Anyone else aggravated that Amazon is unable to fill some of their (re: my) preorders until mid-July?
It seems WotC misjudged the size of the first print run. A second one has already been launched, but it does suck that some preorders are going unfilled. My friend is in a similar boat (well actually, he was set to get his on time, but changed the shipping method in an attempt to speed it up ... but since Amazon refiles your order with every shipping change he was bumped to the second batch!)
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It seems WotC misjudged the size of the first print run. A second one has already been launched, but it does suck that some preorders are going unfilled. My friend is in a similar boat (well actually, he was set to get his on time, but changed the shipping method in an attempt to speed it up ... but since Amazon refiles your order with every shipping change he was bumped to the second batch!)
Further aggravation is that there's no place to register a complaint on Amazon's website! Argh! ;)
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Anyone else aggravated that Amazon is unable to fill some of their (re: my) preorders until mid-July?It seems WotC misjudged the size of the first print run. A second one has already been launched, but it does suck that some preorders are going unfilled. My friend is in a similar boat (well actually, he was set to get his on time, but changed the shipping method in an attempt to speed it up ... but since Amazon refiles your order with every shipping change he was bumped to the second batch!)
I heard that Amazon oversold and did not flag sales beyond its initial allocation as back orders.
Further aggravation is that there's no place to register a complaint on Amazon's website! Argh! ;)
Lol, truly that sucks. My friend ended up just cancelling and deciding to buy it from a local store, although that does mean he loses out on the hefty discount Amazon was offering.
Cheers! :)
My friend ended up just cancelling and deciding to buy it from a local store, although that does mean he loses out on the hefty discount Amazon was offering.
This is also how I handled it. I was stressing already about having to wait for a ship date of June 10. There's no way I was going to make it until the middle of July without these books. Sure, I ended up paying about twice as much as I would have at Amazon, but I hope enough people cancel their orders to make them think twice about over-selling and hosing their customers.
O
Amazon had me down for a ship date later this week. I had free shipping. I went back and changed it to two-day shipping and received an email within 2 hours that my order had shipped. I now have the books.
I don't know if that was just a coincidence or what, but I pass it along.
yeah mine got changed because i messed with the payment option (stupid am ex gift cards) and it got bumped but it ended up making it here yesterday anyway.
the change made me lose the 5% preorder off but i emailed abouit it and they refunded the $3 or whatever to me super fast.
I really cant complain too much. I got all three books int he case yesterday and it only cost me $54.
My friend ended up just cancelling and deciding to buy it from a local store, although that does mean he loses out on the hefty discount Amazon was offering.This is also how I handled it. I was stressing already about having to wait for a ship date of June 10. There's no way I was going to make it until the middle of July without these books. Sure, I ended up paying about twice as much as I would have at Amazon, but I hope enough people cancel their orders to make them think twice about over-selling and hosing their customers.
O
My order was through overstock.com (after buy.com and amazon.com both shunted me into the delivery in july batch after completing my order). Overstock.com had the SAME problem, so I went through a great deal of rigamarole to cancel my order (not an easy prospect on overstock.com, sadly) and got it, for actually a decent discount, from my flgs. ironically, the good gaming store doesn't give a discount, but the so-so one does. odd how that works.
Anyway, I now have the books, but they cost me $22 more than they would have from Amazon.
still a $23 discount, and at least it helped a brick and mortar store.
As for WotC misestimating the size of the first print run... I'm not sure about that... I think they just misestimated how many people would buy from online retailers.
Not surprising though... most were giving a $45 discount on the retail price.
- Ashavan
Anyone else aggravated that Amazon is unable to fill some of their (re: my) preorders until mid-July?It seems WotC misjudged the size of the first print run. A second one has already been launched, but it does suck that some preorders are going unfilled. My friend is in a similar boat (well actually, he was set to get his on time, but changed the shipping method in an attempt to speed it up ... but since Amazon refiles your order with every shipping change he was bumped to the second batch!)
A friend of mine had exactly the same problem. He called and raised h*** on the phone. He got an email that says that his mid-July order should arrive tomorrow.
Mine (pre-ordered in February) arrived today.
Final price: $52.00. Would have liked to have had them handy at Saturday's WW DnD Game Day, but it's good to have them in hand.
...and got it, for actually a decent discount, from my flgs. ironically, the good gaming store doesn't give a discount, but the so-so one does. odd how that works.
Two models really - one is to cut costs to the bone and try and keep as many customers happy as possible. That kind of store will probably give you discounts.
The other model is to admit that its impossible to compete with Amazon on price point and instead go for a quality model. Thats going to cost you in terms of carrying books that might not sell just so that your comprehensive. Its going to cost you in things like better wages for good employees (otherwise they leave) etc. At this point you stop giving discounts.
Mine cost $54.83 with shipping. It makes me wonder what the wholesale price is--how much money is Amazon making on the set? Of course, no-one shares that kind of info.
My invoice from my distributor is at work but I'll tell you tomorrow. All prices will be in Canadian Dollars. That said I think what you paid is very close to what I paid from my distributor. I'm not really sure how Amazon could pull that off unless their skipping the distributors and publishers and going straight to WotC. That said their huge - maybe they got some kind of a volume discount.
Yeah, I got the same notice from Amazon today. I really don't care if its late. It'll give me a chance to catch up on my reading. I've got a couple of 2e, 3e, and pdf books to go through. Looks like I'll be paying the same amount as Andrew when it ships.
Chief Technical Officer
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Mine cost $54.83 with shipping. It makes me wonder what the wholesale price is--how much money is Amazon making on the set? Of course, no-one shares that kind of info.
In the hobby industry, publishers generally sell to distribution at 60% off retail price, and distribution sells to retail at 40% off retail price (plus or minus a few percent). Now, the book trade works a bit differently, and factors like returnability change the discount structure, but all those numbers are still usually within several percent of the hobby standard. So it's possible that other discounts are in place here, but for a normal product priced at $104.95, I'd assume that the publisher is getting roughly $41.98 from the distributor, who is getting roughly $62.97 from the retailer. (Again, plus or minus a few percent.)
The one thing I know for sure about this product is that amazon is selling the core set for less than we, as a hobby game retailer, can buy it for from a hobby distributor.
Mine cost $54.83 with shipping. It makes me wonder what the wholesale price is--how much money is Amazon making on the set? Of course, no-one shares that kind of info.In the hobby industry, publishers generally sell to distribution at 60% off retail price, and distribution sells to retail at 40% off retail price (plus or minus a few percent). Now, the book trade works a bit differently, and factors like returnability change the discount structure, but all those numbers are still usually within several percent of the hobby standard. So it's possible that other discounts are in place here, but for a normal product priced at $104.95, I'd assume that the publisher is getting roughly $41.98 from the distributor, who is getting roughly $62.97 from the retailer. (Again, plus or minus a few percent.)
The one thing I know for sure about this product is that amazon is selling the core set for less than we, as a hobby game retailer, can buy it for from a hobby distributor.
Thanks for the information. That's interesting that Amazon could sell them at that price, then. Of course, whatever they're doing we know that they're, at least, also bungling a lot of orders and winning no love with long delays.
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I actually refused to order from Amazon.
Not because I dislike the company, or shopping online: It's just that everyone I know, both RL and online was buying from Amazon due to the deep discount, and I saw this coming.
So on release day I called my FLGS, walked in, and picked from the couple hundred books they had in stock. They were doing a pretty brisk turnaround, too.
It didn't hurt that I only got the PHB this go around - I'll pick up the DMG and MM later, once I've fully absorbed the PHB.
Mine cost $54.83 with shipping. It makes me wonder what the wholesale price is--how much money is Amazon making on the set? Of course, no-one shares that kind of info.In the hobby industry, publishers generally sell to distribution at 60% off retail price, and distribution sells to retail at 40% off retail price (plus or minus a few percent). Now, the book trade works a bit differently, and factors like returnability change the discount structure, but all those numbers are still usually within several percent of the hobby standard. So it's possible that other discounts are in place here, but for a normal product priced at $104.95, I'd assume that the publisher is getting roughly $41.98 from the distributor, who is getting roughly $62.97 from the retailer. (Again, plus or minus a few percent.)
The one thing I know for sure about this product is that amazon is selling the core set for less than we, as a hobby game retailer, can buy it for from a hobby distributor.
I'll back Vic on this. My distributor is selling me this product (and I'm a bookstore) for more then the Amazon price. Not much more but this would actually be a serous problem if I was trying to make money on this product ('cause I'd obvously have to raise the price even more - since I'm not a library and have rent and employees to pay). We got this from the distributor instead of Amazon simply because I'd rather support our distributor then support Amazon but its a good thing for me that I'm an environmental bookstore and not a Gaming shop 'cause there is not much money for gaming shops to be found here - not if they have to compete against Amazon on price point anyway - Their a lot better off if they are competing on customer service, presuming that they offer good customer service and hire employees that love to game.
As Vic noted the book industry itself works slightly differently and I checked with Random House Canada (who has the rights for WotCs material in my neck of the woods) but even from Random House Canada it'd have cost me more to buy the product for my store then what Amazon is selling for (very, close to what I got it from my distributor for, really). That said Random House has one of the best returns policy in the industry - life of the edition so long as the book is in resalable condition. If I had been considering selling this at my store I'd have bought from Random House so as to be able to return any stock I could not move. But I'm glad I bought from my distributor - they sent me a Paizo Game Mastery module FREE. I never even asked for it! I love schwag! Though it dawns on me that they maybe sent me this schwag because I love me my Paizo products. No way Random House would have sent me cool schwag - thats for sure.
I have no idea how Amazon is getting the prices so low. Maybe they are using this as a loss leader and selling at a loss? Or maybe they some how got WotC to skip the distribution step and sell to them directly?
It was the first time I buyed something from amazon.ca and I was really please by the result... I've received the 4E core rulebooks at 6:45 monday morning, having paid 30$ CAD less than if I had buyed them from my local store...
But for another pre-order I made (The Dark Heresy Inquisition handbook)it's already available at my local store but it's back order from amazon and I will have to wait one month before shipping... But the book will cost 25% less... so I guess the delay is worth the monay I will save...
I will probably buy all my RPG on amazon except for the PDF...
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... Random House has one of the best returns policy in the industry - life of the edition so long as the book is in resalable condition. If I had been considering selling this at my store I'd have bought from Random House so as to be able to return any stock I could not move...
I have no idea how Amazon is getting the prices so low really. Maybe their using this as a loss leader and selling at a loss? Or maybe they some how got WotC to skip the distribution step and sell to them directly?
How long does a book sit on the shelf before you consider it a non-mover? Is it better to return it or discount it (remainder rack)?
I'm thinking either Amazon is a distributor (I have no idea), so they're selling it wholesale; or you're right, and they're pulling a Wal-Mart and selling it at a loss to pull in simultaneous or future sells from happy customers.
How long does a book sit on the shelf before you consider it a non-mover? Is it better to return it or discount it (remainder rack)?
For most books, one year, For Random House two or three years. I have a disincentive to return even if a book is not really selling. It means I have to do work (make a returns packing slip) and I have to pay shipping. Generally I'd rather just sit on it as long as I can and hope someone buys it.
Its almost always better to do a return. I do have a discount rack but its full of my mistakes, the books I forgot to return or could not find when the return came up mainly. If I put a book on a discount rack I might or might not sell it. If I return it I get a credit for all my money back (less the shipping costs) and can use that to buy more books.
With environmental books, sales are so all over the place that I can't really guess whats going to move versus whats going to sit there and do nothing. Mostly I buy a lot of different books. I have to compete with Amazon somehow and I do so, in part, by carrying such a comprehensive environmental book selection that I probably have more environmental titles in stock then Amazon, Amazon still lists more then me - but in many cases they are saying that their will be a three week delay before they ship which means that they don't have the book in stock - they'll call the publisher and order it if you place an order with them. However I am rarely carrying very many of a book. Essentially I've got many hundreds of book titles but am only usually carrying one or two of each title.
Essentially making returns a regular feature of my operations makes the business much closer to risk free in terms of capital expenditures. Of course I still need to sell enough to take some kind of pay, pay my employee (far to little compared to what she is worth as well - wish I could give her more) and pay my rent.
I love my job, but if your thinking of opening a bookstore my advice is don't. The pay I take home is barely above the poverty line. I own a business and can only afford to rent a room in a rooming house. Its pure craziness out there and I don't actually think the brick and mortar book business is going to do anything but continue to sink. Even trying to branch out into online sales is pretty iffy - once your online your trying to directly compete with Amazon and I'm seriously skeptical if thats all that feasible in the long term. Selling books, like selling games, is an industry thats done for love - not money.
I'm thinking either Amazon is a distributor (I have no idea), so they're selling it wholesale; or you're right, and they're pulling a Wal-Mart and selling it at a loss to pull in simultaneous or future sells from happy customers.
I honestly don't know and I doubt very many people outside of sales in WotC and Amazon do. They'd not advertise how they can get the prices this low for that kind of product.
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...I love my job, but if your thinking of opening a bookstore my advice is don't. The pay I take home is barely above the poverty line. I own a business and can only afford to rent a room in a rooming house. Its pure craziness out there and I don't actually think the brick and mortar book business is going to do anything but continue to sink. Even trying to branch out into online sales is pretty iffy - once your online your trying to directly compete with Amazon and I'm seriously skeptical if thats all that feasible in the long term. Selling books, like selling games, is an industry thats done for love - not money.
Yeah, that's what I hear every noncorporate bookseller say.
When I retire, I plan to open a brick and mortar store for rare books, but I'm planning it out with the intent of having maybe a couple thousand titles on hand, but listing an international catalogue of less than a hundred hyper-expensive titles, which will float the business.
The truth is, it'll be a way for me to get my hands on some of those titles, and then trade and sell them like Magic cards.
Yeah, that's what I hear every noncorporate bookseller say.When I retire, I plan to open a brick and mortar store for rare books, but I'm planning it out with the intent of having maybe a couple thousand titles on hand, but listing an international catalogue of less than a hundred hyper-expensive titles, which will float the business.
The truth is, it'll be a way for me to get my hands on some of those titles, and then trade and sell them like Magic cards.
The more you treat this as a hobby and not your bread and butter the happier you'll be. I'll say I like significant elements of your model here. Mainly the small number of expencive books. With this model you do a lot less work and still make the same (probably not so large ) pay. Its a lot more fun to hang out at the bookstore (which you'll design to be a place you like to hang out at) doing sales maybe once a day but have those sales be so significant that even though your barely working its still paying for the business and maybe making you a little pocket change as well.
Your still going to have to work like a dog that first year to set it up though.
Your highly specialized as well which is something of a key if your going to do books. Your customers need to want to come to you because they'd never buy this sort of thing from a faceless entity that knows nothing of the product. They need to be willing to pay more for your expertise.
Jeremy, now tell them what happens if someone shoplifts one of your books. Especially an expensive one, like a role-playing book. It still makes me sick to my stomach.
Forget world peace, I wish for no more shoplifters.
Jeremy, now tell them what happens if someone shoplifts one of your books. Especially an expensive one, like a role-playing book. It still makes me sick to my stomach.
Forget world peace, I wish for no more shoplifters.
I don't think it happens. I'm an Environmental bookstore. I attract idealist Greens, they don't rob me.
Though I take it you have a story you'd like to get off your chest?
The truth is, it'll be a way for me to get my hands on some of those titles, and then trade and sell them like Magic cards.
Oh yeah - be careful with this. I spend a distressing amount of my meagre pay on my own damn stock. I'm probably my best customer.
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The more you treat this as a hobby and not your bread and butter the happier you'll be... Its a lot more fun to hang out at the bookstore (which you'll design to be a place you like to hang out at) doing sales maybe once a day but have those sales be so significant that even though your barely working its still paying for the business and maybe making you a little pocket change as well. Your still going to have to work like a dog that first year to set it up though...
Right, and I'm only expecting to break even most of the time, which is why I'm waiting until I retire (meaning, my military pension, kids grown and on their own, house and other major bills mostly paid off). A small profit from the shop alone would be nothing more than a way to keep some of the titles I might acquire (like a 1688 Flesher folio of Paradise Lost--I'm salivating at the thought!).
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Well, I just got my copy in the mail. Let's get a knife...I'm so excited!...
...opening the box...
...McDonald's coupons...
...cellphones for soldiers...
...expired oscar-meyer coupons...
...bubble-wrap...
...Jesus!...light--so much ...my eyes...myeyesmyeyesmyeyes...
...
...
...
...My God.
...It's full of stars.
Oh yeah - be careful with this. I spend a distressing amount of my meagre pay on my own damn stock. I'm probably my best customer.
The truth is, it'll be a way for me to get my hands on some of those titles, and then trade and sell them like Magic cards.
Jeremy, what about combining your book store with another offering, like a coffee shop for example (which I've noticed nowadays corporate bookstores have a Starbucks or something almost always in them).
This gives incentive for customers to come in and read, and possibly open them up to buying a new book from your store.
In the same vein, if you run a hobby store, allowing space for playing games and whatnot seems like a good move.
Oh yeah - be careful with this. I spend a distressing amount of my meagre pay on my own damn stock. I'm probably my best customer.
The truth is, it'll be a way for me to get my hands on some of those titles, and then trade and sell them like Magic cards.Jeremy, what about combining your book store with another offering, like a coffee shop for example (which I've noticed nowadays corporate bookstores have a Starbucks or something almost always in them).
This gives incentive for customers to come in and read, and possibly open them up to buying a new book from your store.
In the same vein, if you run a hobby store, allowing space for playing games and whatnot seems like a good move.
For me it would be space issues. There is just not enough room and I could not afford the rent if we tried to get any bigger. Instead I try and do stuff off site that has a synergy with my store like attend Environmental fairs and such.
Jeremy, now tell them what happens if someone shoplifts one of your books. Especially an expensive one, like a role-playing book. It still makes me sick to my stomach.
Forget world peace, I wish for no more shoplifters.I don't think it happens. I'm an Environmental bookstore. I attract idealist Greens, they don't rob me.
Though I take it you have a story you'd like to get off your chest?
Hell yeah. I never had many problems until the last few years when the economy got tougher, and it got steadily worse. I am no longer in the business and my ulcers don't hurt nearly as much now that I don't have to deal with shoplifters.
The worse was a couple who put 3 books in their kid's stroller. Not a good idea if you don't want child services to take your kids away. It also hurt because I considered people interested in roleplaying games as "my people".And financially, it was the biggest killer in making the roleplaying portion of my business a profitable one. Basically, my discounts mirrored the numbers Vic Wertz mentioned above. This means on a $50 book, I would pay my distributor $30 for it. If I was selling them at 10% off, I would make $15 on the sale. When someone steals one, the profit from the next two books I sold would go to pay my distributor for the stolen item, leaving me with nothing to pay rent, utilities, my employees, shipping cost etc.
Shoplifters f$@)#g suck. Thanks for letting me rant.
I cancelled my amazon order for the gift set, and ordered them seperately. Cost me my pre-order discount but i whined about it and got free shipping. They reached me in three days even using the standard shipping. No slipcase but i will live..not waiting until the end of july, which is when they say they will have more gift sets.
And to the original poster, I could have guaranteed you that Amazon wouldn't be able to fulfill their all of their initial orders, it is not even a concern for them. As long as more people get their orders on time than don't, they know that the lowest price is the biggest attraction for customers. Even if someone gets burned by them and their flgs has always been 100% on time, there is still a good chance that the burned customer will order through them again if the difference in price is big enough. (And irate customers aren't as bad when you're dealing with them over the phone or through email).
Also, don't be shocked when that long anticipated book you've been waiting for is not available on the date that Amazon quotes you ;)
Yeah, that's what I hear every noncorporate bookseller say.When I retire, I plan to open a brick and mortar store for rare books, but I'm planning it out with the intent of having maybe a couple thousand titles on hand, but listing an international catalogue of less than a hundred hyper-expensive titles, which will float the business.
The truth is, it'll be a way for me to get my hands on some of those titles, and then trade and sell them like Magic cards.
I currently work at a used bookstore. Have for the last six years. Used books (and rare books) are certainly a viable option, but only if you approach it right: this means either finding a specific niche (as you intend to do) or being in the right area and meeting your community needs. The owner of the book store I work for has made some right choices and, sadly, a lot of wrong choices over the years. I say this not because I think I could do it better, but because I've been paying attention to the customers, and our potential as a business.
One thing he has done right (and it's what makes us a used bookstore, and not a rare bookstore) is keeping his overhead down on product. He gives very little for books. It works in this community because people don't have a lot of options, particularly for books that are over 5 or 6 years old. Newer books, they can sell to Hastings, but the older fiction and non-fiction books, there's really only us.
What he's done wrong? It's one thing myself and another employee have been gnashing our teeth over for quite some time: He's paying little for the books, but charging considerably too much. It's a fine line to cross, to know when you're charging to much, unfortunately he's leaped across it with a pole vault. It's the single biggest issue in us losing sales. Its particularly frustrating to us (the other employee and myself) because we know how much he pays for the books.
Another large mistake was not exploiting the online potential of his business early on, and being reluctant, still today, to really embrace the idea. For the last three years my primary job has been to deal with online orders. We don't get a lot, partly for the same reason we lose sales in store, but we do make some money off the online sales. Now selling on the internet is a huge pain in the ass. There's plenty of risk involved, and your gross is eaten away by all sorts of wonderful fees from the online outlets. It's still, currently, a viable option, that may not be the case in 3 or 4 years, certain marketplaces are making being an online retailer difficult with new policies (I'm looking at Ebay with this one), and shipping is becoming progressively more and more prohibitive each year. His major problem with the online sales are really due to his lack of knowledge. He's an older gentlemen, one of the "old money" of the community here. He's done a lot with new book sales, in fact he's been in the new book business for 30 plus years (his son has effectively taken over that business) as well as real estate, jewelry (like wise another son has taken over that business) and several other small business ventures. The man has been successful, but he's very set in his ways. We've tried to help him understand the potential (and the risks, which completely dissuade him, angers him, and blinds him to the pros) but it's been an uphill losing battle.
There's several other things that he could do, in store, to maximize potential. Oh there's so many. But those are the two biggest ones. Sorry I got into a little bit of a rant there.
I think if you have the gumption, and the market for used books doesn't take a dive you'll have fun with it. I will say I am concerned about more and more warehouse online used book stores starting up. The first of these was Alibris, which is also an online venue for small book sellers. My boss has a niece that's marrying a young man who has three large warehouses scattered across the country that deal with online sells of used books. There's a young man here in the community that's essentially a "wholesale used book distributor". He gets his product from recycling facilities and sells them to brick and mortar books stores, and it seems to becoming fairly common. He has the potential to do the same thing that the other young man is doing. There's great potential there, but I can see these sort of ventures eating away at the used book dealers even more then the online selling already is.
I will say one last thing: you have to love it, you really do. I work at a pittance at what I could be making doing something else. In fact, in a month I'll be leaving this job I've come to love. I'm looking for a way (through the afore mentioned young man who's "whole selling" used books) to stay with this business whilst I go off and get a better paying job else where. I don't know if it's even viable for me to do so, but I have a huge love for books, used books, and I'm not quite willing to leave this completely behind.
We'll see, it's all food for thought.
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4th Edition is the worse set of D&D rules I have ever seen! It is absolutly crap in book form! Don't waste your money on it!*
*Note this review is in no way based on reality since I have not recieved my books yet because Amazon could not fulfill my order. Expect a real Review once Amazon actually decides to send me my books in another month.
;-)
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I currently work at a used bookstore...
I am constantly researching in this area in an effort to build a viable business model, particularly because I don't want to run into some of the problems you described.
I've only actually been in four different shops (London, Boston, Williamsburg, and San Francisco) like what I want to have, and in all but one of them I couldn't afford anything they had for sale (and many price tags--string and a tag--read "enquire for purchase."
The shop I want is the kind where you walk in with a cashier's cheque and quietly ask, "Might you have a Bentley 1851? 2nd edition will be fine." And, of course, I'll automatically know that you're talking about Moby Dick.
That kind of specialization means I'll do very well, or I'll fail spectacularly.
I've got about 15 years to figure it out before I retire.
I currently work at a used bookstore...I am constantly researching in this area in an effort to build a viable business model, particularly because I don't want to run into some of the problems you described.
I've only actually been in four different shops (London, Boston, Williamsburg, and San Francisco) like what I want to have, and in all but one of them I couldn't afford anything they had for sale (and many price tags--string and a tag--read "enquire for purchase."
The shop I want is the kind where you walk in with a cashier's cheque and quietly ask, "Might you have a Bentley 1851? 2nd edition will be fine." And, of course, I'll automatically know that you're talking about Moby Dick.
That kind of specialization means I'll do very well, or I'll fail spectacularly.
I've got about 15 years to figure it out before I retire.
That's the kind of specialization that I figured you meant. :)
There's a distinct difference between used books and rare books. I work in a used book store. It's frustrating because it has the potential to be rather successful. Not a cash cow, but successful, and it's not living up to that potential.The kind of rare book shop you're speaking about I'd love to operate myself. Who knows what the future will bring?
I will add one note to the internet selling and rare books (not used): There was a gentleman in the store about a month and a half ago that was a rare book dealer from West Virginia. He had commented that he had his entire catalogue on the site Abebooks at one time, till he discovered that there were individuals out there selling his catalogue with his descriptions on their own sites and accounts. Not merely buying from him and reselling, but using his listings as their own. He discovered this when one sold a book through their account and tried to buy it from him at a discount and he'd sold the book privately to somebody else. He began to peruse this sellers listings after this incident and discovered that they were his books and descriptions verbatim. He has since stopped selling on line, and only sells privately. It's one thing to consider when dealing with rare books and online selling. Just a caution.
I hope you can make it honestly. All I can say is good luck.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Jeremy, what about combining your book store with another offering, like a coffee shop for example (which I've noticed nowadays corporate bookstores have a Starbucks or something almost always in them).
Here in Seattle, Starbucks is experimenting with opening new Starbucks inside of other Starbucks.
Here in Seattle, Starbucks is experimenting with opening new Starbucks inside of other Starbucks.
Genius! Now I can get coffee while I'm waiting in line to get coffee.
Man the jokes are just flyin' today. You guys are on a roll.
Can't get 4E?
You can get it here for only 125 dollars plus S&H.