in this particular case, but it slipped my mind.  That was a mistake.  The buyer somehow did not see "Box 1 of 1" clearly written in black marker on the top of the box, which is probably the side of the box that the buyer would have cut open.  Anyway, she went into hysterics, sending a message asking where the other books were and begging me to send them.  I wasn't online at that particular moment.  Since I didn't respond, five minutes later she opened a case against me on eBay.

I was pretty annoyed, and I can assure you that I what I tell buyers in cases like this is not what I want to tell them.  I usually have to edit what I type several times to avoid being too combative.  I went with this.

Right, I meant to send you a message letting you know to expect two boxes. I forgot to do so. If you look at the box, you'll see that it is either labeled "Box 1 of 2" or "Box 2 of 2." I never place all of the books from a large shipment in one box, since heavier and bulkier boxes are more likely to be damaged. Half the books are in the other box. While annoying, boxes often get separated and end up on different trucks. That can cause the packages to arrive one or more days apart.

I then received a message asking about the tracking numbers.  She didn't know where to find them.  I told her where to find them, but I also went to USPS.com to see the exact status of both packages.  I determined that the second one was just slightly behind.  I pasted the tracking numbers into my response, telling her to expect the second package within two days.  It arrived the next day.

The buyer closed the case, but even cases closed by the buyer still count against the seller.  Take a look at this screen capture from my account.  Click on the image to see a larger version.

Even though the buyer canceled the case, eBay continues to count it against me.  eBay compares sellers to their peers, and notice that this one "return" places me at a higher percent than my peers.  If just one more buyer opens a case in the next year, I might be charged higher fees or have my top-rated seller status taken away.  Never open an eBay case against a seller unless you are 100% certain that the seller is messing with you.

Inconsiderate Buyers

I would just love to tell you who this person is, but I will refrain.  The buyer is a prominent seller on sites like Amazon, AbeBooks, Biblio, and others.

This person purchased a book from me, and then sent a message asking if I combine shipping.  I said that I do.  I made a grave error in not setting a time limit for combining orders.  I will never make that mistake again.

The buyer purchased a second book and sent a message thanking me for combining the orders.  I figured that the buyer was finished, which was my second grave error that evening.  I combined the orders in one box and refunded the extra postage.  Around 30 minutes after that, the buyer purchased some more books, each individually so that postage was charged on every order.  The buyer also sent another message thanking me for combining all the orders.  This time, I did nothing.  I waited.  Around four hours later, the buyer came back yet again and purchased another book.

This time I sent a link to the remaining ones, telling the buyer that if he wanted them as well to go ahead and purchase them.  He did not make any additional purchases.  Maybe I annoyed him.  Whatever.  I was more than just annoyed myself.  I was furious about his lack of consideration.  He was causing me extra work, and I could not get the books packed until he was finally finished.

He wasn't the only one.

I had another buyer who purchased 32 books from me in 32 separate transactions on Etsy.  Let's just say that the result was a huge mess that took up most of an entire evening.  It wasn't good.  I sent the books in one box, but I had to refund 31 postage overcharges.  It took forever to click on each transaction, enter the refund amount, review, and submit.  I spent 30 to 45 minutes sending refunds.

The other option would have been to mail the 32 books in 32 packages with no refunds sent.  Packing all of the books separately would have taken much longer.  Sending 31 refunds was the better option.

This was a horrible experience.

Disorganized Buyers

A buyer purchased eight books from me in six different transactions over the course of around a week.  One of the transactions had a different mailing address.  I should have asked, but I decided that the buyer probably had a reason for it to go somewhere else.  I mailed it off.

Two weeks later, that package came back refused.  I contacted the buyer to let him know and asked him if he still wanted the book.  He told me that he had received that book from me and that he wished me well in trying to find the correct buyer.

Okay, then.  I knew that I hadn't made a mistake on my end, other than not asking about the address.  I had a hunch, so I ran a search for that title in my completed transactions.  Sure enough, he had purchased two different copies of that book.  He did indeed have a book purchased from me, and I had received the other book back.

I reflected about how the buyer didn't think I owed him anything.  I could have kept the money ($23.94) and the book.  There was never any doubt that I would refund the money, but I could certainly have kept the money and not said anything.

I refunded the transaction and told the buyer about how he had accidentally purchased two copies of the book.

At a Crossroads with eBay and Etsy

eBay now requires that all fixed-price listings be listed as Good 'Til Cancelled (GTC).  At least half of my listings are now GTC, and the rest will follow within the next two weeks as they are relisted.

I previously mentioned that I will no longer be able to float more than 250 listings because of this change.  On March 31, I had 211 active listings and one expired listing that needed to be relisted.  I had already used all of my 250 free fixed-priced listings, so I had to wait until my listings reset in order to avoid a listing fee of $0.25.  If all of my listings were already GTC, then that one extra listing would have auto-relisted and caused me to incur the fee of $0.25.  I still have slightly too many listings.

I have been trying to figure out how to handle this situation.  Am I better off paying higher fees on eBay?  Should I list on other venues?

On Amazon, sellers pay a $39.99 monthly fee in order to list items, and then they pay the transaction fees as items sell.  While the monthly fee is significant, Amazon does have the traffic and sales.  Sellers do not have to advertise their Amazon listings.  While intriguing, I decided not to pursue selling on Amazon at this time.

I am already on Etsy where I do not have a monthly fee.  I pay $0.20 per item for each item to be listed for four months.  That isn't bad.  I have been pretty satisfied with Etsy, but sales come and go.  I have really good periods and then nothing.

I do not care to expand my Etsy shop more than I have already done, because I am not certain about future Etsy policies.  Etsy sent out a survey to a portion of its sellers.  Sellers had to sign a nondisclosure affidavit in order to take the survey.  Read eCommercebytes for some information.

I looked into paying for a higher-level eBay store.  The screen captures seen below were taken from this page.

I have the Basic eBay store and have a yearly subscription, so I pay $21.95 per month.

This next table shows how many free listings are allocated to each store type.

There's a reason why I never mention my 250 free auction listings:  I cannot use them.  The books category is not one of the allowed categories for the free auction listings.  That really angers me.  I'm told that I get 500 free listings per month, but I only sell books.  I cannot use the 250 auction listings.  If I could use them, I'd list some of my better books in auctions.  I would then have enough free listings for each month.  It's a shame.

I've been eyeing the next level of eBay store, which is Premium.  I would get 1,000 free fixed-price listings, but that is way more than I need.  I would have to pay $59.95 per month if I go with the yearly subscription.  It's doable, but I'm not ready to seriously consider it.  $59.95 is a significant increase per month from $21.95, and I would still be paying all the final value fees and PayPal fees in addition to that.

I see myself as having three options.  For the first option, I could continue with stores on both eBay and Etsy.  I would have to keep my eBay listings down to my current level to avoid incurring any additional fees.

The second option would be to keep my stores on eBay and Etsy as they are but go ahead and incur some extra listing fees on eBay.  For instance, I could list 50 extra items per month on eBay, which would cause me to pay $12.50 extra in fees per month.

The third option would be to close my Etsy shop completely and change to the Premium eBay store.  That way, I would save the Etsy listing fees and would then list everything on eBay.  I would still end up paying higher fees on eBay than I currently do on eBay and Etsy combined.

For now, I'm going to stay at my current eBay store level and wait to see what happens with Etsy.  However, the second option is the most logical of the three options.

I have believed from the start that eBay forced all fixed-price listings to GTC in order to eliminate the float.  By eliminating the float, sellers must pay for all extra listings above the listing allocation, which is a sly way for eBay to raise fees to sellers.  My fees will increase once I decide to give in.  I do think I will ultimately yield and will go with the second option mentioned above.  The change in policy is about money, and eBay will get that money.

Meanwhile, I am still working on decreasing my eBay listings, especially the stagnant ones.  77 eBay listings are currently on sale for 15% off.  The sale ends on April 7.  After April 7, the sale will be null and void.

All orders of $35 or more on either eBay or Etsy will receive free shipping to United States addresses.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

eBay Problems and Seller Dissatisfaction

I am very annoyed with eBay right now.  I am also frustrated and angry.  The eBay site has been riddled with glitches for at least the past month.  On June 13, I had trouble purchasing an item due to a glitch.  On that same day, I could not view my own listings due to another glitch.

eBay has a promotions manager for eBay stores.  It's supposed to work, but it often doesn't work.  I have heard that the promotions manager works great for high volume sellers but not for people like me.

I have sometimes had to edit and launch a promotion five or more times before I could actually get it to appear in my store.  This has caused me to waste a large amount of time.

Sales are down.  It's not just me.  Many sellers are reporting lower sales, and some sellers believe that their items are being hidden.  I actually think our hobby is dying, but that's a discussion for another day.

Today I tried to launch a promotion.  The promotion was not visible, and I tried multiple times, changing the terms of each successive failed offer.  I finally scrolled around far enough to see that the promotion actually was listed, but way at the bottom of the item page where nobody would ever see it.  That's it.  eBay has now made me angry.  What is the point of a promotion that no one will ever see?  The promotions used to show at the top of the page.  Why move it to the bottom?

That aside, this would be salvageable if the offer were to actually show in eBay search like it always has in the past.  Of course it doesn't!

I ran a search for the Nancy Drew book, The Secret of the Wooden Lady, so that I could view one of my listings in the search results.

I have highlighted the visible promotion from the high volume seller.  My listing is underneath with no visible promotion.  Every previous promotion I have ever done has shown in search.  This is unacceptable.

The "FAST 'N FREE" does show, but that is only because I am in the same zip code as my listing and would receive the item fast if it were to be shipped to me.  eBay is so stupid.

The only reason I am messing with eBay this weekend is because I have a store subscription and need to use the rest of my allotted listings for the month.  If I could get sales on Etsy to pick up more, then I would consider leaving eBay again like I did in 2009 when I went to Bonanza.  I believe my eBay store subscription expires at the end of August, so I need to do some serious thinking about whether to continue.

I do have one funny story to tell about the mess from today.  I have been in the "new" eBay store experience for quite some time, and I wanted to revert back to the old store awhile back but eBay wouldn't let me.  I thought that the old storefront had been removed.

I decided to check again today, since I recalled that the old storefront was more compact.  I have never understood why sites spread information further apart when they update, causing much less to show on the screen.  So I went into my store settings and saw the link to revert to the old storefront.  I decided to try again and was absolutely dumbfounded that it worked.  I am speechless.  Wow.

Here's the deal.  Not only do I have my old storefront back, but I also have my old pages back that give links to this blog and my website.  I thought that eBay was supposed to delete those.  I don't think I am supposed to have them anymore, but they are still there and in the old storefront that eBay let me revert back to today.  I am still speechless.

The promotion still shows at the very bottom of the listing pages.  However, the old storefront is more compact, so buyers are somewhat more likely to see the promotion.  I am going to keep the old storefront for now.  I doubt that eBay will leave it that long, since they are getting rid of all the old storefronts.

My promotion, the third and final variant I tried today, is for buying one book and getting the second book at 20% off.  I don't know how long I will leave the promotion, so take advantage of it while it lasts.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay via the Old Storefront

I am putting much more effort into Etsy.  Keep in mind that several other prominent series book collectors are also listing on Etsy.  You should make it one of the places you check when you look for books.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I have recently listed many Cherry Ames and Rick Brant books.  I have also listed many Nancy Drew international editions and will be listing more of them.

High International Shipping Costs and Free Domestic Shipping

Chinese sellers are able to list items on Amazon, eBay, and other sites for as little as U.S. $0.99, shipping included.  The Chinese receive subsidized postage rates, and the rest of the world is paying their postage for them.  Read the following article for more information.

As U.S. Postage Rates Continue To Rise, The USPS Gives The Chinese A 'Free Ride'

I still offer to ship books internationally, but most of my prospective international buyers think I am ripping them off.  They think I am choosing to use the most expensive shipping method instead of using a less expensive method.  The United States Postal Service no longer offers surface mail.  It does not exist.  We are only allowed to use the expensive method.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I do not offer to ship internationally for heavy bulk lots.  This is because it takes time to weigh the lots and figure out exactly what the postage will be.  It's not worth my time to do that when I know that no international buyers will be willing to pay the high cost.

I recently learned that deselecting international shipping on eBay was not enough to block international buyers from purchasing the bulk lots.  An international buyer purchased one of my bulk listings recently, which both surprised and dismayed me.  I was surprised since I thought I had blocked them.  I was dismayed because I knew that the buyer would back out.

I sent the requested invoice with the postage of $82.00 along with an apologetic message stating that I did not have a cheaper method to use.  The buyer immediately stated that she could not pay that much and asked for the transaction to be canceled.  That's why I don't offer international shipping on heavy bulk lots.  The transactions are always canceled.

After investigating, I learned that I must also select "exclude shipping locations" and select all continents in order to prevent international buyers from purchasing the heavy lots.  Each time an international buyer expresses interest in a heavy lot, they always back out, since the shipping is very high.  I understand completely, and I prefer to save trouble by not allowing them to initiate the purchase.

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

Some buyers really get hung up on free shipping and whether it helps or hurts them.  Many think that I have $3.95 fully built into the price of each book on eBay and think they are being ripped off when they purchase two items together that have free shipping.  These days, I don't think about the shipping when I price my items, except when I price bulk lots where I may be selling the books at or below cost.

Let's say that I have a book priced at $19.99 on eBay with free shipping.  This same book would have still been priced at $19.99 without free shipping, but then $3.95 would have been added to the base price of $19.99.  This means that my shipping is really free on eBay, so don't overthink it.

Others think that free shipping is always better and worry when they purchase like items that don't have free shipping.  I received an order on Etsy for six books.  On Etsy, postage is set at $3.95 for the first book and $0.50 for each additional book.  The buyer realized right after submitting the order that I have an eBay store which offers free shipping.  She told me, "Oh no you have an ebay store and it offers free shipping ... :'( I should have shopped there instead."

I had a feeling it didn't matter, but out of curiosity, I decided to see how much difference it would have made.  I found the same books in my eBay store and figured out how much she would have paid.  I sent her the following explanation of what I discovered.

I thought I'd compare my prices on eBay to what you paid here, just because I wanted to see if it did matter.  First, the books are different copies that are offered on the two sites.  Four of the titles are on eBay.  For the books that are there, with the eBay 10% discount and free shipping, the total for those books would have been about $58.

The four books that you purchased here with the 10% discount and paying for shipping ended up being around $58.  The difference looks to be just about $0.35, so it really didn't make a difference since some of the books on eBay are priced higher.  I try to price my items in a fashion so that it doesn't make a difference where you purchase the books.

I price many of my books cheaper on Etsy than what I do on eBay, which causes the shipping cost on Etsy not to matter.

Conversations with Prospective Buyers and Sellers

I frequently have people contact me wanting me to buy their books.  I almost always decline, since I am constantly in a position where I have too many extra books.  I can't take everyone's extra books.  It's not like my home is a huge warehouse.

Depending upon how busy I am, I may or may not respond to requests to purchase books.  Sometimes I am exhausted or very busy, and those are times that I read and then ignore the message.  Other times, I try to take the time to decline politely.

In the cases where I don't respond to the messages, some people get pushy, demanding a response.  And of course, the only proper response to those people is apparently "yes."

I took screen caps of a few conversations with identifying information removed.  This first one came from someone in the Philippines.  The only way I would purchase books from the Philippines would be to get neat international editions.  The postage cost is high.  I didn't respond to the first message, so the person tried again.  After I declined, he tried yet again.

I have also had several people try to manipulate me into purchasing books by telling me that the books will be destroyed if I don't purchase them.  Here is one example. Note that I did not respond, so they then became obnoxious.

I don't understand why, if someone purchased a book to make into a journal, they would contact me asking me if I want the book.

There are also the people who have desperate requests.

It's funny to be asked for the ending of a book that is actually available for free on Gutenberg.  All he needed to do was view the file on Gutenberg and read the ending.  I felt like he was writing a book report and needed someone to feed him the information really fast.

I also have prospective buyers try to negotiate prices with me on eBay and Etsy.  I don't have "best offer" activated for my listings.  That's a big sign that I don't want to negotiate prices.  However, an increasing number of buyers try to get me to lower my prices to fit their needs.  Sometimes I respond and politely decline.  Other times, I do not bother to respond.  I sometimes get harassed, since some people do not understand that a lack of response means "no."

Several people have annoyed me with the tone of the request.  In one case, my mind was closed as soon as I read the first message, yet that person continued to try to beat me down, sending multiple messages even when I did not respond. 

There are rare cases when I might respond favorably, but the books have to be more expensive books for which I am aware that I will almost certainly have to gradually lower the prices.  I will not do a drastic price reduction.  Some people want me to take 50% or more off when they inquire, and I ignore those people.

Other people have no chance of success because they offer the information in a difficult fashion for me to process.  A list of item numbers is obnoxious and means nothing to me.  I will not take the time to paste each one into eBay's search.  A list of titles is almost as obnoxious.  If you want me to consider a price reduction, then place the links to the items in the message.  eBay allows links to its own site in its message system.  Make it easy, or I'll ignore you.

Even if you do make it easy, there is a high chance that I'll still ignore you.

What Some Buyers Find Important

It is interesting to compare what I find important as a buyer to what some of my buyers find important.  As I have been exploring various boys' series in the last year, I have on several occasions wished to build a set of a series immediately so that I could read the books in the very near future.

I consider price, paper quality, absence of odor, absence of water damage, and dust jacket spine and front panel condition to be most important and not necessarily in that order.  I care not at all if a name is written inside.  Certainly, an unmarked book is preferable to one with a name written inside, but the factors I just listed are far more important to me.

I almost never purchase the least expensive book if I can find one that is somewhat more expensive that better meets my other conditions.  There is a limit, however, to how high I will go, so I do sometimes take a less expensive copy with flaws when the other copies are higher than I wish to pay. 

If I see several copies with dust jackets, I will usually take a copy that has less wear to the spine and front panel.  If two sellers have the same book but one seller does not picture the dust jacket spine, I will purchase the book from the seller who pictured the spine, even if that copy is priced $5 or $10 higher.  I want a nice spine, since that is the part I can see on the shelf.

Most recently, I decided to build a set of Tom Quest books.  I built the set over the course of an hour.  Yes, I move very quickly.  I wanted to acquire all eight books fast so that I could read them in the near future.  I searched eBay, Etsy, Bonanza, Amazon, and AbeBooks for copies to purchase.  I had to print myself a list of the eight titles so that I could make notes about the copies that I found on the different sites.

The first six Tom Quest titles were issued in hardcover with dust jacket by Grosset and Dunlap.  The first six were reissued in the Clover picture cover edition, and the last two books were only published in the Clover edition, which has pulp paper.  Since I dislike reading books with pulp paper, my first decision was to purchase the books with dust jackets for the first six titles.  I knew that the early printings of some books might have pulp paper, but I would still prefer reading one of those books to reading a Clover edition.

Next, I had to locate books with jackets on the five sites I mentioned.  I quickly abandoned AbeBooks and Amazon because I found sufficient copies available on other sites.  I always check AbeBooks and Amazon, since I sometimes find nice books at bargain prices.  However, those sites are usually my last resort, since the sellers typically do not photograph the books and often overprice them by a lot. 

I eliminated the books on Bonanza very quickly since the selection on Bonanza was very poor.  I don't know what is wrong with the sellers on Bonanza.  Not only do the sellers price their books too high, but the selection tends to be worse on Bonanza than on the other sites.  I wonder if this is one of the reasons my Bonanza booth has died.  When a large number of sellers on a site overprice common books, buyers will ignore the site.

I found the books I wanted on eBay and Etsy.  Five books came from eBay, and three came from Etsy.  I had to settle for some books with chipping to the spines of the jackets, but I did purchase the overall best ones that I could.  As already mentioned, this means that I generally did not select the cheapest copies.

As I compared listings, I looked at the pictures and skimmed the descriptions to make sure that the books did not have horrific condition problems not seen in the pictures.  I did not pay attention to the item specifics or to details like whether a name was written inside.  Those factors matter not in the slightest to me.  Item specifics are only important in the complete absence of a written description.  Names written inside books have never bothered me.

This brings me to my buyers.

I have noticed that a number of buyers are very worried about whether names are written inside the books.  One buyer wanted books without names because she wanted to be able to pretend the books were her mother's while she was reading them.  Other buyers are concerned about how neat the writing is.  If the writing is messy or not attractive, then that is a problem.  I had one buyer ask to me photograph the names inside the books I had for sale so that she could choose which books based on the appearance of the names.

Think about that.  A buyer is more concerned about the appearance of a name inside the book than on the appearance of a dust jacket that is outside the book.

Other buyers are obsessively concerned with the item specifics.  I refer to that box that shows in eBay listings above the item description.  The item specifics box identifies the book as hardcover or softcover and gives a condition rating for the book.  The part that worries these buyers is the condition rating.  They especially don't like it if the condition rating doesn't quite match the item description.  They assign a higher significance to the condition rating than to the item description that was typed out by the seller.  Let that sink in for a moment.

Perhaps the buyers aren't aware that sellers commonly copy one listing to the next and often don't change the condition rating in the item specifics.  The only reason many sellers include the items specifics is because eBay forces them to do it.  Many sellers assign the condition rating of "acceptable" to every single book they sell regardless of condition.  They do this in order to avoid accidentally having too high of a condition rating in the item specifics box.  This is why less significance should be placed on the condition rating than on what the seller has typed out.

A couple months ago, a buyer purchased a large number of books from me, including one book with pulp paper from 1945.  After the buyer received the book, he asked to return it because he did not consider the paper to be fit to be read.  He didn't realize that the pulp paper would be as bad as it was.  He returned the book, and I refunded him.  This was not a problem, by the way.  Pulp books can be tricky to sell.  Because of that return, I have tried to stress how bad the pulp paper is in listings created since that return so that hopefully no one else will be disappointed.

Ten days after the buyer returned that book, he queried me about one of my listings.  He wrote:

I would like to see more pictures: a picture of the copyright page, of the cracked hinge, of the first page of the last chapter, a few random pages of the book. I would like to know if it has damaged pages due to food stains or water. The coloring of the pages: are the pages bright as if they were new, or yellow/deep yellow? Please let me know. Thank you.

Even though this was not a book with pulp paper, I assumed that the buyer was worried about the paper quality due to the previous return or was worried that he might have to return another book.  I took a few photos and added them to the listing.  I told him, "The pages are lightly yellowed.  The book is not water-damaged or stained.  I added a few photos to the listing."

Finally, the buyer let me know what the real problem was.  He responded, "Will you please explain to me the condition of the book. Why is it only 'Good.' I've bought from you other books and I have to trust you when you say 'Very Good' or just 'Good.' "

Ah.  I then realized that he is one of the buyers who think that the item specifics are more important than the written description.  I responded as follows:

Always use my written description for notes about the condition of my books.  Never use that box that has the item specifics.  The information in that box gets copied from one listing to the next.  I try to change the condition value for that box up and down from one listing to the next, but sometimes it does not get changed.  That is what happened with this listing.  If that box contradicts the written description, go with the written description which will be accurate.  I apologize for the confusion.

I also knew as I sent my response that this buyer would never purchase from me again.  I knew that since he considered the item specifics to be of utmost importance that he would never trust me again.  He has not purchased from me again, at least not yet, and this was six weeks ago.  He had made several purchases from me previous to asking about the item specifics of that listing.

The buyers who are overly concerned about item specifics or names written inside are likely a small percentage of buyers.  Most buyers are probably more concerned with the overall condition of a book and jacket.

Buyers Thinking the Wrong Book Was Sent

I had a buyer contact me, telling me that I sent her the wrong book.  She told me that she expected to receive title A, which was pictured, and instead, she received title B.  This was a Nancy Drew book.  Pretty much, I was speechless. 

You see, I know how I package my books.  I know how easy it is to pack a different copy of a title or to switch address labels, thereby sending the wrong books to two different people.  Around 16 or 17 years ago, I had a suspicion that I might have switched labels right after I packed two boxes.  I opened one, and I discovered that I had switched labels.  Around the same time, I mailed the wrong copy of a book to someone and had to have that person mail the book to the correct recipient.  Ever since those incidents, I have been careful to make sure it doesn't happen again.  I was 99.9% certain I had sent her the right book.  I am not infallible, so I could possibly have messed up.

This is how I pack my books.  I find the title that was purchased.  To make certain that I have the right copy of the right book, I bring up the listing and get the picture enlarged.  I hold the book and compare it to the picture.  I make sure that both have the same wear patterns.  As long as I can find some blemishes, even very tiny ones, that match exactly, I know I have the same book.  Sometimes I discover that I have picked up the wrong book and have to go back to find another.  When I am satisfied that I have the correct book, I pack the book with the packing slip from that listing.  I make sure that I click on the "print label" link from that listing.  I completely finish sealing the box and applying the label before I begin on the next package.  That's why I was 99.9% certain I had mailed the right book.

I looked at the listing and thought about it.  This isn't always the case, but I remembered packing that book.  I won't get into the details, but there is a specific reason I remember.  It has to do with when I was checking for wear patterns and looking over the listing.  I knew I had packed that book a week before.  I had mailed out no copies anytime in recent weeks of the title the buyer said she received.  I couldn't have mailed the book she received.

I told the buyer that I was certain I had mailed the right book and asked for a picture of what she received.  I also told the buyer my name and asked if my name was on a packing slip inside the package.  Meanwhile, I continued thinking about the book.  There was still a chance I could have screwed up.  I thought of one possibility.  I had a stack of Nancy Drew books on the floor that had been there since around the time that I packed this book.  There was a slight chance that I could have somehow switched the book with one from that stack.  I still had the books stacked, so I brought up the listing from which they were purchased and compared the books to the listing.  The books were all there, and the book I was supposed to mail was not in the stack.  I had to have mailed the right book.

Shortly, the buyer sent me a picture of an envelope with another seller's name on it along with a UK edition Nancy Drew book.  I told her that the seller was not me, because we have different names and live in different states.  The buyer told me that she had begun to wonder after she received my response giving my name, which was different from the sender's name.  She agreed that I didn't send her that package.  That was the end of it.

I probably have around one buyer per year tell me that I sent the wrong book.  The situation always gets resolved when they figure out that they have confused me with another seller.

Responding to Buyer Questions

I was asked this question about two Three Investigators books.

I know in the description it states something about hinges being cracked and spine slanted. I just want to make sure that these are not on the verge of falling apart when being read and that there are no missing pages.

I answered as follows.

I always check books for missing pages and don't place them up for sale. Books with missing pages are discarded. By "cracked," I mean that there is a slight crack in the hinge; as in, it is showing the early signs of separation. The hinges have not yet split, which is when they are completely separated. A slanted spine is when the spine is not square as it was when new; it is at a slant. This happens in books that have been improperly shelved over the years. Poor quality glue was used when the Three Investigators hardcover books were bound, so the hinges quite often crack or split. I can't guarantee that the hinges won't weaken further when the books are read.

I included the last line because I don't know what will happen when the book is read.  I haven't forgotten the softcover Nancy Drew book that was in one piece when I started reading it.  The book began falling apart as I read it and was in two or three pieces by the time I finished.  It was not good.

I also knew that by including the last line that I was guaranteeing that the buyer would not purchase the books.  I would rather the buyer purchase from someone else who is willing to guarantee what will happen when the books are read.

A couple months ago, I had a buyer take me to task for not including information that they felt should have been included.  Sometimes when I sell books, I am more interested in ridding myself of them than in trying to get top dollar.  I wish to get them off my hands with minimal effort, especially when I know that I will have trouble finding a buyer even at a low price.  For some books, going above and beyond does absolutely no good.  In those cases, I do not necessarily include all information that I might otherwise include.

In particular, when the book has a jacket, I might in some cases decide not to photograph the book without the jacket on it.  I realize that this could bother some prospective buyers.  I also realize that I didn't jump on it when the buyer mentioned the lack of a photo of a Ruth Fielding book; the listing only had a picture of the book with the jacket on it.  Instead of adding the photo, I replied that the book was most likely the final format since the dust jacket was the final format.  My mistake.  I was taken to task for not adding the photo, and it was suggested that using "probably" and "likely" along with the lack of a photo did not inspire confidence.  I added the photo after receiving the response, and I should have added the photo when it was first requested.

I had another buyer ask me about a matte picture cover edition of the Nancy Drew book, The Sky Phantom, that lists to Parchment on the back cover.  The buyer wanted to know if the book has the "multi scene endpapers" and if I had pictures of the endpapers and copyright page.  I also opted not to add photos in that case, either.

First of all, I replied that the description stated that the book has "black and white multi endpapers."  I explained that "black and white multi endpapers" mean the "multi scene endpapers."  I also described the endpapers as having many small scenes of black and white cover art pictures so that the buyer would know that I knew what was meant.

Next, I stated that the copyright page means nothing.  All matte printings with black and white multi endpapers have the same copyright page.  I explained how the back cover list dates the book.  Yes, I could have added photos in slightly more time than it took to type the response, but I believe buyers need to learn how to use a description that actually contains useful information so that they can draw conclusions about what is being sold.

I guess I'm being a rebel about the pictures.

I've been under a lot of stress in recent months, and I've unfortunately been catching one virus after another since the middle of September.  For that reason, I have tried not to spend large amounts of time answering buyer questions and putting up additional photos.  I don't have the patience right now.  That's why I didn't add the photo of the Ruth Fielding book when it was first requested.  That's why I didn't add photos of the Nancy Drew book.  One time in the past year, a buyer had me photograph the names written inside all of my Nancy Drew books with jackets so that she could purchase the ones where the names were neatly written or less obvious.  She ended up buying only a couple, so my time didn't really pay off.  I now wouldn't do that, and I wouldn't be worried about losing the sale.

I am trying to answer questions as briefly as I can.  I may have been curt in a few cases, but I try to avoid that even when replying with brevity.  It does little good to spend large amounts of time answering questions in great detail only to have this happen.  So unfortunately, I may not respond as well to questions as I could since I have spent so much time on them in the past and not felt that it helped.

Right now, I'm all about keeping my stress level down, and I apologize in advance if my listings do not meet your quality expectations.  I am not being sarcastic; this is simply how it is.