 | Most Recent Posts Shoot the messenger -- bookseller or evil propagandist?Posted 17-May-07 17:03:25 BST A few days ago I had a listing cancelled by ebay because it was of a "hateful or discriminatory" nature. Now I'm sorry, but this was just plain daft. The book was My Struggle, probably better known as "Mein Kampf" and it's the autobiography of a certain Herr Hitler. Now I don't for a moment suggest that Adolf wasn't a man who was very at home with "hateful and discriminatory". There are a few million graves, and a few more million shattered families, to bear testament to that. But the *listing* was just an offering for sale of an hisotorically significant book. It contained no inflammatory words, quoted none of the author's opinions, used no symbols and used no significant (you know what I mean!) keywords beyond the title and author's name. A friend was interested in finding out what ebay were thinking, and shortly after I received my "your listing has been cancelled" notice, he enquired what had happened to this book he'd been looking at. Ebay told him, I kid you not, that the listing had been cancelled because of that hateful bit again, and then assured him that they "didn't want that sort of user" on ebay. Seriously. Ebay told a potential customer, whom they had no way of knowing as a good friend who knew me better, that I was some sort of racist bigot and the wonderful world of ebay was better off without me. Okay, they didn't use "racist bigot", but what else was "that sort of user" supposed to mean? I pursued the cancellation, pointing out that there was no inflammatory material in the listing, and there were several other auctions for the same item, so what gives? And *then* I got an answer. A real one. No accusations, no offensive suggestions, no defamation of character... ebay has a rule that certain items can't be sold in particular countries. Germany, for example, as a nation has strong anti-Nazi material rules and the book cannot be sold on ebay to that country (you can buy it on the .de domain of other Thanks for telling me. Eventually. Shame you couldn't have done it a) immediately and b) without telling your customers I was an untrustworthy lowlife bigot. Who's the little Hitler now guys? Letter to the Editor, The Times listens!Posted 24-Apr-07 11:10:33 BST Yesterday, The Times newspaper printed an article claiming that Internet Booksellers were killing the art of browsing shelves. Well, I couldn't let that go unanswered! Not least because the person most quoted was Margaret Atwood... now I'm sure she's a lovely person, but I've always found her stuff completely unsellable, I'm afraid -- she's just the sort of mass-produced paperback author that's filling the modern chain bookshop shelves (not to mention the dreaded supermarket), and flooding the secondhand market to the detriment of serious second-hand sellers. Sorry Margaret! Anyway, The Times decided to print my letter (most gratifying) so I got to have my say. Resaid here: Sir, The solution to the problem of the “death of browsing” in bookshops is the same for today’s internet buyers as it always was for the high street shopper (report, April 23 ). Eschew the glossy megastores, packed with shelves of identical bestsellers, and head for the secondhand backwaters. The evocative scent of musty pages might be missing, but browsing through “shelves” of books by genre, style or author is still very much alive. A good seller will still be happy to chat about particular writers, will provide photographs of the item for sale, make recommendations and seek out special titles for their customers, all of which will take place without the buyer being rained on, incurring parking fees, or even having to change out of one’s dressing gown. That link should work to take you to the original article that got my dander up. Incidentally, they edited out the final line, where I admitted that sometimes the seller was in his or her dressing gown too. Too racy for The Times, eh? ;) Happy reading! Spending your energy wiselyPosted 20-Apr-07 15:26:39 BST I used to belong, fairly briefly, to a group on ebay that was set up for people in the same line of business. I joined in a few discussions, learnt some stuff and tried to help where I could. Somehow it all went wrong, and I concluded that leaving quietly (I've never been much of a one for flouncing out, you just risk tripping over the doorstep!) was the way to go. Today I thought I'd tiptoe in and see if things had calmed down, and if there was some interesting chat going on. Most of the chat seemed to be about how awful the latest revisions to groups are, but spotting a particular discussion that looked of interest to me I went for a look... and discovered one of my own listings being discussed. One chap offered useful advice that a price could go up (it won't, in fact, as I'm happy with the mark-up to the one I've used, and prefer things to move swiftly, but it was nice of him to mention it). The rest of the exchange appeared to be concentrating on insulting my kitchen work-surface! What? Okay, not everybody likes granite, but is this good use of anyone's time, I wonder? Or anybody else's business? And speculation about why I needed to hold some pages open but not others, on this book. Well... books are like that. Some old books have uneven stretching on the spine, where pages (typically, those with plates) have been more firmly opened than others. So sometimes it's necessary to hold some pages open, and not others. Now that's not rocket science, and it's not particularly controversial... so why the discussion? And how did they manage to make pointing out the difference quite so insulting? As if there was some sort of cheat going on, maybe? What? What? I'm grateful to the chap who mentioned the book price, and who's passion for this particular book meant I knew what I was looking at when I saw it for sale, but as for the rest... I don't think reading that stuff counts as spending my time wisely. So having let the door close quietly behind me, I think I'll leave them to it. It's a funny old world, eh? The best laid plans of mice and booksellers...Posted 08-Apr-07 09:22:44 BST Up and about and raring to go. Set the video up to record the Malaysian Grand Prix, checked pockets for plenty of change, and head out the door for that first celebratory boot fair of the season. Bally car won't start! Pah!! I'd noticed it was getting a little sluggish lately, and I wonder if it's anything to do with the slightly ropey state of a couple of the fuses (you can see, can't you, that I'm highly technically qualified when it comes to the internal combustion engine? ;o))? So, back indoors, get a fresh cup of tea, and wait for the RAC to arrive. And I can't even watch the Grand Prix, unless I want to join in half-way through. Rats. Hope everybody else is having more luck! Tis the season to be booting, tra la la la la!Posted 05-Apr-07 14:04:20 BST Easter weekend is just about upon us, and what does it mean? Chocolate bunnies? A visit to church? A lot of tacky cards with ducks? Nope, not here anyway... Easter means: the Boot Fair Season is officialy open! A lot of places seem to manage to have boot fairs through a good part of the winter months, but either they breed 'em feeble round here, or my booty tracking skills are lacking; they never seem to really get going till the bank holiday weekend in my neck of the woods. So it's time to fill my pockets with change, stuff a bunch of plastic bags into my trusty "book buying bag" (a splendid canvas tote that Best Beloved brought back from Australia for just this purpose) and get booting. Doing the auction houses, charity shops, jumble sales and what not is all very well, but nothing compares with the boot fair for the thrill of the chase. Getting the balance between the rapid scan as you stride past, and having a jolly good rummage in the bottom of the box of "stuff", is a fine art. Take too long, and you won't have time to reach the next sale before the sellers start to pack up and head home for a welcome cuppa. Sprint by too fast, and you could miss that scarce gem you've already got a buyer lined-up for. Tricky! In the winter months I find myself relying more on sourcing books from other online sellers, just to keep fresh stock coming in. The margins tend to be pretty tight, once you've paid a dealer's price and paid to have the thing shipped in, but sometimes you can spot a rarity the seller's undervalued, or something you know a regular customer will pay a premium for. None of which really applies to this weeks arrivals -- a box of books shipped in from the US (hang on, I thought I was supposed to be improving my sales *to* the US, not buying more from them!?) that I chose on a bit of a whim to be honest, and on the basis that the titles were scarcer here than there and I could reduce individual costs by paying for bulk shipping. All a bit of a gamble, but then isn't it all!? One tiny little book that arrived in the lot could probably have been shipped for next to nothing tied to a carrier pigeon. If Hockney's "Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm" was to be valued by the pound, it would come somewhere near truffles, I reckon. Let's hope there's a Hockney gourmet out there who appreciates his craft when I get that listed later this month! Meanwhile, it'll soon be time to scan the local paper for what's on where, and sharpen my haggling skills once more. Not to mention my elbows! Happy reading, and happy booting! |
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