Bruce McKinney's article on Bolerium is the most literate/literary description of a bookshop that I have ever read. The entire website is a source of invaluable information and is a "must read" on the first of every month.

Hello:

Jeff Weber makes very critical points about Amazon [see letter below]. The current issue, while interesting, is unenforceable and impractical. Amazon isn't going to waste energy trying to police the millions of individuals listing items for sale on its site and others. However, the points raised by Mr. Weber have a greater financial impact overall on the Amazon retailers. The postage rates are unreasonable. Yet some Amazon retailers make their profit on the postage since a paperback can generally be sent for about $1.00. The putative "price" merely covers the listing fee. Yet here is the dilemma - Amazon's internet prominence outperforms all the others by miles. Consumers start and generally finish at Amazon - not AbeBooks, Biblio or [fill in the blank]. It's about on-line traffic and the other sites - despite being specialized - just don't drive the market. And moribund ebay essentially turned the wrong way (under Meg Whitman) and allowed Amazon to dominate the space. So forget the mirage of the European contretemps and find a way to get the good folks at Amazon to solve the very real concerns expressed by Mr. Weber.

AE monthly on Amazon pricing

Dear Mr. Stillman:

Your article was of considerable interest. I suspect that the instances where Amazon may actually look for evidence of unbalanced retailing are few. Instead they may be simply using verbiage to make people think this is their policy - and it is a good policy to have representing their company. But in practice it would be impossible for them to actually watch the prices of every book from every bookseller in all the web-sites dealer's use.

But the issues for me are even deeper: Amazon does not act in any way to protect either the consumer or the bookseller - thus falling well short of the usual business practices that all dealers know are necessary - primarily guaranteeing your product. Amazon does not. For example: in the US Amazon refuses to collect sales tax which is due for every book shipped within the state you operate in. For me this is California. Therefore Amazon leaves every bookseller exposed to the wrath of the IRS and auditors in the issue of tax collection. In addition their standard rate shipping policy is ridiculous: they offer $3.99 for shipping anything, be it a paperback or a $10,000 book or a 50 volume set. There are no exceptions. No dealer will comply to this stringent system, but they must work within it because that is all that is offered. I am constantly interacting with the Amazon client asking for more shipping, especially for international orders. Amazon's reimbursement of $12.49 for overseas shipping is even under what the global rate envelope charges are at $12.80. To add: there is never any room for insurance. In fact this angers some customers who feel that the set shipping rates of Amazon are what is entirely fair on their part. However the reverse is true: the shipping rates must be allowed to vary in accordance with the appropriate charges and insurance for any type of order. Amazon will also not back up and pay for an item that a customer does not receive. Who is liable for a loss? You can be sure it is not Amazon. They are the middleman collecting a percentage - they are not interested in paying for lost merchandise. So, let the buyer beware - but in this case all buyers on Amazon are not aware. If they knew that some books were sold on Amazon at a loss to the retailer, would these same clients understand the abuse the dealer is undertaking from Amazon? Probably not for now. The Amazon commission is partly a sliding scale - I do not know the specific of it, but if a book is cheap enough, say $1 to list, their discount is MORE than $1. Thus they actually force the dealer to sell items at less than $0.00 to get an item out the door.

I have not addressed specifically the issues of price fixing, but Amazon seems to do nothing in the US that I know about that enforces their policy. And at the same time, based on the tax collecting issue, Amazon seems to be strong enough to stand up to the federal government and not become a tax collector. I believe (though I can not prove it), that California raised its sales tax last year from 8.5% to 9.75% to make up for the difference in internet sales that they can not regulate. Thus Amazon is not the only one to blame - but they are a key contributor.

I invite your interaction.

Jeff Weber

Stillman asks: "Will newsmen be replaced with bloggers, long on opinion, short on facts?"

Ironic, because that is just what he does.

It is easy to consume a meal that is short of nutrients if you are unfamiliar with a truly nutritious repast; thus many can become used to a constant diet of 'blogging' and take it for real information.

It is easy to have someone else interpret the facts for you, but talented analysts usually get jobs for real publications and don't just write for free for their own companies or websites. Perhaps that is why the Wall Street Journal increased its readership and why tens of thousands of "blogs" are left moldering, to clutter up the internet.

Mr. Stillman,

That was an utterly fantastic piece about the Los Angeles book "dealer" case. Thanks so much for bringing it to our attention.

Best,

Travis

re: eBay sniping

Tom McKinney,

I have been working with eBay as either a seller or bidder for many years, since 1998 in fact. I have seen their system go through great growth and the sad decline that is presently underway as they make policies and pricing changes to drive away the individual sellers which tend to have the most interesting items on average.

After losing some unique items which were important to us because we overslept the auction close, we decided to stop revolving our life activities to when we could be next to the computer and bid on an auction. The eBay policy of a fixed close time changes the successful strategies for bidding. It makes no difference who is the highest a day, an hour, or a minute before the close. Only the high bidder at the end counts. Hence sniping becomes the tool of choice for people who want to win more auctions and generally pay less for each item won.

I would not, however, use a local program. This would require that your computer be synchronized with the eBay clocks (not merely Apple system time) and that there be a fast connection and an awake computer at all times when you'd be placing an automated bid. For this we found that web site services were a better choice. We initially used AuctionStealer.com but left them when we lost a couple auctions due to service outages.

We now use eSnipe.com and have for many years with satisfaction. There is a fee for using these services based on how much you use it. With eSnipe you buy points for a fairly nominal sum.

There is a tool which can be installed on Firefox so that any eBay auction item page has an eSnipe window to log in and bid.

Of course these systems need to have your eBay user and password so don't use the same ones on eBay that you use for other important things like PayPal, your bank, email, etc.

I also have the eBay app on my iPhone to check in on auctions during the day but not to bid.

Keep in mind that eBay has bid increments so it is necessary to place a bid high enough to exceed this. Hence, if an auction starts at 19.99 and you bid 20.10, unless your bid is the first, you won't have a chance because the increment above 19.99 is higher than 11 cents.

The eSnipe default is 6 seconds before the auction. Although tempted, I have not felt compelled to reduce this to 5 or 4 seconds. The shorter the time, the more chance that the bid may fail.

In general, it's not so much an issue of who bid closest to the close but rather who has placed the highest top bid who wins. It just seems like the former situation when you are starting out.

Don't place a bid with an even amount ending in .00 or .50. Use something odd, especially between .50 and .99, to give yourself a minimal edge in bidding.

The eBay system, with all of its problems, still yields many items which are findable nowhere else. A great number of the prizes in my collection come from there. I make extensive use of the 100 saved searches they give each account though that is a topic for another day should you be interested.

James D. Keeline
San Diego, CA