Selling Books

Tuesday

Barnes & Noble retracts weekend coupon

Any Barnes & Noble affiliates out there? Just got this notice that they're retracting this "extra 15 percent off one item" offer issued today. Actually I got notice it was canceled a few minutes before I even received the coupon.

Barnes & Noble Coupon

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMMUNICATION WAS SENT IN ERROR ON 3/2/2010. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS PROMOTION AS IT HAS EXPIRED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

Limited Time Extra Savings!! This weekend only, we're offering our customers an additional 15% off one eligible item online when they use our latest coupon code at checkout. This on top our already low prices and great promotions! Hurry, this coupon offer is only good for three days: 2/26/10 - 2/28/10. See below for details.
Save an additional 15% on one eligible item online! Click here for details.
Dates: 2/26 - 2/28
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/tplclick?lid=41000000030412096&pubid=21000000000117476

Online Coupon Details:
*Online Coupon Details:
For each customer, this coupon can be redeemed once online at BN.com. This coupon is valid from February 26, 2010 to March 1, 2010 at 2:59 a.m. Eastern Time. The 15% discount will be applied to the most expensive eligible item in the order - not the entire purchase - and will be deducted after all other eligible discounts, including (if applicable) the standard Member discount, are applied.
Additional Rules Governing Use of this Coupon: This coupon is (i) not redeemable for cash or cash equivalents (including Gift Cards and online Gift Certificates); (ii) not valid on past purchases; (iii) not eligible for purchases of the following products and services: Barnes & Noble Memberships, Gift Cards, Gift Certificates, gift-wrapping, textbooks, digital content (including but not limited to digital books, magazines, and periodicals), nook™ and related accessories, other hardware and electronics, software, products available for pre-order, products from the Rosetta Stone Series, shipping or handling expenses, or products marked as not eligible for "coupons or promotional discounts;" (iv) not valid on purchases made from third parties accessible from the BN.com website (e.g., used books, PC and video games, etc.); (v) may not be combined with any other coupon; and (vi) may not be combined with the Educator program discount. This coupon is not valid at Barnes & Noble or Barnes & Noble College retail bookstore. Void where prohibited by law.

Monday

Barnes & Noble enables sellers to relist on Textbooks.com

Here's an e-mail just in from Barnes & Noble:

Barnes & Noble.com is pleased to announce a new partnership with Textbooks.com.

Textbooks.com is a leading provider of new and used textbooks. As a result of this new arrangement, we will make your inventory available to Textbooks.com customers along with all the same information you provide to us – including seller name, feedback, condition and comments. However, all of your inventory management and order processing activities for orders on Textbooks.com can continue to be handled using our services. You will receive additional exposure for your inventory without any additional work or fees. Your commission structure remains exactly the same.

If you prefer to opt out of this affiliation, please contact Seller Relations at sellerrelations@bookquest.com or 866.897.1763.

Not sure how many sales this will generate for the average seller, but there doesn't seem to be much downside, if the inventory and order processing is handled by B&N. Textbooks.com's ranking with Alexa is about 45,000 but I'm sure it spikes up in January and August.

Labels: college textbooks

Wednesday

Q&A: Is it illegal to sell textbook Instructor's Editions on Amazon?

QUESTION: I recently purchased a used version of 'The Informed Argument', 7th edition, by Robert K. Miller, ISBN 1413022898. It is clearly marked as an 'Instructor's Edition' on the front cover, but in a small white box on the back cover, there is the following statement:

'Not For Sale'--This textbook has been provided free for an instructor to consider for classroom use. Selling free examination copies contributes to higher prices of textbooks for students.

So am I allowed to sell this copy on Amazon? Amazon and other dealers are clearly selling this textbook. Alibris is also. Now, I don't know if the textbook they are advertising has the 'small white box' on the back cover but I am assuming so.

ANSWER: When I first started selling on Amazon Marketplace 8 or 9 years ago, it was fairly common to sell Instructors Editions being sold under the ISBN of the regular student edition. I sold about 100 of them myself, along with "solution editions" and other versions of the book that weren't normally available at retail. Of course, I noted any discrepancies with Amazon's catalog listing in my description, and gave a discount off the going price. The people who bought them were thrilled to be getting such bargain.

But a few years ago, Amazon publicized its policy of "No Instructors Editions" with the implication being that you could get banned from Marketplace with the first infraction. So I would advise against selling any textbooks with "Instructors Edition" or any other non-removable marketing indicating it was a complimentary copy. These days, Amazon has about a dozen different ways to nail sellers for selling non-kosher textbooks.

On the other hand, Alibris and ABE.com, as far as I know, actually encourage the sale of Instructor's Editions and even International Editions (which are often the same book as the U.S. edition, but sold at a lower price). Perhaps this is a way for them to differentiate themselves from Amazon, both for buyers and sellers.

Now, just because Amazon has a policy against selling Instructors Editions doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with it. The publisher isn't going to like it, and some of them even go so far as to say it's "illegal", which is absurd. Same thing goes for "promotional copies" of CDs and DVDs, videotapes -- as well as "advanced review copies" (ARCs) or uncorrected proofs) of books that are still in print.

Does Amazon enforce these policies because they don't want to make publishers mad? I doubt it. My guess is the real reason for these policies is that Amazon doesn't want to hear gripes from buyers who didn't read the item description.

Here's one way around it for you Pro-Merchants: Create a new detail page explicitly for the Instructor's edition!

Labels: Amazon Marketplace, bookselling, college textbooks

Tuesday

Bookseller busted for selling forgeries on eBay

Boy, this is starting to sound familiar. An eBay bookseller was busted for selling signed books -- with the signatures forged. Forrest R. Smith III, 48, of Exeter Pa., got 33 months in prison and will pay $120,000 in restitution by auctioning books with fake signatures of Truman Capote, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Kurt Vonnengut, Anne Rice, and selling them on eBay.

Here's a picture of some Capote signatures. Click on it for a larger view:

The picture above was posted here at Boing Boing courtesy of Tomfolio.

Another bookseller discovered the scam after noticing that someone was buying up First Editions, then quickly selling the same books as "signed" copies. The signatures couldn't have been real, since the authors were dead.

According to posts on the eBay Booksellers Board, the seller's nickname was Big Daddy, who had more than 3,000 feedback ratings, mostly positive. Until, of course, he began his life of crime selling fake collectible books. Could he have done this on Amazon Marketplace? I doubt it -- my collectible listings generate very few sales. Then again, I don't have any First Editions signed by Capote, Crichton, Clancy, etc.

Earlier this month, a seller was caught selling counterfeit stamps on eBay. The bogus stamps were apparently printed in China -- the same place were most of our books are printed these days!

Labels: book collecting, eBay, stamp collecting

Wednesday

Amazon will herd Marketplace sellers into new "Selling on Amazon" program

News from Auctionbytes about a change in Amazon's third-party selling program. In nutshell, Amazon is ending restrictions for its various types of selling programs -- such as media sellers and Merchant@ vendors. Everyone will be herded into a program called "Selling on Amazon" and will have more freedom to sell in different categories.

Here's the scoop at Auctionbytes:

Instead of classifying merchants into Marketplace sellers who could sell Books, Music, Video and DVD (BMVD), and Merchants@, who could sell in non-media categories, it is putting all sellers into its "Selling on Amazon" program, and differentiating based on sales volume.

An Amazon.com spokesperson confirmed this, and stated in an email, "Previously, when a seller signed up for a media category (BMVD) they were limited by these categories. Sellers no longer have to make a choice between media and non-media to sign up and sell on Amazon.com."

However, the terms for media and non-media sellers will be different. Get the details here at Auctionbytes.

Another case of Amazon making major changes to its selling programs with no apparent discussion among sellers, or even much notification. I'm guessing it took Auctionbytes editor Ina Steiner about a week to pull enough teeth at Amazon to find out exactly what was going on. Kudos, Ina!

Labels: Amazon Marketplace

Michael Jackson tops Amazon's 'Top Out-Of-Stock Products Report'

Michael Jackson is topping the charts again -- this time, a new list of the most sought-after (but unavailable) books on Amazon.com.

Did anyone else receive the below e-mail Wednesday night from Amazon, at amazonservices-emailer@amazon.com?

The subject was "Amazon.com Top Out-Of-Stock Products Report," something I've never seen or heard of before. I am guessing that Amazon Pro-Merchants are receiving it, but it seemed to have come out of the blue. Looks like something eBay would have done in its prime. It's a list of out-of-print books, mostly technical tomes.

Another mystery: For the first three books on this list, I walked through listing the ASIN in "New" condition but didn't see a "Buyer's Waiting" flag. Has Amazon disabled this feature? If these are the books in the most demand, where are the waiting buyers? And the prices?

As usual, I was able to download a 90-day Buyers Waiting report here. However, when I tried to list one of the ASINs in the report (0126272603), Amazon's page reported "no current offers." Hmm.

Here's the entire text, I've added hyperlinks and the picture:

We regularly review the products our customers look for on our website. The products listed below are some of the top products in the Books category that customers were interested in during the last month, but are currently unable to purchase because there was no available inventory on our website as of 07-29-2009. Although inventory levels can change quickly from the many sellers on our website, we wanted to let you know about this customer interest.

ASIN, Title
1. 0312923503 , My Family, the Jacksons

2. 0976889196 , Thriller 25th Anniversary: The Book, Celebrating the Biggest Selling Album of All Time

3. 0716700298 , Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment

4. 0020063105 , Of Blood and Hope

5. 072169358X , Anatomy in Diagnostic Imaging

6. 0768907039 , Master Court Officer Exam 9e (Arco Civil Service Test Tutor)

7. 1579479006 , AMA Physician ICD-9-CM 2008, Volumes 1 and 2 - Compact Edition

8. 1570035172 , Understanding David Foster Wallace (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)

9. B000J0NAYY , Cop Without a Badge the Extraordinary Undercover Life of Kevin Maher

10. 0007230133 , Leviathan

11. 0615263836 , Eat For Health Mind and Body Makeover With Eat Right America Food Scoring Guide (Three Book Set)

12. 1932613137 , PE Sample Questions and Solutions: Mechanical Engineering (Book)

13. 1599716283 , Complete Exercises

14. 0323006582 , Nuclear Medicine Case Review

15. B001IVY2CC , Dutch 3: The Finale By: Kwame Teague (Teri Woods) (Dutch III: The Finale By: Kwame Teague (Teri Woods), Dutch I, II, III)

16. 1557997802 , Paper Tube Zoo

17. 0982080700 , Get Better Sound

18. 1440414831 , Millionaire REO Real Estate Agent: The Secret of REO's, BPO's, and Short Sales

19. 0966835239 , The Handbook of Rife Frequency Healing: Holistic technology for cancer and other diseases

20. 0131732889 , World Civilizations: The Global Experience, Ap Edition

21. 1593953518 , 3845 - Puppy in Squares Lock and Key Diary

22. B0018TVEAW , Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One

23. 0789317605 , Lunar: A Glow-in-the-Dark Calendar for the 2009 Lunar Year

24. 0910608709 , Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index

25. 1552977536 , The Flooring Handbook: The Complete Guide to Choosing and Installing Floors

26. 0898867614 , 75 Scrambles in Washington: Classic Routes to the Summits

27. B001ESQSTO , Human

28. 0899576877 , Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible: New American Standard Bible : Unlocking the Riches of God's Word

29. 0618916296 , The Americans

30. 0147503205 , The Complete Greeks and Romans (Penguin Classics Complete Collections)

31. 088685203X , TOEFL Test Preparation Kit (Book, CD-ROM, and 4 Audio CDs)

32. B001SASEDG , Sports Illustrated Superbowl XLIII Commemorative Pittsburgh Steelers, 2009

33. 1589944631 , Talisman: The Magical Quest Game; Upgrade Pack

34. 1886433100 , Vitamins and Minerals from A to Z With Ethno-Consciousness

35. 0375426051 , Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, Deluxe Edition (Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (Deluxe))

36. 1596871172 , The UV Advantage: The Medical Breakthrough That Shows How to Harness the Power of the Sun for Your Health

37. 0935702962 , Quantitative Seismology

38. 0721604838 , Sabiston Textbook of Surgery Board Review

39. B000QRYCTW , 101 Razor-Sharp Blues Guitar Fill-In Licks (Book and CD) (Red Dog Music Books Razor-Sharp Blues Guitar Series)

40. 1550223151 , The Hellmouths of Bewdley

41. 0794505635 , German (Flashcards) (German Edition)

42. B001RAXE8W , Fallout 3: Vault Dweller's Survival Guide

43. 0545127254 , Geronimo Stilton Set, Books 1-32 (Lost Treasure of the Emerald Isle; The Curse of the Cheese Pyramid; Cat and Mouse in a Haunted House; I'm Too Fond of My Fur!; Four Mice Deep in the Jungle; Paws Off,

44. B002CQYMR2 , The Sims 3 Collector's Edition (Game Guide) (Includes Mouse Pad, Poster and In-Game Pattern)

45. 0439867789 , A to Z Mysteries Complete 26-Book Set (The Absent Author, The Bald Bandit, The Canary Caper, The Deadly Dungeon, The Empty Envelope, The Falcon's Feathers, The Goose's Gold, The Haunted Hotel, The Inv

46. 1933492155 , Lift Off: Air Vehicle Sketches and Renderings from the Drawthrough Collection

47. 0313284245 , 100 Key Documents in American Democracy

48. B002673JXU , Fast Track to Free Money Cd! Debt Cures

49. 1846169550 , Dark Fire (David Rain)

50. 0967279704 , Lemegeton - The Complete Lesser Key of Solomon

If you need assistance listing your products, please visit our Help Guide:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161236

Thank you for selling with Amazon.com

Sincerely,
Amazon Services

Labels: Amazon Marketplace, bookselling, rare books

Friday

Online bookselling roundup for Saturday

Believe it or not, the textbook selling season is just two weeks away! News from Amazon Seller Support:

Find out more about selling textbooks during Textbook Season by attending our July 29th Webinar on Selling Textbooks on Amazon.com (10:00 am PDT). We’ll cover lots of topics that will help you sell textbooks. The webinar is only 30 minutes and includes a question-and-answer period at the end.

In addition, we’ll extend the Q&A to the Ask Amazon Forum for two hours immediately after the webinar. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions about selling textbooks and get responses in real-time from a member of our Textbook Selling Team. No need to sign up to join the Ask Amazon Forum. Just come on by, learn about selling textbooks and perhaps ask a question or two.