Selling Books

Amazon tests new "leave seller feedback" page

2008-04-08T18:46:00.004-04:00

Amazon is testing a new "leave seller feedback" page, according to this announcement.

Usually when Amazon posts an announcement like this, there's also an accompanying image of the new page being planned or tested. Not this time. Hmmm.

It seems I'm seeing the change in my buying account already. The thing I notice most is that the "seller's comments" are reproduced on the feedback page. That's a good thing, I guess. Also, when you run your mouse over the empty stars, a guide pops up telling you that 5 stars is "excellent," one is "awful," etc. Here's what I see when I click "leave seller feedback" link on my most recent Marketplace order. Anyone else?:

Q&A: Are recalled or banned books valuable?

2008-03-15T10:00:00.003-04:00

QUESTION: There have been a few books in the news recently from authors who claimed that the events they wrote about in their memoirs were true when in fact they were fictionalized. Recently one was said to be "recalled" by the publisher.

If you can find copies, perhaps these are good books to invest in and resell online later -- if the publisher doesn't dump them all as remainders, flooding the market. Do publishers destroy recalled books, or just pass them off to the public later?

ANSWER: This has happened so many times recently, you have to start wondering whether the publisher is really trying to do the right thing, or whether it's just a publicity stunt designed to sell more books. If you can corner the market, you can make a few bucks, I guess.

My rule of thumb for all "unusual" books -- whether they're autographed books, misbound books, banned books, special editions, or whatever -- is to consider the demand for reading copies of the book. If the book sells briskly at a good price, then someone will probably pay a premium for something they consider collectible.

But in this case, the book is a one-of-a-kind. It's the first book by an unknown author, so it's probably a crapshoot. What are the odds this author will write a blockbuster next time and push up the value of his or her previous books?

I think that some "recalled" books probably are pulped and never reach the public. Apparently this happened with the original edition of the O.J. "confession" book. Are these rare books or collectible books? I don't know. As long as there's nothing offensive about the book, I'm all for selling the books online at a profit. But usually I'm not willing to take a chance unless I think a book is a sure winner.

Throwing good books into the dumpster

2008-03-15T09:52:00.004-04:00

You've got to wonder how often this happens. A school or library throwing perfectly good books into the trash:

Several garbage bags filled with copies of classic literature like "Little Women," "Sarah, Plain and Tall" and "Treasure Island" were discarded in a Dumpster alongside Intermediate School 73 in Maspeth.

"Those books, you open them up, they still crack, they're so new," one staffer said. "Why not give them away or hold a book drive at least?"

I've seen this happen at a regional public library near my house. Either these books should be given away or sold, or there will be a lot more dumpster-diving.

Some good reasons to consider Fulfillment by Amazon

2008-02-18T09:51:00.005-05:00

For a while now I've been reading an excellent blog by Randy Smythe, who provides some interesting statistics about his Amazon selling, especially how Fulfillment by Amazon has been getting additional sales for him.

Randy ran his numbers this weekend and found a unmistakable pattern:

In January, FBA shipped 796 orders for me.
Amazon Prime Customers- Made up 20% (157) of those orders.

Super-Saver Shipping - Made up 53% (423) of those orders

Regular Shipping - Made up 27% (216) of those orders.

As you can see, free shipping is a huge incentive for buyers, and it seems FBA orders are making up a growing percentage of Randy's business. (You can list some of your items via FBA while continuing to sell other items directly to buyers.)

Why do I even mention these numbers? Because, if you are not listing and selling using FBA, you are missing out on a huge number of Amazon buyers, who want free shipping (I still sold 27% of my orders to customers who paid for S&H as well).

Read the rest of Randy's post for an illustration of why buyers regularly choose items listed with FBA. (Hint: It's all about the shipping fee and the sorting advantage FBA gives your listing.)

Judging from the FBA Message Board, Amazon is still working the kinks out of this program. Hardly a day goes by without an FBA merchant screaming about how Amazon has fouled up their account. Perhaps the problems are confined to particular warehouses, while other warehouses are managing FBA without too many hiccups.

Judging from Randy's reports, FBA seems to be developing into an important sales tool already.

Will eBay boycott bring boatloads of sellers to Amazon?

2008-02-17T12:29:00.003-05:00

The week-long eBay boycott set to begin tomorrow is getting huge play in the media. Sellers are outraged about a series of changes to feedback, fees, and search results. Here's a good rundown of the changes at CNN/Money:

• Fee hike sparks seller rebellion

• Backlash: Rival sites court eBay sellers

• Outraged sellers plot strike

• PayPal funds freeze draws fire

• Talk back: eBay forum discussion

• 5 sellers who ditched eBay

And here's a YouTube video that states the grievances of sellers devastatingly well.

In part, it says:

New CEO John Donahoe] called eBay sellers and buyers "nothing more than noise." He then proceeded to call eBay buyers and sellers "a flea market" and implied that he is ashamed to be a part of it.

In his very next breath, Mr. Donahoe then announced yet another eBay fee increase. This increase raises fees by up to 66 percent higher for some sellers. eBay management had the bright idea to market this increase as a "fee decrease," blatantly insulting the intelligence of millions of buyers and sellers worldwide."

True enough. But as noted by Ina Steiner on AuctionBytes, the impact of the week-long boycott will be hard to measure. eBay has coyly scheduled a temporary listing fee reduction to coincide with the boycott.

Meanwhile, Amazon is doing all it can to attract eBay refugees. "We want all sellers on our site," Amazon's business solutions chief, Matt Williams, told Steiner.

eBay 101: Selling on eBay For Part-time or Full-time Income, Beginner to PowerSeller in 90 Days

Amazon redesigns payment accounts

2008-02-14T22:47:00.003-05:00

The excitement never stops at Amazon. Now they're redesigning the payments section of seller accounts. Click twice on the picture at right for an enlarged illustration. Here's the announcement:

Soon we will be upgrading the Get Paid section of your Seller Account. Below is a preview of the redesign. Please note, these changes are designed to make this feature easier to use. No fees are being changed or updated. Improvements include:
A completely new interface that makes it easy to examine your financial data.
No longer need the additional log-in step currently required.
Quick access to other settlement periods.
A set of Quick Filters to quickly refine a list of transactions.
Easy drill down to transaction details and order information.
We know that access to your Payments account is key to your business; therefore, we will provide continued access to the current interface while you move to the new one.

As always, we welcome your comments. Please feel free to send feedback to sya-changes@amazon.com.

Thank you for selling on Amazon!

eBay cuts media listing fees, but shuts the book on feedback

2008-02-12T07:27:00.000-05:00

It seems eBay is starting to recognize that sellers are really steamed about the recent policy changes. In response, the company is making what looks like a token adjustments in fees in some categories, including books. But there's no give on the issue of feedback--sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral ratings for bad buyers.

eBay is slashing insertion fees for these categories by up to 50 percent. For example, auctions with start prices of $1.00 to $9.99 will cost 25 cents in insertion fees, compared with 40 cents under the previous scenario.

Here are the changes, effective February 20:

In the Books, Music, Movies and Video Game software categories, eBay will offer lower insertion fees for the first three insertion tiers as follows:
$0.01 – 0.99 (auction-style only)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .20
New Media fee: $ .10
$1.00 - 9.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .40
New Media fee: $ .25

$10.00 – 24.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .60
New Media fee: $ .35

But eBay marketplace honcho Lorrie Norrington pooh-poohed seller concerns that the recent feedback changes would hurt business. "We will proceed with our plans to evolve our feedback system and with the weighting of Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) in search, as announced," she said. "They are both central to our plans and will aid in providing a great buying experience from sellers buyers can trust."

By a landslide, eBay sellers say feedback changes will hurt business

2008-02-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

Nearly 99 percent of eBay sellers responding to a survey last week said the site's recent feedback changes will hurt business. The only thing sellers were happy about was enhanced PayPal protection for Powersellers:

	Neg	Pos
Feedback changes	98.7%	1.3%
Fee changes	86.3%	13.7%
Best Match search visibility changes	83.3%	16.7%
Seller Standards	84.9%	15.1%
PayPal Protection for eBay PowerSellers	29.6%	70.4%

Read the full report here at AuctionBytes.

After eBay policy changes, Amazon sees surge of new sellers

2008-02-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

No, it's not your imagination, there really are a lot more people selling on Amazon lately.

Amazon claims it has seen a spike in new sellers after several controversial policy changes by eBay.

"We've certainly heard of frustration with other marketplaces, and we've seen a significant increase in registrations," said Matt Williams, Amazon's business solutions general manager.

Longtime eBay seller Debi Lee said Amazon has worked well for certain items in her repertoire. She tired of eBay's tactics and now uses the site primarily to educate consumers about her products...

The full article is posted here at Fortune Small Business.

eBay will give special deal to PowerSellers

2008-02-09T10:48:00.001-05:00

Ever since its founding, eBay has emphasized its "level playing field." That meant small sellers were treated exactly the same as the megasellers, and nobody had a special advantage.

Now, with longtime CEO Meg Whitman on her way out the door and with eBay trying to revive its growth, it's offering a sweetheart deal for PowerSellers who maintain certain feedback ratings. Check out the comments at the bottom of this New York Times blog post, the first one calls for a Feb. 18 boycott:

Specifically, the discount applies to PowerSellers, those who sell more than $1,000 a month on eBay and meet other criteria. They will get a discount of 5 percent or 15 percent off the final value fee—the percentage of the sale price eBay takes—depending on their feedback ratings.

The discounts are tied to eBay’s new “detailed seller rating” system that asks buyers to rank sellers on a one to five point scale four categories: item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping and handling charges.

Have you ever mooched a book?

2008-02-09T09:32:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting article in Fortune written by someone who's just discovered the book-sharing site BookMooch but is concerned that booksellers like us are taking advantage of it. It's a new twist on the age-old question of whether it's ethical to resell books from thrift shops, etc.

I fear Internet entrepreneurs may be taking advantage of Bookmooch... After all, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people these days using the Internet to sell used books for cash. And once the idea of resale outside the system is introduced, Bookmooch's point scheme becomes close to irrelevant; booksellers would have no problem giving away hundreds of books they can't sell in order to acquire books they can.

Q&A: Is climate control essential for storing used books?

2008-02-07T12:06:00.001-05:00

QUESTION: Most of the books I have for sale are stored on shelves in my garage. I keep the more expensive books inside my house.

My garage is clean and dry, and the books are well off the ground, but I am concerned about the temperature extremes. I live in New England, so it can get quite cold in the winter. In the summer I used a dehumidifier, which definitely made a difference. But there is little I can do about the cold. What effect, if any, will the dry, cold air have on these garage stored books?

ANSWER: When I started selling books online full-time, I lived in a one-bedroom apartment. I had to go shopping for storage space, and all the storage units with heating/air conditioning seemed outrageously expensive. Since I couldn't afford climate-controlled storage for my books, I got a regular Public Storage unit, which resembled a single-car garage. It had a rickety orange door that rolled down in front; it was about as thick as a tin can. On the right is a picture of the place -- I must have lugged 5 tons of books in and out of there.

So for my first three or four years, my books weren't protected from temperate extremes at all. Pretty soon, I had about 15,000 books listed (I had to get two more storage units and was paying $1,200 a month is storage fees) and I was worried about the effect on the books. With all the temperature and humidity changes, I was afraid the books would crack to pieces.

Fortunately, I never noticed any damage to any of the books -- except for one that got mildewed. That's what I think the main problem is -- mold and mildew. I never had much of a problem with it, even though the summertime here in Virginia is very humid.

Also, I turn over inventory relatively quickly. My average book isn't sitting there for years, deteriorating all the time. Within a few months, the average book is sold and shipped to a buyer. If my books had been sitting around like this for years, maybe some damage would become apparent.

In my storage units, I set out mothballs and bug repellent but I'm not sure whether those did any good or not. I never found any silverfish. Of course, the books worth more than $100 I kept indoors. And now I have a big basement for storing all my books, and I have better book-preservation habits.

One hassle I did have at my storage units: During the winters, whenever we got a big snow, I'd have to shovel the snow from the front of my storage doors, and it would take forever. That's a great way to spend your morning -- huffing and puffing, sweating like a pig in your winter coat, with a baby crying in the car. But I could never afford to wait a day or two until Public Storage got around to plowing -- I had to get my orders out.

Anyone else have stories about makeshift book storage or techniques for protection from the elements?

Just because a book is old doesn't mean it's valuable

2008-02-06T09:18:00.001-05:00

Here's something I've never seen before: Someone wrote into their local newspaper with a question about rare books, and they actually gave a pretty good answer in the newspaper.

The question was:

I have a play book on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is 4 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches. It is a hardback book printed in 1917 by the McMillan Co. It is 173 pages. How could I find out if it is worth anything?

The answer is here in Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger.

Another book lover mourns the pre-Internet days

2008-02-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

Here's a nice little newspaper biography about Wayne Kee, a rabid book collector in the Northwest.

He tells a good story about passing up on a chance to buy an1814 edition of the Lewis and Clark journals for around $6,000, something he could sell today for $200,000.

But he seems to have mixed feeling about the Internet's impact on book collecting and selling:

Before the Internet came along, it was a wonderful world out
there, finding books. Now that the Internet has come along, everything has come up now, and you have a true market in books. Now you put them on eBay, and you can no longer find something at a decent price. But the one thing that it has
done is brought out a lot of books that people didn’t know about before.

OK, who's going to tell this guy about Amazon?

eBay's Griff offers shaky defense of feedback changes

2008-02-02T10:34:00.001-05:00

After the feedback changes announced this week at eBay, I wouldn't be surprised if there's an angry, torch-wielding mob beating down the front door of eBay's headquarters right now.

The new feedback policy prevents sellers from giving a bad buyer a neutral or negative feedback.

Huh? I've had about 5,000 transactions on eBay/Half and I've never left a negative for a buyer. But I should have the right to do so. It's called checks and balances. It's what regulates eBay's marketplace.

As you might expect, eBay's employees are all defending the decision, despite the outrage from sellers. Today the dean of eBay University, Griff, weighed in on his blog. He argues that eBay feedback had become meaningless because too many buyers are afraid to hit a bad seller with negative feedback, even when it's deserved.

The way it's supposed to work, Griff argues, is that sellers should automatically give buyers positive feedback. Then, buyers won't fear a retaliatory negative rating by the seller. Then, according to Griff's logic, the feedback scores of crummy sellers won't be inflated, and buyers will rest easy.

Here's how Griff puts it exactly:

Many sellers maintained a 99-100% positive Feedback rating by building their whole business strategy around “customer first” by providing the best possible experience for all their buyers. Let’s call them “A1” sellers. The majority of these “A1” sellers left Feedback for their buyers upon receipt of payment...
Many other sellers maintained a 99-100% by exploiting the system’s inherent built-in weakness: the implied threat of retaliation for a received negative. These sellers – we’ll call them “A2” sellers – never left Feedback first, but always waited to leave Feedback after the buyer left Feedback for them.

Griff, I beg to differ. Many sellers--like me, for instance-- who've been burned by irresponsible buyers now make it a habit of leaving feedback only after they've heard that the customer is satisfied. And in most cases, we know whether the buyer is happy when they leave feedback. (Needless to say, if they're not happy, I fix things.)

Griff, I'm not pulling this out of thin air, eBay itself approves this practice. It's in black and white, right here in eBay's official Feedback Tutorial:

Either approach is acceptable.... One reason sellers wait until a buyer has left feedback is they take the feedback as the signal that the buyer is satisfied with the purchase and no further customer support is needed.

Frankly, to be told I'm an "A2 seller" on eBay is pretty offensive to me. I've bent over backwards to ensure that each one of my customers was happy with their purchase.

What's your take on this?

Amazon's move to e-content threatens booksellers

2008-02-01T07:15:00.000-05:00

Cutthroat price competition keeps driving bookseller after bookseller out of business. But the bigger threat is Amazon's move into digital content delivery.

I'm not too worried about e-books at this point. Amazon's Kindle isn't keeping me awake at night. Apple's Steve Jobs says Kind is dead on arrival because nobody reads anymore. Frankly, I'm more concerned about downloadable audiobooks.

Being able to sell instant downloads of audiobooks for iPod and MP3 player is going to fatten Amazon's profits. Not only does this totally lock out third-party sellers, it even cuts out book printers and distributors, the whole industry supply chain! All Amazon needs to do is add a few bits to its computer.

On Thursday Amazon said that it had agreed to buy Audible, the Web’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks, for $300 million. Amazon isn’t saying much about what it will do with the company, but bringing audiobooks directly to its Web site and to the Kindle is the obvious first step.

I'm not a computer geek by any stretch of the imagination, but I bought an MP3 player about a year ago and have worn out three sets of headphones since. I've been really surprised with the quality of the audiobook experience -- I don't know whether it's my imagination or not, but I seem to absorb more of a book's content when I'm listening to a good reader.

Someday soon, everyone is going to have a cellphone with the same capability of these MP3 player.

Is eBay making it harder to sell low-end items?

2008-01-31T18:26:00.001-05:00

There's been a lot of debate recently about whether eBay works as a selling venue for non-collectible books and other inexpensive items.

Lots of eBay sellers have a store to park slow-moving books at fixed prices. But the fees add up, and despite the recent changes at eBay, overall fees are continuing to go up.

The fees changes that are coming next month have been advertised as a reduction in fees, but take a look at this analysis:

Auctioning an item at $25 would have cost the seller $1.91, including 60 cents for insertion fees plus eBay's final-value fee commission of $1.31. So under the new program, the seller pays $2.74, including 55 cents to list the item plus a higher commission of $2.19.

As you can imagine there are a lot of unhappy sellers:

Carol Hearn, who sells antiques on eBay from Washington state, said ... "It looks like what they are trying to do with the fees is make it more difficult and expensive to sell low-end items. The people that are selling low-end items are going to feel this fee increase the most," Hearn said.

My prediction is that eBay is going to make its site increasingly attractive for the megaseller -- at the expense of the small and part-time seller. eBay makes 80 percent of its revenue from the top 20 percent of its sellers.

In December Amazon's traffic surpassed eBay's for the first time.

Are the changes at eBay going to result in fewer listings and fewer buyers?

Q&A: How much is my First Edition worth?

2008-01-31T14:44:00.000-05:00

QUESTION: I just started selling books online. The other day, I bought a book in a used book shop for $6, and can't figure out how to price it. There's a big discrepancy in prices I see at Amazon and elsewhere.

The book is A Magician Among the Spirits by Houdini. I found this link for it on Amazon.

But my copy is a First Edition. It has silver lettering and gilt edges with a purple fabric bookmark.

How much should I ask for this book?

ANSWER: Well, that's an interesting find. But I would be very cautious about assuming you have a First Edition.

I've picked up some amazing bargains over the years in bookshops and resold them online for up to 10 times what I paid. I'm not an expert on First Editions by any means, but something tells me that your Houdini book is a reproduction of the original edition.

If someone out there has some knowledge about this book, I hope they'll chime in with a comment.

Amazon does have a page for the First Edition. There's just one copy listed at $275 with this description:

Comments: New York; Harper & Brothers; 1924; 1st Edition; Hardcover; Very Good-; tall octavo; 294pp (including index) plus black & white photo plates; no dust jacket; Very Good minus gilt-stamped blue-gray cloth; book shows minor shelf wear and light sunning; slight softening to spine ends; small white stain mid-spine; corners lightly bumped; internally clean and unmarked; spine just slightly shaken; else clean, tight copy of the first edition.

Great description, although a photo is a tremendous help when start getting into this price range. And personally, if I had the only copy, I'd be asking more than $275--people will never lose interest in Houdini. Sure enough, a search for Firsts at BookFinder shows most sellers want much more, including one chap in the UK who wants $3,000. And no, it's not signed.

By coincidence, a copy of this First Edition signed by Houdini's wife sold on eBay today. I can only guess that the condition held the price down:

HOUDINI MAGICIAN AMONG SPIRITS 1ST ED SIGNED					View similar active items Sell one like this
	11	$265.00	$8.00	Jan-31 11:11
Houdini A Magician among the Spirits Spiritualism					View similar active items Sell one like this
	0	$17.74	$22.23	Jan-30 01:00
Houdini Book HCDJ 1972 Magician Among The Spirits					View similar active items Sell one like this
	0	$5.99	$4.00	Jan-23 21:32
HOUDINI A MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS WITH BONUS BOOK					View similar active items Sell one like this

eBay bans negative feedback for buyers, cuts listing fees

2008-01-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

eBay announced some huge changes today, the summary is below.

Nobody will have a problem with the reduced listing fees, but a lot of sellers are going to be outraged that they can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers. I don't see how the seller has any leverage to prevent buyer fraud without the ability to report bad buyers via feedback.

eBay honcho Bill Cobb said there's "a lot of passion" among sellers about the feedback policy change. That's got to be the understatement of the decade.

Reduced Listing Fees
Lower Insertion Fees and adjusting Final Value Fees, which reduces the up-front costs of selling on eBay. Free Gallery picture on every listing, and some additional feature discounts.
Rewards for seller performance
There will be discounts and incentives for sellers with the best customer satisfaction rates according to the anonymous five-star Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs).
Feedback Changes
The strategy is to "increase buyer confidence" and "showcase good sellers."

Speaking of eBay...

2008-01-28T13:44:00.001-05:00

I have a few review copies of this new eBay guide for those who are interested.

I have 10 copies listed on Amazon Marketplace for 1 cent (OMG -- I've become a penny seller!).

And of course there's an auction on eBay.

I'll sign your copy too. In return I'd appreciate it if you'd write an honest review of the book -- keeping in mind that it's a guide for eBay novice to intermediate sellers. If you're already a pro at eBay, this book won't be earth-shattering for you (although there is a great deal of eBay trivia indexed in it, which may be helpful. But no information about bookselling in particular).

I say these are "review" copies, but they are not marked that way -- these are the retail edition, and so their resale isn't prohibited.

Amazon posts chargeback guide for sellers

2008-01-25T21:55:00.000-05:00

Have you ever received this dreaded message from Amazon Payments?

We are writing to let you know that the credit card issuer has contacted us on behalf of the purchaser of the below transaction. We would ask that you provide us with proof of delivery to provide to the credit card issuer...

I've received a few of these over the years, but they seem to be more frequent than ever, judging from the seller message boards. So far, Amazon has never debited the amount in question from my account. But I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen, since Amazon has recently started docking sellers for A to Z claims, even when USPS delivery confirmation shows receipt.

No doubt Amazon is getting lots of inquiries from sellers on this, so they've just published a list of Frequently Asked Questions to explain how chargebacks work for sellers:

What is a chargeback?

A chargeback occurs when a cardholder contacts their bank to dispute the charge for an order placed on Amazon.com. Chargebacks are also known as "charge disputes" and they can be filed for a variety of reasons, ranging from non-receipt of the item ordered to unauthorized use of the credit card.

Read the rest of the Chargeback FAQ here. Not surprisingly, it recommends that you use a "trackable" shipping method and ship only to the shipping address you receive with the order.

Another shoe is ready to drop at eBay

2008-01-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

Big changes are afoot at eBay. A new chief executive is on the way in, and Meg Whitman is on the way out.

At the top of the agenda:

Shifting eBay's emphasis from auctions to fixed-priced listing, which could make the experience of buying on eBay more like the one customers have come to expect from sites like Amazon.

Fixed-price sales now account for 40 percent of eBay's revenue. Who knew?

An announcement on a new fee structure is expected next week. I am guessing -- I'm way out on a limb here -- that fees for sellers will be higher.

If eBay can improve its search function and repeat-business action, higher fees might be worth it.

One area where eBay is expected to CUT fees: image hosting. That's long overdue, if you ask me. The more product images on eBay, the more sales. Encouraging multiple photos for listings without a fee penalty makes a lot of sense.

There's a lot of speculation about what this means for eBay Store sellers. For those of you who sell on eBay, how do your costs compare to Amazon when you add up insertion, final-value, and PayPal fees, compared to Amazon's 15-percent Marketplace commissions?

Amazon accepts seller input on packing slip changes

2008-01-24T19:09:00.000-05:00

Based on feedback from Amazon sellers to a proposed design to the "Manage Your Orders" section of its Web site, Amazon has made these revisions (click here and then click again on the image for an enlarged view):

Added a Pending Orders feature that will allow you to view orders that have not finished processing. You can use this option to help reconcile inventory levels. Previously, you would have needed to access your payments account to obtain this information.
Updated the packing slip in the following ways:
- Included the seller contact e-mail address.
- Added a link to seller feedback.
- Removed the price information.

Still no word on when the changes will be put into effect. Feedback from sellers is still solicited at sya-changes@amazon.com

FillZ revamps bookseller site, cites big growth since 2005

2008-01-17T11:49:00.000-05:00

FillZ, a Web-based inventory, repricing and order-management service, launched a revamped Web site.

FillZ enables sellers to list and manage their inventory on Amazon, AbeBooks, and all the other big marketplaces simultaneously.

It's the first design change of FillZ's front end since the company was formed in 2003.

ABE bought FillZ in 2006 and used its parent company’s design team to update the site, which has been handling many more orders recently. In 2005, FillZ facilitated orders worth $20 million, and the total for 2007 was $100 million. In 2006, clients sold 12,000 items per day through FillZ, but last year more than 30,000 items were moved daily.

"FillZ is now a serious player in our market and we don't see our growth slowing," said president Shaun Jamieson.

FillZ sellers typically list books, music, movies and games through various fixed-price marketplaces. It supports AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, a1 Marketplace, Barnes & Noble.com, Biblio, ChooseBooks, Chrislands, eBay Stores. eBay Express, eCampus Marketplace, Gemm, Half.com, TextbooksRus, TextBookX, and ValoreBooks.

Amazon plans changes to Marketplace packing slips

2008-01-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

Amazon is redesigning the packing slip for Marketplace orders. See this page for all the details. Amazon isn't saying when the new design will roll out, but here's a rundown on the new features:

A redesigned and streamlined Search feature.
Buttons in the Order List to print a packing slip or refund the order.
A set of Quick Filters that will allow you to quickly refine a list of orders by date range.
The ability to sort your order list by Status and Shipping Service.
A redesigned Order Detail page with the shipping address on the left side of the page.
A simplified Refund tool.

Some of the shortcomings in the eyes of sellers:

No URL for the customer to leave feedback.
Apparently the seller's e-mail address isn't shown; instead customers are sent to Amazon's Web contact form.
Item prices are displayed, which can be a problem for gift orders.
The item condition and seller comments are missing. Amazon only recently added these features to packing slips in response to seller complaints.

To send feedback to Amazon about the redesign, send e-mail to: sya-changes@amazon.com