Barnes & Noble red dot sale: 50 percent off & more

Barnes & Noble offers "thousands" of titles at 50 percent off and more. Sales is on now in the brick-and-mortar stores (look for books with the red dot) and online at bn.com. Just got the e-mail from B&N advertising this. Looks like B&N needs to raise more cash by the end of the month. Have seen some recent stories about B&N cancelling some new bookstore openings. In many cases, those plans have been cancelled simply because the new shopping center project where the store was to be located has been killed, due to the problems in real estate.

How to track down sources for used books.

Julie & Julia bookseller display contest.

Glitch at Amazon Adantage sends bogus order cancellations to book vendors.

The small town bookstore path.

Utah bookselling legend dies at 88.

Barnes & Noble hires away eBay's search guru.

New or used, there's a lot of options.

Connecticut bookstore adds home consignment.

Amazon 'Charge When Ship' becomes mandatory this summer

Amazon is encouraging its Marketplace sellers to opt into a program it calls "Charge When Ship" requiring sellers to confirm shipment before buyers pay for purchases.

In an announcement, Amazon is encouraging sellers to opt into the program now. According to Amazon's list of Frequently Asked Questions, the program becomes mandatory sometime this summer. No date was given.

In Charge When Ship, if the seller doesn't confirm an order's shipment within two business days, Amazon automatically sends "late shipment" e-mail notifications to the seller and the buyer. Then, if the seller doesn't confirm shipment within 30 days, the order is automatically cancelled, and the buyer is refunded.

When sellers confirm a shipment, they'll be able to indicate the shipping service and tracking or delivery-confirmation number -- although tracking numbers aren't mandatory. Pro-Merchants will be able to upload a text file to confirm multiple shipments at the same time.

My take on the program: Overall, it should be positive because it provides buyers with an experience more consistent with orders filled by Amazon. For example, I currently receive e-mails from buyers who are confused that they can't look up the shipping status or tracking number through Amazon's Web site, even though I provide this information in a shipment-confirmation e-mail. Presumably, "Charge When Ship" allows buyers to view the shipment status in the same way they view orders fulfilled by Amazon -- and if that's true, it should result in fewer inquiries from buyers regarding shipping status.

For sellers who aren't already signed up for the program, my personal advice would be to wait a few weeks. This will allow Amazon to work out any possible kinks in the program, and for third-party software providers to transition to begun supporting the program.

One remaining concern I've seen on Amazon's seller boards: What happens if a buyer's credit card is declined after the seller ships? Amazon doesn't really address this in the FAQ. Hopefully, a pre-authorization is obtained at the time of the order, confirming that the funds are available, and the card number and expiration date are in order.

Another observation: Charge When Ship puts additional pressure on drop-shippers, because the FAQ further emphasizes that sellers shouldn't list items they are unable to ship within two business days.

Bookselling roundup for Wednesday

Remember this little guy? The pictured pup was the longtime pet of Amazon's chief engineer, who brought him to the office each workday. For years, Rufus' picture was displayed on Amazon's "not found" page. That was in the days of Web 1.0, when other sites would reply cryptically, "Error 404" (not found). Instead, the pooch appeared, asking, "Looking for Something?" It was a little touch that made Amazon seem so ... human. Now Rufus has passed on.

A great tutorial: How to determine the edition number and printing of a book.

Optimize your listings for Amazon searching and browsing.

Berkeley bookstore says it can't afford retail space.

Toronto bookshop survives without computers.

Amazon launches used item buyback service

As if the competition among sellers of used items on Amazon wasn't fierce enough, Amazon is getting into the game itself. They've launched a trade-in store for DVDs.

It's the same type of setup you see at many textbook buyback sites -- you get credit for about half of what the item usually sells for used. For example, if you wanted to trade in Heroes, Season One, Amazon credits you $6.75 (This DVD retails for $59.98, and Amazon sells new copies for $45.99. Used copies go for about $12.)

Here's how Amazon publicizes the buyback program: There's an expanded buy box with a trade-in here button (see the picture below). When you "trade in" an item, Amazon gives you a prepaid shipping label, and when they receive it via the Postal Service, your account is credited in the form of an Amazon gift card. So you don't get any cash, just credit toward buying stuff at Amazon.

Amazon has also started a video game buyback program.

Wow. Assuming Amazon likes the results of this program, it's only a matter of time before they expand into used books. One more problem for third-party sellers to deal with. In addition to the sputtering economy and Amazon's proliferation of free shipping offers, this could be the most troublesome. Not only will sellers be competing directly with Amazon for sales of used items, but Amazon will be diverting the supply of used items to itself, driving prices down.

Here are more gory details.

Bookselling roundup for Wednesday

Borders on 12% sales drop: "We've got to become better booksellers."

Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie: Random thoughts from a passionate bookplate collector.

Sales of used books "booming."

Bummer at Book Expo: No booksellers, no booze.

New business favors used books.

How to ship your used books.

Alibris consignment program will compete with Fulfillment by Amazon

Coming next week from Albris:

Alibris Introduces Complete Cataloging and Fulfillment Program for Independent Sellers of New and Used Books

Book, music, and movie marketplace offers new service to help online booksellers to list and sell excess book inventory

Alibris has launched a new book-fulfillment solution that provides sellers of new and used books with affordable cataloging and fulfillment services. Known as Alibris Distribution Services (ADS), the Alibris program helps booksellers turn inventory into cash. In its first year, ADS has succeeded among participating sellers, who have sent more than one million books through the program.

ADS is a service for independent sellers in the United States who exceed their operations capacity, have more inventory than they’ll ever catalog, or want to liquidate large amounts of new and used books. ADS includes:

· Broadest possible sales exposure. ADS books are listed on Alibris, Alibris U.K.,Alibris for Libraries, and business-partner sites such as Amazon sites, Barnes & Noble, Borders, eBay, and Half.com.

· Consignment convenience. Books are shipped to the Alibris distribution center, where they are cataloged and warehoused until they are sold on behalf of participating sellers.

· Affordable fees. As a consignment-based program, Alibris only charges $0.99 for accepted items and pays sellers 70% of the sales price when they are sold.

· No hidden charges. There are no additional processing, fulfillment, storage, or seasonal fees. ADS also covers up to the full shipping cost of moving books from the seller to the Alibris distribution center, depending on shipment size and distance.

· Market-based repricing. Alibris daily reprices books, according to current market conditions, keeping them competitively priced for sellers and appealing to customers.

· Complete customer service. At no additional charge, ADS services all book buyers and process all returned items.

“We think Alibris Distribution Services is a best-of-class solution for sellers with excess inventory,” said Brian Elliott, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alibris. “A wide variety of sellers have tried and incorporated the ADS program into their businesses.” Elliott also summarized the fulfillment service’s assets. “ADS is attractive to sellers because of its operational simplicity, affordable economics, and proven success in turning backlogged inventory into cash.”

About Alibris
Alibris is the premier online marketplace for independent sellers of new and used books, music, and movies, as well as rare and out-of-print titles. Read more about us.

Amazon adds new attributes for collectible books

Here's a nice feature they've just added to Amazon Marketplace for collectible listings: Attributes for Signed By, Collectible Edition, and Dust Jacket Condition. This should prevent a few misunderstandings with buyers, and help differentiate your listings. See more details in the announcement.

Here's how it appears (see the bottom listing):

Bookselling roundup for Friday

With foot traffic down at its bookstores, Barnes & Noble plans online expansion.

Books A Million resurfaces in Daytona Beach after 16-month hiatus.

Long goodbye for the bookstore?

Another reason to be an antiquarian bookseller.

You've got to see this TV commercial for the Amazon Kindle ;-)