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    <title>Books Do Furnish A Room</title>
    <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</link>
    <description>My days in the used book trade. I own a used bookshop in Durham, North Carolina.</description>
    <dc:language>en-us</dc:language>
    <dc:creator>richardevanslee@nc.rr.com</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>Copyright 2006</dc:rights>
    <dc:date>2006-05-24T08:54:33-05:00</dc:date>
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    <item>
      <title>Missing Emails from Amazon</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/missing_emails_from_amazo.php</link>
      <description>Do agressive spam filters send communications from Amazon.com into oblivion?</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">10249@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[For a time recently we discovered that a fair number of orders from Amazon&#39;s Marketplace weren&#39;t arriving in our inbox.Our annoyance with that was more than offset by discovering we&#39;d made more money than we thought.Checking the spam folder on...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2006-05-24T08:54:33-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Goodbye to the Small Bookshop</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/goodbye_to_the_small_book.php</link>
      <description>How the web is putting an end to the indepedent book retailer.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">10240@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[From an article in slate on the vanishing of small bookshops: Unfortunately, many virtues of the new order are relatively invisible. Consider the used-book market. It was much easier to find a good used bookstore 20 years ago. Yet it...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2006-05-16T10:10:26-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Homebase / Amazon Marketplace Glitch?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/homebase_amazon_marketp.php</link>
      <description>Homebase book number and Amazon SKU mismatch.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">9148@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Today we got an order for a book via Amazon&#39;s marketplace. The Homebase book number which Amazon converts into the SKU was wrong. It was off by one digit. Never had this before and hope to never see it again....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-12-27T18:11:35-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Amazon&apos;s new SellersAnswer (Scam)</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/amazons_new_sellersanswe.php</link>
      <description>Phishing exploit aimed at Amazon.com Marketplace and zShop merchants.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">9127@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[A couple of weeks ago we got an email from someone on eBay apologizing for failing to pay for something. But no one owed us for anything. Holding the cursor over the reply link showed that while the visible text...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-12-13T08:56:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Every page is inspected in detail!!!</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/every_page_is_inspected_i.php</link>
      <description>Bad, silly, preposterous, unlikely descriptions of used books.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">9094@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[This is the most hilarious description of a book I&#39;ve seen in ages, emphasis mine. Looks brand new-gentlyused!!! I believe in 100% accurate book description!!! Every page is inspected in detail and accurately reported!!! Minor self wear!!! Every page is...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-12-03T17:52:19-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Pathetic Book Description</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/pathetic_book_description.php</link>
      <description>Badly described used books on Amazon.com.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">9014@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[One day I&#39;m going to make a list of all the amazingly dumb book descriptions I see. My latest favorite says &#8220;Pick me!&#8221; Sort of like a begging schoolchild hoping to be chosen by the teacher. The listed reward for...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-11-09T14:02:06-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>My Debt to Bookfinder</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/my_debt_to_bookfinder.php</link>
      <description>Used book search engine led me to my first venture into web retailing and eCommerce.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">9001@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I remember when I first started buying books online. It was from Powell&#39;s, a bookshop that was very early on the web. And I recall how annoyed I was that they didn&#39;t describe condition (at least back then, haven&#39;t bought...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-11-07T17:55:14-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Bookfinder Sold to ABE (Ouch?)</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/bookfinder_sold_to_abe_o.php</link>
      <description>Best wishes and luck to Anrivan, hope it works out well.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">9000@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I suspect Bookfinder being sold to ABE feels like a kick in the stomach to many of us in the trade.Despite Amazon&#39;s A9 you don&#39;t think of an impartial search service mixing well with a vested commercial interest. And I...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-11-07T17:38:36-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Shipping to UK, Europe Getting Slower?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/shipping_to_uk_europe_ge.php</link>
      <description>Are security concerns slowing down mail between America and overseas?</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8984@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I think we are getting more &#8220;where&#39;s my book&#8221; emails from overseas, mostly Great Britain. There was a short stretch when it seemed as if most surface mail shipments to the UK took maybe ten days.Now it is more than...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-11-01T14:57:56-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ABE, Alibris and Devil Amazon!</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/abe_alibris_and_devil_am.php</link>
      <description>Amazon removes ABE and Alibris listings while paranoid used book dealers complain of conspiracy and predict that Amazon is trying to rule the used book business.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8819@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Just found out today that Amazon is kicking out &#39;aggregators&#39; from Amazon Marketplace and zShops.That is to say that ABE and Alibris are gone. At least ABE. Alibris has its own inventory of used books, which can stay. Fine with...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-09-23T18:04:32-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Alibris Sales Jump</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/alibris_sales_jump.php</link>
      <description>Why aren&apos;t we selling more books on ABE and Amazon?</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8777@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Is Alibris burning money on advertising? Alibris has become one of our major sources of online used book sales. ABE sales are in a slump. Very few direct orders. The Half.com orders are up but often arrive after we&#39;ve sold...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-09-07T16:00:40-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>E is not é on ABE</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/e_is_not_e_on_abe.php</link>
      <description>ABE has changed its handling of treatment of accented characters in book searches.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8720@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I&#39;d swear that once upon a time ABE considered e and &eacute; the same letters. Recently in pricing a bunch of French language books I discovered each has recovered its own identity. So you have to do two separate searches...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-08-28T06:16:49-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Amazon&apos;s Odd ISBN Problem</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/amazons_odd_isbn_problem.php</link>
      <description>Amazon.com doesn&apos;t recognize valid ISBNs that are actually in its database of titles.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8719@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Recently on entering an ISBN on Amazon I&#39;ve more often than was wont in the past to be told that nothing was found. And when invited to click to see some possibly relevant results I get yet more unedifying nothing....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-08-27T19:29:42-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Death to all Muslims  on Amazon</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/death_to_all_muslims_on_.php</link>
      <description>Marketplace seller sends copy of Koran with anti-Muslim message</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8625@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Some people will do anything for a couple of bucks. We&#39;d never sell something like this: A Muslim group on Wednesday demanded a public apology from online bookseller Amazon.com for its part in delivering a used copy of the Koran...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-05-19T19:19:15-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Alibris Listings Fees</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/alibris_listings_fees.php</link>
      <description>Though unhappy with Alibris&apos; new fee structure we will continue to sell used books via their website.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8253@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I talked to my partner Gordon and it turns out that we do make enough from Alibris to be able to live with the new listings fees. So we&#8217;ll be sticking with them....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-03-30T13:28:14-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Alibris changes for dealers</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/alibris_changes_for_deale.php</link>
      <description>Alibris&apos; new fees probably mean we won&apos;t be selling on their site anymore.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8160@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[On and off we get warnings from Alibris that our fulfillment rate is too low. Oddly almost all of the books are ones that we sold months or years ago and are marked as sold in Homebase. Somehow the book...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-03-22T16:12:07-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ABE&apos;s Amazon program redux</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/abes_amazon_program_redu.php</link>
      <description>ABE&apos;s Amazon program and maintaining an adequate fulfillment rate.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8159@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[We got kicked out of ABE&#39;s Amazon program again. We could see it coming. Recent popular books were much of the problem. We&#39;d come in and find two orders for a book we&#39;d just sold. We tried going to ABE&#39;s...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-03-22T15:59:47-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Upper case addresses</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/upper_case_addresses.php</link>
      <description>I use Clipmate to keep mailing address labels clean looking.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">8115@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I thought it odd the other day that there was an outbreak of name and addresses in all caps. Then I realized all the orders avoiding lower case were from ABE&#39;s North American website. Perhaps some engineer there shares my...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2005-03-13T07:51:43-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>I hate Amazon.com</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/i_hate_amazoncom.php</link>
      <description>Angry emails from an Amazon.com Marketplace, zShops customer.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7818@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Emails from an Amazon Marketplace customer: I HATE AMAZON .COM If you send this @#$%T&amp;*()_+ book to Buffalo NY I WILL SUE YOU AND LEAVE YOU THE WORST @W#$%&amp;*() FEEDBACK ON EARTh! CANCEL THIS ORDER! CABCEL THIS ORDER DAMMIT!~ I...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-11-04T07:28:51-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Another used book site closes</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/another_used_book_site_cl.php</link>
      <description>If you are looking for site on which to sell your used books we suggest you join TomFolio</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7792@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[ChooseBooks has announced that they&#39;ll be folding.I don&#39;t know anything about the owners&#39; background or skills but the site&#39;s passing left me wondering how adequately people who want to go in the used book listing service plan ahead. There&#39;ve been...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-10-12T13:02:29-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mr. Customer: update your address when you move</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/mr_customer_update_your.php</link>
      <description>Online customers who are tardy about changing their shipping address when they move: inconvenient and costly.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7658@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I&#39;m beginning to wish there was some centralized but distributed repository where people could store things like their shipping address. When they update it on the master site all of the places they&#39;ve supplied their shipping address with would automatically...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-09-14T16:03:29-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Selling on Biblio</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/selling_on_biblio.php</link>
      <description>Biblio.com has proven to be a website worth selling used books on.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7611@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I won&#39;t pretend we&#39;ve been making big bucks from Biblio but we&#39;re making enough to continue listing on the site. Biblio is one of the two places we list where what we pay is based solely on how much we...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-09-05T18:16:58-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Search engine optimized merchant accounts</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/search_engine_optimized_m.php</link>
      <description>Frequent offers to opmitize our website, to give us a merchant account and other unwanted emails.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7483@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[You know what our biggest source of spam is aside from enlargements of organs? It is merchant accounts. Well we&#39;ve had a merchant account with our bank for twenty years and we don&#39;t need you to offer us one. I...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-08-16T18:42:52-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Jump in non-US sales</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/jump_in_nonus_sales.php</link>
      <description>ABE has been proving us more European customers as Summer sales pick up.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7432@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[You may have pictured the used bookselling business as a rapid series of thrills and laughs. Often it is as exciting as plumbing and almost as gracious. Hence the slender posting. Income has jumped back up the last couple of...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-08-02T14:21:41-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>May have some underlining  or marks</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/may_have_some_underlining.php</link>
      <description>Sociology text badly, lazily described by online bookseller.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7227@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[One of those lazy stock descriptions. Possibly it is only used for reference or technical books.May have some underling or marks in legends, we only check for the obvious. We do not look at each page. This book contains good...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-06-22T11:57:25-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Touching email from a self-published author</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/touching_email_from_a_sel.php</link>
      <description>Vanity publishing and self-published books are often impossible to sell.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7150@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I had to go find his books to see what they were. Now to see if anyone other than their author cares that they exist. I&#39;m certainly flattered that you put one of my little bboks on the internet for...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-06-07T16:49:42-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Help the customer tell me how to ship his book</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/help_the_customer_tell_me.php</link>
      <description>Irresponsible, careless ecommerce website design, make it easy for the customer to provide shipping preference, options.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7096@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I mentioned a time back that we decided to leave Antiqbook. When I emailed the guys they kindly gave us two free months. I wish I could say the books ordered since then proved Antiqbook more profitable for us. I...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-05-28T17:08:19-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Describing used books</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/used_bookdealer/describing_used_books.php</link>
      <description>The art and science of used book description and the frustration of buying a poorly described book from an incompetent or dishonest bookseller.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7091@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[My first job in a used bookshop consisted mostly of quoting books against want lists. Within three months of starting to sell online I dropped &#8220;F/F&#8221; or even &#8220;Fine/Fine.&#8221; We don&#39;t have that many rare titles and I got tired...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Used Bookdealer</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-05-27T15:34:36-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Used bookdealers on crack?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/used_bookdealers_on_crack.php</link>
      <description>Horrible, bad, incompetent descriptions of books used by online booksellers.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7059@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Oh, the weird, incompetent things some online booksellers do! How about this for a listing: nonfiction nonfiction nonfiction nonfiction nonfiction nonfiction nonfiction. used, as new, wonderful read! Same book, same bookseller: very good very good very good very good very...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-05-24T18:02:42-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Get those sold books out of your listings!</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/get_those_sold_books_out_.php</link>
      <description>Online used bookdealers who are too lazy to remove sold inventory from their listings</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7058@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[About three weeks ago I bought 20 or so boxes of books from a nearby online bookseller. As of today everything that I bought from them is still listed on ABE. Now there&#39;s neither rhyme nor reason for leaving up...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-05-22T17:54:16-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Sour mornings in the used book trade</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/sour_mornings_in_the_used.php</link>
      <description>Used book dealers have their bad mornings when they are pulling the books ordered online</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">7037@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[First thing I do when I get to the shop in the morning is create a list of books to pull with ClipMate&#39;s Power Paste. And some morning&#39;s I&#39;m in a sour mood. Each book that isn&#39;t there when I...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-05-18T18:37:35-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Netflix, USPS, you &amp; me]]></title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/netflix_usps_you_.php</link>
      <description>Customers who don&apos;t understand that the arrival time of their purchase depends more on the post office than on the bookseller who shipped it.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6899@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Saturday I sent two return envelopes to Netflix. Monday I got an email that one had been received. Today I got an email saying the other had arrived. The local Netflix depot is 70 miles away. Makes me think of...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-29T17:35:04-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mass market in unknown jacket</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/mass_market_in_unknown_ja.php</link>
      <description>Bad online book descriptions</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6859@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Dept. of bad descriptions:Very Good in Unknown jacketVery Good in Unknown jacketVery Good in Unknown jacketVery Good in Unknown jacketMass Market Paperback. Very Good+. 1st Thus. Slight bumps, rubs....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-24T11:58:05-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>We shipped a book with blank pages</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/we_shipped_a_book_with_bl.php</link>
      <description>Unwittingly we sent out a book with blank pages. The customer who received it was very kind</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6784@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Then there are those amazingly nice customers. I received the copy yesterday (4/13/04), and was very disappointed to discover that pages 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 17, as well as a few of the unnumbered pages (such...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-15T12:13:43-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>This book is better for having been scribbled in</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/this_book_is_better_for_h.php</link>
      <description>Dishonest attempts to sell used books with underlining and marginalia</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6705@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Today&#39;s bad used book description is a conniving attempt to turn a reading copy into an enhanced edition. Some outlining and textual notes improve the reading of this work.The book is a fairly standard postmodern text that can easily be...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-10T17:02:15-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Customers who don&apos;t know how to use email</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/customers_who_dont_know_.php</link>
      <description>Don&apos;t order something without providing a valid email address or you may be unhappy when it never arrives</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6700@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Got one of those frantic &#8220;Where is my book!?!&#8221; emails. She said she&#39;d ordered it via Amazon but our email archives showed no notice from Amazon or an email from us to anyone about sending the book. So I asked...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-09T15:17:16-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Our funniest book description</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/our_funniest_book_descrip.php</link>
      <description>Our clerk confused Homebase&apos;s data entry screen with an AOL instant message chat window</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6676@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[A cataloger confused Homebase with AOL. Depending on your vantage this is either the best or worst descriptive details we&#39;ve ever supplied for a book.&#8220;I have to go..I&#39;m sorry. there&#39;s some shit going down that I have to deal with..I&#39;ll...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-07T12:38:43-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Don&apos;t you hate those orders for books you&apos;ve already sold?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/dont_you_hate_those_orde.php</link>
      <description>Customers ordering books I don&apos;t have anymore and having to apologize to them</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6644@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[It was one of those mornings. Online orders were heavy but I couldn&#39;t find the first three books on my list of pulls. One book, ordered by A, we&#39;d sold a couple of years ago. For some reason A sometimes...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-05T15:45:34-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>And they talk about gold in your attic</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/and_they_talk_about_gold_.php</link>
      <description>Found an old paperback I&apos;d had for years and sold it for 100 times what I&apos;d been asking</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6614@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[What brings joy to a bookseller&#39;s day? How about finding an old mystery paperback that for almost twenty years has been sitting on your shelves for sixty cents and selling it for sixty dollars a couple of days later. Worked...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-04-02T16:23:17-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ISBNs gone wrong</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/isbns_gone_wrong.php</link>
      <description>ISBN data differs among online vendors of books like ABE.com and Amazon.com</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6556@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I bitched earlier about inaccurate ISBNs, I find myself hit by one I didn&#39;t catch. There&#39;s a commonplace book, we&#39;ll call it The Ordinary Book (don&#39;t want the title to be indexed in search engines). Last week a guy in...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-29T15:44:42-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ABE&apos;s emails to booksellers</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/abes_emails_to_bookselle.php</link>
      <description>The proper design of email forms</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6553@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Some changes can only be explained by assuming that a company hired a consultant and he shifted things about simply to be able to acclaim that work had been accomplished and value provided. Like the people who sell bottled tap...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-29T09:57:29-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Cataloger&apos;s dementia</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/catalogers_dementia.php</link>
      <description>Getting a bit foolish when choosing keywords for the books that I catalog </description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6526@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[When I started cataloging this morning I was doing &#39;better books.&#39; Better books may be worthwhile books. One of the things I learned during the seven months I worked in a used bookshop before opening my own that a good...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-26T14:49:07-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The shocking truth of media mail abuse exposed!</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/the_shocking_truth_of_med.php</link>
      <description>As a retailer I find the US postal service&apos;s treatment of shipping options like priority and media mail annoying</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6486@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Have you ever taken a package to the post office to have it rejected for reasons as unintelligible as they are paltry? You have if you sell books by mail. There&#39;s the Russian roulette of the clerk you get. While...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-23T16:49:27-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Bad otherwise good</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/bad_otherwise_good.php</link>
      <description>Books badly described by online used bookdealers</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6439@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[My partner, Gordon, just emailed me this book description. Cover has light soil and wear with small tears in spine ends. Boards just showing at two corners. Spine and edges sunned. Slight spine roll. End papers and page edges lightly...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-19T15:21:21-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Lots of orders from Barnes &amp; Noble</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/lots_of_orders_from_barne.php</link>
      <description>Wish ABE&apos;s Barnes and Noble program had better shipping reimbursement</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6394@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Been sick the last several days. Coincided nicely with my lack of web access. Can&#39;t miss the Internet when you are too tired to do anything with it.Orders from ABE&#39;s Barnes &amp; Noble program flooded in yesterday, the spate continued...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-15T14:47:39-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Call the ISBN police</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/call_the_isbn_police.php</link>
      <description>Some books have incorrect data or gibberish associated with their ISBN numbers</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6326@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[A couple of surprises from looking up books on Amazon using ISBNs: Maybe you&#39;d like to buy a copy of the revised Mr. Tompkins books. Enter the ISBN for the hardback and you&#39;ll see this:The New World of Mr Tompkins...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-07T15:10:54-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Biblio</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/biblio.php</link>
      <description>Biblio.com a used book search and listing site in Asheville North Carolina</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6325@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[We recently joined Biblio, another used book listing site. It seemed odd that it was here in North Carolina instead of Switzerland or Canada.We&#39;ve had a few orders each week. Their listings fees are modest (albeit a bit arcane I...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-07T07:41:02-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Kindness from Antiqbook</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/kindness_from_antiqbook.php</link>
      <description>Kindness from Antiqbook the Dutch used book dealer&apos;s site in response to my notice that we were canceling our listings account</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6306@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[A gracious email from Antiqbook in response to my notice that we wouldn&#39;t be listing books with them anymore. Dear Richard, I am sorry to hear that you want to leave Antiqbook. As a modest compensation we would like to...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-06T16:50:39-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Goodbye Antiqbook</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/goodbye_antiqbook.php</link>
      <description>Problems listing books on Antiqbook and other used book listings websites</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6298@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[We pay a penalty for listing lots of cheap books: it jacks up our listings fees. I&#39;m too lazy to go check but I&#39;d guess we have about 20,000 books listed. On some sites like Amazon it won&#39;t matter until...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-03-05T16:05:22-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>To be fair there are nice customers</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/to_be_fair_there_are_nice.php</link>
      <description>Pleasant and positive communications from online used book buyers</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6152@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Usually I bitch about the bad customers. In fairness I thought I&#39;d post this message from one of the nice ones. I recieved your message about the increased charge for postage for the three books I have ordered from you....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-02-18T08:53:20-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hey, Mr. Customer: read your email and reply to it damnit</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/hey_mr_customer_read_y.php</link>
      <description>Do online book buyers understand shipping read their email, are they too lazy to reply?</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6124@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Sometimes we&#39;re forced to notify customers that the big they&#39;ve ordered is so heavy that we&#39;ll need to charge additional shipping. A fellow in Australia ordered the hefty The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. We sent him an email saying...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-02-16T14:41:21-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ETC SEE ALSO GENERAL</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/etc_see_also_general.php</link>
      <description>Book keywording&apos;s legacy from library card catalogs and publisher laziness produce a list of junk keywords</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6088@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[When I&#39;m cataloging books I often fill in keywords like I&#39;m writing to attract Google&#39;s eye. Since it isn&#39;t mechanical and can be slightly creative I often enjoy working on the keywords. My goal is to sell a book, though...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-02-12T14:07:50-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Minor miracle</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/minor_miracle.php</link>
      <description>Finding a misplaced used book before it is ordered online, ecommerce can be tough</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">6057@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Yesterday I found one half of a two-volume set of Locke in the wrong place. This morning there was an order for the set. Not much money. But a happy change for the mornings I spend a half-hour trying to...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-02-09T17:15:49-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>No mail receptacle?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/no_mail_receptacle.php</link>
      <description>Customers who can&apos;t give us their shipping address because they are incompetent or lazy</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5942@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Is there a psychiatric word for inability to provide correct address?Took many packages are coming back because the person put on the wrong zip code, left out an apartment number, hadn&#39;t changed their recorded data at a book listing site...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-26T10:16:23-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>May have highlighting</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/may_have_highlighting.php</link>
      <description>Bad book descriptions from online bookdealers</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5924@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[&#8220;May have highlighting. Will ship best copy available.&#8221;There&#8217;s a dealer who uses this description for every book. Who would buy a book from someone like that? Too many people since they stay in business month after month....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-24T18:06:50-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Choose Books</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/choose_books.php</link>
      <description>Online book listings at Choose Books</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5894@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[ With no intermediaries and no third party markups, you are assured to get the best value. We&#39;ve been listing with Choose Books for a couple of months. Haven&#39;t made a lot of money but it costs little. Instead of...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-21T15:52:08-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Back at Bibliology</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/back_at_bibliology.php</link>
      <description>British website listing used books from dealers around the world</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5880@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Bibliogy emailed us with an offer to try them again. The first month is free or we wouldn&#39;t have accepted.We&#39;d like to see more thriving used book listings sites. Gaining web visibility is tough, especially without lots of cash. Bibliology&#39;s...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-20T17:26:04-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Where do those books go</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/where_do_those_books_go.php</link>
      <description>Frustrations even if you own your business</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5870@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Online business has been fairly good of late, good volume, selling more of the (by our humble standards) more expensive books. But. And it is a serious but. There&#39;ve been too many books we couldn&#39;t find. No discernable pattern. One...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-19T16:23:03-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dear Mr. Customer (you silly ass)</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/dear_mr_customer_you_si.php</link>
      <description>Stupid mistakes people make when ordering a used book online</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5806@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Dear Mr. Customer: I&#39;d rather you email your request for a book than call me on the telephone. Whoever answers the telephone may be the only person in the shop. If we have customers around looking for your book may...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-12T16:29:16-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Goodbye Australia?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/goodbye_australia.php</link>
      <description>May be time for us to refuse to sell books to Australia unless Australians are willing to pay for air mail or global priority</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5760@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve had several shipments to Australia lost in the last couple of months. We&#8217;re thinking about refusing to sell books to Australians unless they are willing to pay for airmail or global priority mail. Seems a little harsh but for...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-05T18:31:36-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Finally bought a scanner for the shop</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/finally_bought_a_scanner_.php</link>
      <description>Learning to master my new Canon scanner&apos;s auto-crop feature</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5747@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Customer traffic was much steadier this January 1st. A few folks came back for second helpings. One of the pleasures of the sale on my end is seeing people take away books that had been sitting on the shelves for...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2004-01-04T07:51:41-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dropped from ABE&apos;s Half.com program</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/dropped_from_abes_halfc.php</link>
      <description>Removed from ABE&apos;s Half.com program because our fulfillment rate was too low</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5559@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[ABE kicked us out of their Half.com program today. The program allows folks like us who don&#8217;t list on Half.com (too many bottom feeders) to have our ABE listings automatically added to Half.com. Our fulfillment rate had dropped to 77%....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-12-16T16:54:38-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Buy this book if you need it</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/buy_this_book_if_you_need.php</link>
      <description>Poor, inadequte descriptions of used books online</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5517@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Was the useless description of a used book&#39;s condition that I ran across on Amazon&#39;s Marketplace today....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-12-13T15:34:19-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Depends on knowing where to look</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/depends_on_knowing_where_.php</link>
      <description>Used book prices sometime vary widely from site to site</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5496@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been surprised by the overpriced books I&#8217;ve seen on ABE. Almost always recent scholarly books. Dealers will actually be asking more than list price for a book that can be bought new at a discount. Some are probably old...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-12-11T13:52:38-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Our own human rights day?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/our_own_human_rights_day.php</link>
      <description>Selling human rights themed books</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5470@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Today three different people ordered: Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives Human Rights in Political Transitions Human Rights : The Human Rights Watch Global Report Gosh, you think some folks are getting worried?...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-12-09T17:24:17-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Liar or fool?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/liar_or_fool.php</link>
      <description>Some online bookdealers are dishonest, others are ignorant</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5366@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I was just pricing a paperback edition of a 14th century English poet and ran across this listing: Quality Trade Paperback AS NEW.Covers shiny,corners sharp,binding tight,pages clean.Univ of Toronto edition,edited by [name exised].Out of print from the publisher,our copy is...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-12-01T13:24:45-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>BookFinder</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/bookfinder.php</link>
      <description>Website for finding inexpensive, cheap and out of print books on the internet</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">5212@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[You do know about Anirvan Chatterjee&#39;s BookFinder, right? When a customer can&#39;t find a book locally I always send them to BookFinder.BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ &#8212; Winston Churchill&#39;s The World Crisis, James St. James&#39; Disco Bloodbath, and Madonna&#39;s Sex...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-11-20T07:16:52-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[No &euro;'s]]></title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/no_s.php</link>
      <description><![CDATA[We can't accept euros in the US. Banks charge too much to process a &euro;]]></description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">4939@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Damned foreigners! Actually on the days when Americans aren&#39;t spending I&#39;m grateful for the orders from Japan and the UK. But some overseas customers have been frustrating. When we get an order that doesn&#39;t specify shipping we used to email...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-10-27T14:01:04-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Selling the first book we cataloged</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/selling_the_first_book_we.php</link>
      <description>Rich Hendel, Vicky Statham, selling used books online for five years.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">4931@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Yesterday we sold the first book I cataloged. Paul Green&#39;s letters were entered into Homebase on 9/19/98. Our venture into ecommerce started then. It was book #3, the first two were practice runs. I remember buying the book from the...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-10-26T19:03:31-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Ordering used books with stolen credit cards</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/ordering_used_books_with_.php</link>
      <description>Indonesia: stolen credit cards are used to order stolen books, one of the pitfalls in online bookselling.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">4255@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[An order from Indonesia made me a bit wary this morning. Along with Nigeria and Eastern Europe, Indonesia is one of the places where stolen credit cards are used to order books. That the customer asked for Global Express shipping...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-08-15T08:57:23-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Targeting porn spam at online booksellers?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/targeting_porn_spam_at_on.php</link>
      <description>Porn spam directed at used bookdealers.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">4129@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Try reading the *(&amp;(*&amp;(* listings and you would have seen that you lowballed a hardback against a mis-listed paperback and took the price of the book down over 3 dollars. You suck! This email arrived from &#8220;Webmistress&#8221; Saturday.I&#8217;ve seen complaints...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-07-14T15:01:42-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Desperate bookselling</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/desperate_bookselling.php</link>
      <description>Trying to sell an incomplete copy of a Ballantine Adult Fantasy series novel, Double Phoenix.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3894@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[A listing of a the Ballantine Adult Fantasies series edition of a common book. &#8230; this is a very nice looking copy of Double Phoenix, but it is MISSING THE LAST 5 PAGES! It was returned to me (and rightly...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-26T09:46:11-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>As soon as possible</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/as_soon_as_possible.php</link>
      <description>Emails from Australia asking the value of old books found in an attic.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3889@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Sometimes people think we&#39;re a public utility. An email:Old Mortality. By SirWalter Scott, Bart.1876, The Jouiors of St Bede,s by Rev Thomas H. Bryson 1911, Julia by Katharine Tynan 1904.. Can you please tell me how much are these books...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-25T18:02:27-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The BookFinder Report</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/the_bookfinder_report.php</link>
      <description>Bookfinder book search report.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3887@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[The fiction searches look like those folks should be going to the local Goodwill. The BookFinder.com Report is a different kind of bestseller list. It&#39;s a measure of the most sought after out of print titles in America.The BookFinder.com Report...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-25T12:53:58-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How about a rpg based on Revelation?</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/how_about_a_rpg_based_on_.php</link>
      <description>Role playing games and end time prophecies from the book of Revelation.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3869@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[I just priced The Wheel of Time: Prophecies of the Dragon, a fantasy role-playing game book. Amazon says that I might also want to see Prophecies and End Times: Pre-trib Rapture, Israel, timetable Psalms correlate historical events and The Puritan&#39;s...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-23T08:36:38-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Pay more for &apos;brand name&apos; used books</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/pay_more_for_brand_name.php</link>
      <description>Internet advertising and branding.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3720@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[We just had our first ever Alibris sale that came from Amazon&#39;s Marketplace.We mark everything up we sell via Alibris 20%. For Amazon sales Alibris adds a little extra.They could&#39;ve bought the book from us on Amazon for a few...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-12T16:21:41-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Wrestling with Christian customers</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/wrestling_with_christian_.php</link>
      <description>Indignant Christian customer who bought a book on demons via Barnes &amp; Noble BookQuest.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3714@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Sometimes we send a customer the wrong book. Often it is the right author but a book with slightly different title. At our worst we mix up two books and send the wrong books to two customers.When we can we...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-11T08:22:28-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Idiotic advice from Amazon.com</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/idiotic_advice_from_amazo.php</link>
      <description>Amazon&apos;s stupid recommendations.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3683@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Amazon&#8217;s suggestion robot is getting nuttier. Looking up Malcolm Lowry&#8217;s novel Lunar Caustic I was advised that I might want to buy Sodium hydroxide (available in drums). Looking up a political cartooning book entitled Pen Pals I was invited to...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-05-03T22:19:31-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>TomFolio: independent used bookshops</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/tomfolio_independent_use.php</link>
      <description>TomFolio, independent used bookdealer cooperative.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3662@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[When you order a used book through ABE, Antiqbook, Bibliophile and the other listing services you are buying directly from the bookdealer. There&#39;s no markup (other than a tiny one if you ABE processes your credit card rather than paying...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-27T07:09:19-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Please pick me!</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/please_pick_me.php</link>
      <description>Funny Amazon Marketplace book descriptions</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3655@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Those Amazon Marketplace booksellers and their descriptions. PLEASE PICK ME AND HELP SEND ME BACK TO SCHOOL ONE BOOK AT A TIME, THANK YOU!...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-26T09:21:45-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Booksdofurnisharoom.com</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/booksdofurnisharoomcom.php</link>
      <description>Booksdofurnisharoom.com Books Do Furnish A Room&apos;s website.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3646@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Booksdofurnisharoom.com&#8217;s webhost upgraded his secure server so I had to make a few changes to our website. I built it two or three years ago using Front Page. I was appalled when I looked at its internals today: the logo...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-25T11:04:11-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Standard used book descriptions</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/standard_used_book_descri.php</link>
      <description>Unhelpful used book descriptions seen online.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3555@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Today&#8217;s unhelpful description of a used book:Better than standardStandards are notoriously personal and elastic. I hope used book buyers&#39; standards are too high to buy a book described thusly....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-12T19:03:53-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>40,000 books</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/40000_books.php</link>
      <description>Cataloging books for online sales.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3547@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[In cataloging our 40 thousandth book we passed a milestone* of sorts. Sounds like a whole heaping lot doesn&#8217;t it? We started selling online in the fall of 1999. It really should be more. But lovers, illness, assorted humours keep...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-11T16:57:45-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>ABE&apos;s Amazon Program</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/abes_amazon_program.php</link>
      <description>ABE Amazon Marketplace program feedback.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3532@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[We started selling on Amazon&#39;s Marketplace and zShop when we first started putting some of our shelf stock online. When we upload the latest additions to our catalog books with ISBNs go into the Marketplace, the other books are shuffled...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-09T18:02:31-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>FREE stick of gum included</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/free_stick_of_gum_include.php</link>
      <description>Amazon&apos;s Marketplace free gum with every book.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3525@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Latest odd description from Amazon&#39;s Marketplace:FREE stick of gum includedQuite an enticement....]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-04-07T11:03:56-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Selling to Sarah Schulman</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/selling_to_sarah_schulman.php</link>
      <description>Selling Sarah Schulman and Richard Kostelanetz their own books.</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3484@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Just sold a copy of Sarah Schulman&#39;s After Dolores to Schulman herself. I might&#39;ve offered to make a gift to her of any of her other books that she might be out of (and we have in stock) but the...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-03-24T12:34:59-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Silly book descriptions</title>
      <link>http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/archives/online_bookselling/silly_book_descriptions.php</link>
      <description>Silly book descriptions on Amazon&apos;s Marketplace</description>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">3456@http://www.edifyingspectacle.org/usedbookdealer/</guid>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[This afternoon while looking at books on Amazon&#39;s Marketplace I ran across one of the silliest book descriptions I&#39;ve ever seen.Ooh, Ooh, Ooh pick ME!!! Crisp, Clean Copy. Underlining inside book...]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:subject>Online bookselling</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2003-03-21T14:19:11-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>


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