Stealing Books-A Bookscout's Guide To Book Collecting

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Sections
  Introduction
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  Appendix 1
  Appendix 2
  Appendix 3
  Appendix 4

Chapter 7 - Selling Your Books (continued)

When you are listing a book, try to be as honest as possible. If it is an ex-library book say that it is an ex-library book, as opposed to just saying it is in good condition. Because when the person gets an ex-library book when they expecting something different, they are likely to be annoyed and leave you a negative feedback. You don’t need to describe the flaws page by page. You can simply say something like “ex-library book with usual markings.” This should be descriptive enough for people to know what they are getting. If the book is ex-library, and has a card pocket, and library stamps, and stickers on the spine, and a dust jacket cover taped to the boards, do not describe it as very good. I get annoyed with sellers who think this fits anyone’s idea of “very good”, least of all Amazon’s definition. A book like this should be listed as good condition, or maybe only acceptable depending on condition.
- If you satisfy most people, but tick off a handful, it is the handful that you tick off that are most likely to leave feedback, and the feedback won’t be good. So try to keep all of your transactions good. If you make a mistake, then you made a mistake. Accept responsibility for it. Refund the person’s money. If the book is inexpensive, let them keep it, as it is probably not worthwhile to pay to have it shipped back. On the other hand, if it is and expensive book, have them ship it back, and refund their money including return shipping when you get the book back.
The number of times I have had a buyer tell me they didn’t get the book is very small. If I bought a delivery confirmation at sixty five cents for every book that I shipped, the cost would far outweigh the cost of the small number of books actually lost in the mail. So generally, if the book is worth $15 or more, that’s when I will purchase delivery confirmation. If the book is worth over $50, then I start looking at insurance. If a $2 book get lost every once in a while, oh well. I refund the money. If on the other hand a $75 book get lost in the mail, or the buyer claims it did, that would suck to have to refund.

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