Book Hunting in December

Since I have a break from work, I have been visiting various stores. On Friday, I began with Borders and Barnes and Noble, which are both around 15 miles away. I haven't been to either store in around a year. I have a heightened awareness of the Young Adult section, since I am currently reading the Twilight books.

I recall that Young Adult had already become gothic in recent years, but I honestly did not pay much attention. I noticed that the Young Adult section is very much gothic with lots of vampire books.

The juvenile series section still has the usual short supply of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, but those books look boring compared to most of the other books that are available. I am viewing the books from the point of view of someone who is not heavily invested in them like I am.

My eyes fell on the Percy Jackson books. I remembered Jack's review of this series, so I found the first book and spent a bit of time reading the first few chapters. I read far enough to decide whether I wanted to purchase it. I decided that I would, but not at Borders. The price was $79.99 for the boxed set, and that was too high. When I got home, I found the set on Amazon for under $50.00, and I should have it in the next day or so.

On Monday, I decided on the spur of the moment to visit a few antique shops. I seldom bother since I hardly ever find anything. This time was different. Here is what I bought:


I bought 17 of the Collins Nancy Drew books from the United Kingdom. It is odd to find them in an antique shop here in Oklahoma. I bought two Connie Blair books with dust jackets, both of which seem to be first printings. I found first printings of Nancy Drew #53 and #54 as well as the first printing of the last cover art PC for #34.

The PC for The Clue in the Diary has the 1932 text! I also bought $1 box PCs of a Hardy Boys and a Tom Swift Book. I came away with a PC of Nancy Drew #37 with Carolyn Keene twice on the spine and the blackened price box on the front cover.

I bought a copy of The Tower Treasure with the red ink on the top page edges. Some people try to sell those books for $40.00 to $50.00, but I don't really think they are worth more than around $10.00 at the most. I will have to research to make sure. Last, I bought Judy Bolton #25, a Collins UK edition of a Three Investigators book, and a Hardy Boys book in dust jacket.

It was a very productive outing and very unusual for me. I haven't come home with this many books from visits to antique shops since around 2000-2001. They usually have nothing but overpriced books. Of course, I saw many overpriced books today.

I checked out a relatively new used bookstore that I had never visited. It has signs up stating that their prices are the average of the prices for the books on the internet. That is obvious. They must use the fixed-price sites and average all of the prices, including the insane high ones. They wanted around $15.00 each for picture cover editions of various series books (not the high-numbered ones). They wanted $10.50 each for common Ruth Fielding books that do not have dust jackets. I will never go in that store again.

I saw lots of books, including high-priced ones, but I was able to come home with a box full of books. I am debating whether I should go somewhere else on the spur of the moment. This has me energized.

The Dana Girls and Copyright Infringement

Simon and Schuster had the listings for the three unauthorized Dana Girls books removed from Bonanzle last week. Simon and Schuster also had at least one vintage Dana Girls book removed as well. The person who requested the removal of the books mistakenly thought that a vintage book was unauthorized. This could pose a problem for all of us.

Bonanzle's customer service questioned the removal request for the vintage book, and Simon and Schuster's representative insisted that it was unauthorized as well. Bonanzle had to remove the book or else could have faced legal problems. This does not bode well. I have heard of situations like this one with regards to other items. It is often very difficult to get copyright attorneys to understand, and frequently, people have to go to court to prove that they are not in the wrong. Of course, I doubt any of us would go that far over the right to sell a vintage book.

This means that we could now encounter problems selling the vintage Dana Girls books that have the blue and red dust jackets. It was a vintage book with the blue and red dust jacket that was removed from Bonanzle. The title of the book was In the Shadow of the Tower. I thought it might be a good idea for a lesson about the vintage books and the unauthorized new ones.

Here are some pictures of the vintage Dana Girls books with blue and red dust jackets.


It should be noted that the first six titles were also issued with lavender and green dust jackets, which I did not photograph.

The titles that were printed with blue and red dust jackets are:

1. By the Light of the Study Lamp, 1934
2. The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage, 1934
3. In the Shadow of the Tower, 1934
4. A Three-Cornered Mystery, 1935
5. The Secret at the Hermitage, 1936
6. The Circle of Footprints, 1937
7. The Mystery of the Locked Room, 1938
8. The Clue in the Cobweb, 1939
9. The Secret at the Gatehouse, 1940
10. The Mysterious Fireplace, 1941
11. The Clue of the Rusty Key, 1942
12. The Portrait in the Sand, 1943
13. The Secret in the Old Well, 1944

None of these titles match the titles of the unauthorized books. Also, notice that the books have old copyright dates. I have never heard of illegal copies of the old Dana Girls books, so Simon and Schuster has absolutely no grounds in preventing the sale of any of these books.

The unauthorized books that have so far been published are:

The Mystery of the Cameo Curse, 2009
The Secret at the Windmill Estate, 2009
The Clue of the Buried Box, 2009

All three books are copyright 2009. Just by looking at the titles, it should be fairly easy to tell the difference. Here are images of the unauthorized books:

I hope that this does not become a continuing problem.

Two More Rants!

Some good points were brought up in the comments section of my post "Five Mini Rants in One!" I want to address a couple of them. Kathleen commented, "Sometimes I slip. Like I had a 'Whistling Bagpipes' listed with a tri-fold that I have not seen in years. That I consider relatively rare, at least."

While I do not consider the tri-fold to be rare (it is on eBay quite frequently), I do not have a problem with sellers using "rare" sparingly for certain books. My problem is with the sellers who tell buyers that virtually all matte yellow Nancy Drew picture covers are rare. These sellers tell buyers that the tweed books are rare (like, all of them). These sellers tell buyers that the dust jackets are rare, and so on and so forth. It gets old, and it makes the word mean absolutely nothing. I tend to scroll past those listings. If you have read all of my recent posts carefully, then you know that the instance of me nearly missing out on a truly rare book because of nearly scrolling past the listing is what set me off to write my rants. I am still a little annoyed over that, but I am mostly calmed down.

One seller has gotten in the habit of using "rare" for all the vintage picture covers that are not so special and using "scarce" for first printings of the earliest Nancy Drew books—you know...the ones that you might consider rare. Huh????? What that tells me is that "rare" is used for books that are less scarce in order to lure in buyers and that "scarce" is used when the books are more scarce. I have a problem with that.

As brought up in the comments and as seen often in eBay listings, several sellers state that they do not sell any books that they would not want to own, meaning that they only sell books of a higher quality. While I understand the point, I think of all of the library editions that I own and all of the reading copies I have since upgraded. I still own some reading copies that I have not upgraded. Most people do not mind having reading copies.

In my nearly one year of experience on Bonanzle, I have learned that buyers prefer inexpensive books above all other books. They do not care if the books are in rough, perhaps poor, condition. One person has stated that she desires cheap reading copies since she is reading the books for fun. She does not care about the condition as long as the books are inexpensive and readable.

I have sold some books that are in very rough shape. Take this one, for instance:

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/thebgs/items/4500842

It was cheap and sold only 13 days after it was listed. I have very nice books that have been in my booth since January and still have not sold. I sell the cheap books fast.

The problem with eBay (among many others) is that sellers can no longer afford to list cheap books in individual listings. They have to group the books into lots in order to avoid paying high fees per book. Notice that the lots of rough condition books tend to sell without difficulty on eBay, unless the seller overprices them. People love cheap books.

For that reason, Bonanzle has been quite a blessing. I have been able to offer reading copies at reasonable prices, and people have been able to purchase them without paying high prices. I find that the first volume in any series sells particularly fast when it is a reading copy.

Here are my new rants:

1. The glitches on eBay. Last spring, eBay would not accept a new expiration date for my credit card (the same thing happened many years ago) and told me to contact customer service. Um, no. I signed up to pay my fees through PayPal due to eBay incompetence. So...
   
   An alert was just placed on my account because the card that eBay would not accept in the spring is about to expire. I am told that I must enter a new card number in order to continue to sell on eBay (not that I am selling on eBay). #&%#*@)!!! So eBay stored that card number back in the spring but would not allow me to use it. Now eBay wants me to update it. I had better not have a permanent alert on my account, or I am going to be really peeved.


2. People who wait until right before Christmas to buy presents and expect the books to arrive on time. This is why I usually never have books for sale right before Christmas. Someone bought the 75th anniversary Applewood boxed set on Thursday, and I mailed it priority mail just in case. I paid four dollars postage above what I charged for media mail so that I could be certain that the buyer would be happy. That sale came through during a small window of time in which the set was unavailable on Amazon, which is no doubt why the buyer went to Google.
   
   I received an order for one Applewood book on Friday, and the buyer asked for expedited shipping so that the book would arrive by Thursday. This one cost me $3.00 above what I charged to ship it. I hope it arrives. In my opinion, it is already getting too close to Christmas to guarantee delivery by priority mail. Since I print my labels online, my package probably will arrive Monday or Tuesday. Packages that have handwritten labels will likely not arrive until after Christmas.
   

Ripping Off the Post Office and the Buyer on Shipping

Here is a situation in which I left a seller a "one" on the DSR for the shipping charge. I only go to that extreme when I feel that what the seller did was very wrong. The seller charged $7.38 for media mail shipping. The seller paid $2.57 postage, so the seller had nearly a $5.00 handling fee added to the actual shipping cost.

Wait—it gets worse. Not only was I overcharged, the post office was underpaid on the postage it was supposed to receive. The seller paid $2.57 in postage but was supposed to pay more. The seller's PayPal shipping label had a weight of 1 pound 0 ounces, so I know that the seller paid $2.57. The package actually weighed 1 pound 5 ounces, so the postage that the seller should have paid was $2.96. I am including the $0.19 charge for the delivery confirmation on these amounts, since all sellers must pay for delivery confirmation for those labels.

It gets even worse. The seller used a brand-new priority mail box inside the package. The seller used a free priority box that is made only for priority mail use but used it on a media mail package. This is against postal regulations. I have heard that USPS takes a loss on media mail, so for the seller to underpay USPS for media mail and use a USPS box for media mail is wrong on multiple levels.

The seller greatly deserved the "one." Now some of you might wonder why I didn't contact the seller with my grievances. I have done that in the past, and the response was almost always very unsatisfactory, and ultimately stressed me out. These types of sellers see nothing wrong with what they do, and they usually get very defensive and do not apologize. I don't want to deal with that type of response ever again. I remember one seller's response which contained lots of exclamation points, and it was apparent that my comments greatly infuriated her. Of course after reading that seller's response, I was even more angry myself. It wasn't worth it.

The only time I contact the seller with a complaint about shipping is when the package arrives postage due. While I had a positive reaction the last time I contacted a seller about a postage due package, I am still very reluctant to contact sellers about other similar problems.

Five Mini Rants in One!

This time you get five mini rants in one. I find that a lot of stuff is annoying me lately.

1. Sellers who abuse the books when they photograph them. Some sellers bend back the boards really far so that the outside of the book makes a smaller angle than the inside of the book. The normal position for holding a book open is with the inside of the book at a smaller angle. One seller does this to really expensive books.
   
   I have also seen photographs in which a seller was holding a book while pinching the pages. Don't do that! If you abuse the book while photographing it, I worry about how you will pack it!
   


2. Sellers who state that a 70+ year old book is in "as new" condition. I don't think so. The last old book I saw described in "as new" condition was a book that had yellowed pages. I doubt that the paper was yellowed 70+ years ago when the book actually was new. Thus, the book was not in "as new" condition. Not only that, but the book did have light wear to the edges, which also took it out of the "as new" category. Do these sellers think we are that stupid?


3. Sellers who overuse the word "RARE." I have beaten this one to death already, but I might as well do it some more. If you are one of the people who likes to lure in buyers by describing a majority of your books, including the common ones, as "RARE," please consider that many of us are now avoiding your listings. People have told me in private that they avoid certain sellers, and I also tend to avoid these sellers. I'm sure newbie collectors just love "RARE" books, but those of us who have collected for many years are not impressed. We do still buy books, you know. We do have money to spend. Do you want to chase us away? If so, you are succeeding.


4. Sellers who use the word "PRISTINE." Drop it, please. My dislike of "PRISTINE" is rapidly surpassing my dislike of "RARE." While not the exact definition, "pristine" implies that a book is perfect and without flaws. Every single time that this word is used I can easily see at least some wear and tear to the book in the seller's photographs. Sometimes I see major flaws, like the books with dirty spines.
   
   If the seller means that the inside of the book is pristine, then the seller should make that distinction. Otherwise, I assume that the seller means the entire book is pristine, and that is where I take exception.


5. Sellers who use overuse capitalization. Not only do I dislike "RARE" and "PRISTINE," but I also dislike "STUNNING," "BEAUTIFUL," and "GORGEOUS" and everything else that is in all capital letters. Do people not realize that all capitals is considered SHOUTING on the internet? It is also harder to read.
   


6. Sellers who claim that a book is valued at $1,000, but they only want $200.00 for it. Give me a break! The book must be only worth $200.00 if that is all the seller wants. We are not stupid!
   

In closing, I want to link to the New York Times article that I already mentioned in a previous post. The article contains this sage advice:

Make sure the listing looks reliable. Proofread it carefully and don’t use too many exclamation points or language that suggests you’re inexperienced or unprofessional. "Stay positive, clear and concise — that’s really important," Mr. Lindhorst said. "It’s all about making the buyer feel comfortable."

I doubt that buyers run a search for a "stunning Nancy Drew book" on eBay. Consider using some of these descriptive keywords:

blue
orange
vintage
thick
tweed
original text

Some people do use those words when they run searches. Why annoy buyers by overusing meaningless words in your titles? Help us find your book by describing exactly what it is.

These rants come as a result of my frustration that I am beginning to miss out on truly rare books because some informed sellers describe them exactly the same way as they do all of their other much more common books.

What Is It Worth?

I posted about this unusual book last night.


I nearly missed noticing the auction for this book because of the manner of presentation.

RARE FORMAT STUNNING NANCY DREW BRASS BOUND TRUNK W/DJ Item #170409324725

The word "rare" has been used and abused so much on eBay in the last few years that seeing it in the title of a listing no longer piques my interest. In fact, I am less likely to click on a book described as "rare" in the title than one not described as "rare."

This is what I saw that afternoon in eBay's search results.


Click on the image to see a larger version. I almost scrolled past the "RARE" books without clicking on either of them. I decided to click on one of them only to see what was so special this time. I was expecting to roll my eyes and hit the back button. My jaw dropped when I saw that a solid blue book had digger endpapers. Now this was interesting.

I suspect that most collectors did not ever notice this book when it was up for sale. I think the book would have been more readily noticed with the following title, which does fit eBay's title length limitations.

Unusual Non-tweed Nancy Drew Book with Digger Endpapers

I know that title would have drawn in my interest for sure. I have been frustrated ever since I saw and purchased the book. How many other good books am I missing on eBay because knowledgeable sellers choose to use non-descriptive adjectives in their titles rather than simply describe what the books are? A seller who has not been seen on eBay in several years was one of the first to use glowing adjectives to describe her Nancy Drew books. She is long gone, but others have copied her style, and new sellers continue to copy this style. How about just stating what it is?

Would any of you have bid on this book had you noticed it? If so, how much would you have bid? Or, if the book was above your budget, what do you think it might be worth? I'm not saying what I bid—just yet, but my bid was significantly above the closing price. Whenever I see a book of high interest, I ask myself how long it might take for another one to come up for sale. In this case, the answer might be "never," so I bid accordingly. I don't like to have regrets. In looking back, I think my bid was too low since the book may very well be one of a kind, but I was bidding aggressively at the time according to what I was thinking on that day. I was expecting to have to pay much more and was pleasantly surprised at the low amount of interest.

I am not kidding when I state that I nearly scrolled past it. In fact, I may have scrolled past it and then changed my mind. I am glad that I did view the listing and was able to purchase the book.

Once again, what would this book be worth to you?

A Very Unusual Nancy Drew Book

I bought a very interesting book last week. It is one of the most interesting purchases I have made in the last couple of years. I believe it is a printing anomaly, and a rather bizarre one at that. In the past, I have referred to several Nancy Drew printing anomalies as "bizarre," but this one trumps them all. This book is a thousand times more bizarre. If I did not have it in my possession, I would think it was a scam. In fact, when I viewed the seller's auction, I was concerned that the book was not what it appeared to be.


For those of you who have Farah's Guide, I have a book with boards that match that of Format #13. The boards are Cover Stock #6. The book is Format #13 in every way except for one thing: The book has digger endpapers. No one has ever mentioned seeing digger endpapers on any book from Format #13.

Nancy Drew books in Format #13 were printed during 1949 and 1950. Format #13 books are commonly called "solid blue" books. These are the books that came right before the tweed format. The Format #13 books all have blue silhouette endpapers—or so we thought. The tweed format began in 1951, and for a short time, the early tweed books were printed with blue silhouette endpapers. The digger endpapers were not introduced until 1953, two years later.

It does not make sense for a Format #13 book to have digger endpapers, since Format #13 ended two years before the introduction of the digger endpapers. As soon as I had the book in my possession, I carefully looked it over to see if it could be some kind of scam. It does not look like the book has been tampered with, except for the unfortunate fact that someone took black ink or marker and heavily darkened the top edge of the text block. Aside from that, the book looks fine to me.

I decided that the book is not a hoax. My other thought was that the book could be some kind of international edition. We have discussed the "blue velvet" Dana Girls books recently in one of the Yahoo! Groups, but I see nothing to indicate that this book is something similar to that. The dust jacket has no special codes, nor does the book have any special markings that I can find. Besides, if the book were an international edition, it seems we would have seen some of these already.

If the book is not a hoax or an international edition, then it must be a very strange misprint variant. But how? How would digger endpapers end up on a book that is in an earlier format?

The dust jacket meets all of the points for the 1955C-34 printing according to Farah's 12th edition. The book seems to be Format #13 from 1949-1950 except for the digger endpapers. After closely examining the book against Farah's Guide, I determined that the inside of the book cannot be from before 1953. The first page of the story does not have the title of the book present on that page. Printings from 1953 on did not have the title on the first page of the story. Books in Format #13 are supposed to have the title present on the first page of the story. Therefore, this book that appears to be in Format #13 is from 1953 or later.

It could be that a 1955 dust jacket is on a 1953 book, or it could be that the book and jacket are from 1955. I have checked the book and the jacket, and I can find nothing about the wear to the jacket that is obviously different than that of the book. This does not prove that the jacket is original to the book, but no evidence exists to disprove it. If we assume that the book and jacket are from 1955, then we have a very bizarre variant book.

Both Jenn Fisher and David Farah agree that this is a very unusual book. David Farah wrote:

"It seems strange to me that this hasn't come up before. Not on any volume where there were several years between cover stocks rather than just being used near the time they were discontinued.

I get lots of potential listings which turn out to be incorrect, which is why I usually don't list anything remotely controversial unless I get two confirmations.

I trust that Jennifer knows what she is looking at, but I still find it unusual.

I have to agree. Consider that in decades of gathering data about the Nancy Drew series that David Farah has never run across a book like this one. Exactly what do I have here? How did it happen?

I have one theory, which is that solid blue boards from another series ended up on a Nancy Drew book. I have always assumed that all of the Grosset and Dunlap books switched from this format to tweed at about the same time. I know that the Judy Bolton books remained in the tweed format during the early 1960s longer than other series. For that reason, I wondered whether any Grosset and Dunlap books remained in this format longer before going to the tweed format.

If so, the books that would be of interest would be ones that are solid blue. Vicki Barr and Beverly Gray are the two series that come to mind. If anyone can think of others, please let me know. I checked my Beverly Gray books, and it appears that Beverly Gray went to the tweed format at least a year later than Nancy Drew, but likely not as late as 1953. I have never paid enough attention to Vicki Barr to know exactly what happened with the Vicki Barr series.

I will have additional comments to make about this book and related topics in the coming days.

The Twilight Saga Collection

I have been hearing about the Twilight books for quite some time and have been curious. With the movies, I have heard even more about them. I went to Amazon and read the beginning of the first book. It is engaging. I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present and have bought the boxed set of four hardcover books.

Have any of you read them? Did you like them?

November Sales on Bonanzle

Before I begin, I want to remind everyone why I share my monthly sales reports. Bonanzle is my venue of choice, and I am certain that it will be successful. It is already successful for me, and it can only get better. I share my information as proof that some people are successful on Bonanzle.

Some individuals seem to have nothing better to do than complain about Bonanzle in various forums, especially Bonanzle's own forums, and these people want everyone to think that absolutely no one on Bonanzle has any sales. This is false information. While it is true that some people who sell an eclectic mix of items are having trouble getting sales, it is not true for all sellers on Bonanzle. For people like me who have a target audience and know where to find that audience, Bonanzle is already a great site. Each month that I post my sales, I set the record straight that people are making sales on Bonanzle.

Consider reading Bonanzle's press release about sales that was published on AuctionBytes. Bonanzle was just mentioned in the New York Times, and this will bring in more buyers and sellers.

Even though November was slow at times, it still turned out to be a pretty good month.


I had 22 transactions totaling $989.39. While not my very best month, it was far from my worst month. By the way, I sell enough on Bonanzle to easily justify the cost of my premiere membership, and I also sell enough that if I were on eBay, I would qualify for eBay's Power Seller program. My books are selling.

Here is the breakdown of the cost of each book that sold.

21 books—$3.00-$5.00
15 books—$6.00-$8.00
20 books—$10.00
10 books—$12.00-$17.00
7 books—$20.00
3 books—$25.00
3 books—$28.00-$35.00
3 books—$45.00-$55.00

I sold a total of 82 books at an average price of $12.07. This is up from last month's average of $9.39 per book. I am noticing that buyers seem to be beginning to once again buy books that are higher in price. I am also noticing the same trend in eBay's auction results. It does appear that the economy is beginning to recover. On the other hand, it could just be the holiday season. By January, it should be obvious whether the economy is in fact getting better.

Here are my sales sources for November:


Nearly all of my sales are coming from direct traffic on Bonanzle or from my website or blog. I continue to be astounded by the number of people who are finding my items by Bonanzle search. I have made five sales so far in December, and most of them came from Bonanzle search. I have no doubt that Bonanzle is quickly gaining ground as a venue.

Bonanzle Update #22

Many sellers have observed that their booth views have decreased in the last few months. First, we need to understand the difference between booth views and individual item views. In My Bonanzle, sellers can view their Booth and Item Statistics. For Saturday, my booth was visited 60 times. Most sellers mistake this number for the total number of visits to the booth. The page that was visited 60 times was this specific page:

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/thebgs

Just because someone visits the main page of the booth does not mean that that person ever views an individual item that is for sale. It is not possible to visit the main page of a booth and buy anything. With that in mind, the statistic for the number of booth views is not very meaningful.

The individual Item View Counts, listed further down on the same page in My Bonanzle, are what matter, and Bonanzle does not total these. We have to add them up ourselves. For Saturday, my items were viewed a total of 121 times, which is twice the number of views of the main page of my booth.

What is happening as Bonanzle gets larger is that the main pages of our booths are visited less and less. People are more likely to view our items by going through Bonanzle search than by browsing for booths. The site's demographics are rapidly changing, and I expect that visits to the main page of each booth will continue to decrease, but individual item counts will remain steady or increase.

Here is a graph of the weekly traffic to my booth from February 1 through November 28.

My traffic has dropped a little in the last month, but it is about what it has been since around June 7, which is when I added many widgets to series-books.com. I believe the slight drop in traffic is because of Google's continuing problems. This next graph shows my weekly Google traffic for the same time period.

A small drop occurred in October and then a noticeable drop occurred around November 1. Google traffic looks to be rebounding slowly. My Google traffic should be much higher than what it was early in the year, because I have far more items in my booth. Overall, the Google traffic is about the same in spite my booth being at least twice as large.

When I first joined Bonanzle, new users were joining at a rate of around 200 per day. During the last few days, new users have joined at a rate of around 750 per day. The site is continuing to grow rapidly, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.

Misusing Priority Supplies and the Seller Response

I had to go to the post office on Friday to pick up a package that had arrived postage due. The seller had used a priority mail flat rate box turned inside out. The priority mail boxes are easily recognizable even when turned inside out since they come in certain sizes that do not match the boxes sold by Uline and other companies.


I realized later that the seller also used one of the plastic sleeves that the post office provides for the customs declaration form for international mail. It might actually have been the plastic sleeve that was noticed first instead of the box itself. In the below image, I have placed an arrow pointing to where "priority mail" can be seen on the plastic sleeve.


I am always highly annoyed when I receive a package that is postage due. I already had paid the seller nearly $5.00 for media mail shipping. When I pay for media mail, I assume that the seller is using boxes that are not priority mail boxes. Since the seller used a priority box and was caught, I had to pay an additional $6.22 for the package.

By the way, most packages in which priority mail supplies have been misused are returned to sender for insufficient postage. The people at my post office know me and have asked whether I want to pay the postage due or have the packages returned. I would rather receive the books and then take it up with the seller, so I have requested that the packages be sent to me postage due. Sometimes these packages contain books that are very important to me, so I don't want the packages returned and then shipped again. It is better to pay the extra postage and guarantee the safe arrival of the books.

So that there is no doubt, this is what I saw when I opened the package.


It was a priority mail flat rate box. I photographed one of the flaps. Read the part that I highlighted.


I am sure that some people reading this blog think that it is okay to use priority mail supplies for other classes of mail. Some people cannot be convinced otherwise, regardless of which argument is used. All that I will say is that the postal service, as can be seen above, has a problem with it, so it is against regulations to use priority mail supplies on other classes of mail. It is not worth the risk of upsetting your customers.

As always, I contacted the seller, provided a photo, and requested a refund for the $6.22 I had to pay for the extra postage. The seller apologized, sent me a full refund of my entire original payment for the books and the postage, and sent me a PayPal payment of $6.22. Now I have some free books, which is not at all what I wanted. I just wanted a refund of $6.22.

I think that sellers are now so afraid of buyers, because of eBay's changes during the last year, that they will do anything to make buyers happy. I did not want free books. My first reaction to the seller's full refund was that I wanted to send the seller the original payment again. I then reconsidered. The seller did what she thought was right, and even though I disagree, perhaps I should just let it rest. I feel bad about having a full refund and the books, but this is apparently what she felt she needed to do in order to make it right. What do you think?

Black Friday Book Deals on Bonanzle

I am offering a 5% off sale this weekend at Bonanzle. During checkout, enter the coupon code "blackfriday" to get 5% off your order.

Jennifer's Series Books

Also, in just a few hours, another seller has a Bonanza scheduled. Bonanzas just last three hours, so you have a short period of time in which to receive 20% off in that booth.

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/bookventure

Additionally, remember to check out the other people who have series books for sale on Bonanzle. You can see a list of some of them on my profile page.

http://www.bonanzle.com/users/33014/profile

Happy shopping!

eBay's Search Outage

On Saturday, eBay suffered from what was apparently a major search account—at least from all of the reports that I have read. Oddly, I was able to search on eBay with few problems on Saturday. On days that I am off work, I tend to check eBay several times a day to see what has been listed. Saturday was no exception.

I do recall that early in the day, I ran a search, and it took unusually long to complete, probably around 30 seconds. In spite of the delay, I did get my search results. Later in the day, I viewed a listing and clicked on the link to see the seller's other items. The resulting page returned no items, which was a result of the outage.

At some point after that, I read of the outage on AuctionBytes, and I realized that many people were unable to use eBay on Saturday at all. I checked my searches again, and they were all fine. I then learned that the "Buy" section of eBay was broken in addition to search. I checked the categories and found that all of them were empty. I never use the "Buy" section of eBay to search.

Later, I read that eBay posted a workaround to the broken search, which was to go to eBay's Advanced Search page to search. This surprised me, since I always search through the Advanced Search page. Apparently most people search eBay through the "Buy" section of the site. Is that true for those of you reading this, or do you use the Advanced Search page? I use Advanced Search because that was the place to go back 12 to 13 years ago to search, and old habits die hard.

For me, this was the major outage that never was. I don't doubt that it was a major outage because of how eBay has reacted. According to AuctionBytes, eBay sent this letter to sellers who had auctions end during the outage.

"All auction-style listings completed during this time will be protected from negative and neutral feedback as well as DSRs below a five star rating. In addition, we will not expect you to fulfill Auction-style orders completed during this time if you feel the search outage prevented you from realizing the full expected price from your auction-style listings that closed during the outage or within an hour after the outage. It's up to you whether you want to fulfill the item in the interest of good relations with your buyer or cancel the transaction."

I won a couple of auctions during the outage. I was able to bid with no problems, and I feel that the ending prices were about what they would have been anyway. Fortunately, my sellers are honoring the transactions. I have never heard of eBay allowing sellers to refuse to complete transactions because of an outage. Protecting sellers from negative or neutral feedback is also unprecedented.

It gets even more interesting. Anyone who won an auction during the outage is to receive a 10% coupon as compensation. I assume that buyers are getting the coupons since it is possible that sellers may renege on transactions. Of course, this really interested me since I won a couple of auctions.

True to their word, eBay sent me a coupon. The message stated, "You may have experienced difficulty shopping on Saturday. We'd like to offer our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced by offering a 10% off coupon, good until December 14, 2009."

This is a bit amusing since I really did not have any problems on eBay on Saturday. I will happily accept the coupon, however. I hope I can find something priced at around $100 or so to purchase by December 14. I'd like for my coupon to save me at least $10.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #37

A Collection of 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Books

Question: how many of the 30 books have a blue cover with an orange picture on the cover? also of the the above books that are this way do any have a blank page on the inside of the cover, and if so what books?

Answer: The Sign of the Twisted Candles - inside covers are white with orange pics inside The Quest of the Missing Map - white w?orange complete and unabridged The Mystery of the Tolling Bell w?o The Message in the Hollow Oak w/o The Secret at Shadow Ranch w/o Thw Whispering Statue - w/o complete and unabridged Nancy's Mysterious Letter w/o The Hidden Staircase w/o The Mystery at the Moss Covered Mansion w/o writing in front cover The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk w/o writing in the front cover The Secret in The Old Attic w/o The Clue in The Diary w/o writing in the front cover The Clue in The Jewel Box w/o The Secret of Red Gate Farm w/o The Haunted Bridge w/o The Password to Larkspur Lane w/o The Clue of the Tapping Heels w/o The Mystery of the Ivory Charm w/o Complete and unabridged The Clue in the Crumbling Wall w/o 11 white with blue in cover *Complete and unabridged = This Book, while produced under wartime conditions, in full compliance with goverment regulations for the conservation of paper and other essential materials, is Complete and Unabridged these are only ones marked this way

It sounded like the prospective buyer wanted to know how many of the books had the orange silhouette on the cover, and of those books, whether any of them had blank endpapers. It is not possible for a book with an orange silhouette on the cover to have blank endpapers.

It is worth revisiting Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #7. In that post, I stated, "All books with the orange silhouette in the center of the front cover have the orange silhouette endpapers. There are no exceptions whatsoever! Notice that the center of the front cover has an orange silhouette. Likewise, the endpapers have the orange silhouette."

I then pictured a blank endpapers book, which has no silhouette on the front cover. I stated, "Notice that there is no image of Nancy Drew on the front cover. Likewise, the endpapers are blank; there is nothing printed on them."

Going back to the above question and answer, I have to admit that the seller's response was a bit confusing. Trying to understand it all just about gives me a headache. The seller stated that a book had the orange silhouette endpapers, but for most of the books, the seller only made the comment "w/o." It rather made it sound like all of those books had blank endpapers, but the books had to have had some other type of printed endpapers like blue silhouette.

Describing Books as Pristine

This is a mini rant. I'm getting really tired of seeing eBay sellers use the word "pristine" to describe books that are not pristine.

pristine - Remaining free from dirt or decay; clean: pristine mountain snow.

The example that prompted me to write this post has some books that have dark, dirty spines and other books that have faded spines. Could someone please explain to me how a book with a dark, dirty spine is pristine? I really would like to understand, because I sure don't get it.

The Economy and Series Book Prices

I have been meaning to write this post for a while. Series book prices are the lowest I have ever seen. While some books that are rare and desirable still command high prices (this one, for instance), many others are slipping through the cracks and selling for atypically low prices.

In particular, thick blue Nancy Drew books with either one glossy illustration or all four glossy internals and intact dust jackets are selling for ridiculously low prices. I could cite quite a few instances of these books selling for $20 to $50, when they are supposed to sell for hundreds of dollars.

Here are a couple of low auction results:

Nancy Drew Hidden Staircase WS dust jacket OEPS Item #330373145796

This is a thick blue book that has a dust jacket listing to Tapping Heels. It sold for $10.99.

Nancy Drew SECRET SHADOW RANCH early formt internals dj Item #370272219711

This thick blue Nancy Drew book had the glossy internal illustrations and a dust jacket. It sold for $57.78. The same seller auctioned off a Lilac Inn with internals and dust jacket for the same price.

I could give many other examples. I dislike mentioning specific information when I have purchased something at a bargain that I will ultimately resell, but I have a similar story on something I purchased in recent months. The book was something that was very desirable, and this could be seen in the gallery photo and in the title of the auction. There was no reason for it to sell at a bargain. It was clear what it was from the description. It was a very scarce book but not quite rare. I placed a lowball bid and won the auction at a fraction of the book's value. If I wished to fully disclose the details, you would be impressed. It missed being better than the copy I have, so it will be sold. It will bring in a nice profit even if I price it at the low end of what it is worth.

I have blamed eBay recently for these atypical results, but it is actually more the economy than eBay's foolish actions. The economy is still in bad shape. The media have reported that the economy is getting better, but the results have yet to be seen for the average person. As I stated in comments to my last post, I expect sales to be very slow through the end of the year. I think sales will get better in January, and we just have to wait it out. The prices will go back up again eventually.

I admit that I am disgusted with how difficult it is to sell good books. I am not happy about the situation, but I know that it will get better at some point. The value of series books is always going up or down, depending upon supply, demand, and the economy. The 80th anniversary of Nancy Drew in the spring will hopefully generate some good media coverage and maybe that will help.

Remember the buying frenzy of the summer of 2008? Gosh, those were such great times! We could list anything for a high price, and she would buy it! For those who don't know what I mean, a certain buyer was buying approximately $20,000 worth of series books per month for around three months on eBay in the summer of 2008. She paid $50 to $100 for $5 books. She paid $500 for $100 books. She paid $1,000 or more for $300 to $500 books. She won just about all auctions she bid on because of her huge bids. Months later we learned that she had stolen several hundred thousand dollars from a bank and went to federal prison.

Bonanzle Update #21

Check this out. Run a Google search for the phrase "series books for sale" and see what comes up.

Google results

That little page I created on my website is now showing up as the number one result for the search term "series books for sale." This is good. I checked some other search terms. Lian's Bonanzle booth is served up high for the term "buying series books." My booth shows up close to the top for the search term "buy series books." For the term "buy vintage series books," Lian's booth is the second result. I could go on, but you get the idea.

For general search terms related to buying series books, we are getting some good exposure in Google.

Another way to gain exposure is to use Bonanzle's hand picked lists.

Gift Guides on Bonanzle

Here are some directions that I sent Jack recently.

Go to My Bonanzle. Look at the left sidebar towards the bottom where it says “Buying Activity.” You will see a selection for “Hand Picked Lists.” Click on it, and you will see a prompt to create one.

Give your list a title. Most people try to be witty, although I didn’t bother. The subtitle is optional. Pick a gift guide category so that it also shows up as a gift guide (more exposure).

Click on create.

Now what you do is search for something on Bonanzle. After you find it, click on the item, and near the bottom of the description, you will find a place that you can click to add it to your hand picked list. Once your list has 20 items, it will be viewable to others.

I have created three gift guides in the last few days. Some lists get chosen for rotation on Bonanzle's home page. One such list called "A Series of Adventures" was in rotation for a few days until my book that was in the list sold, thus knocking it out of rotation. This was on October 7, and I made a screen capture, since it pleased me so much.


My book was the Beverly Gray book that shows in the upper right corner. Click on the image to see the screen cap in its full glory. A couple of you might recognize some of your books.

This brings me to something else. The photos that I take of my books are far from perfect for presentation on the hand picked lists, but I do try to size them so that the books do not show up distorted and cut off in an odd fashion. A lot of the pictures on Bonanzle need to be sized or centered better so that they would look better in the lists. To edit photos, go to the "sell" section on Bonanzle. Click on the item you want to edit and then pick a photo. Click on "crop/rotate" and then you can resize and center the photo so that it will display better.

I plan to create some more of the hand picked lists, and I encourage others to do the same. It is very hard to find a good variety of books to use. Many of the ones I want to use are in my booth, but the creator of a list is limited to using only one of his or her own items for sale. I decided that I need to pick something that other people don't have, like a Beverly Gray book in dust jacket, which is what I did for my most recent list.

Last, I really expect sales to be slow for the next month. If sales turn out to be good, then I will be pleasantly surprised. I could be wrong, but I do not believe that most people are looking to buy vintage books for Christmas presents. I think that most people buy retail and will be short on extra spending money during the next month, so I expect few sales.

In the years prior to eBay favoring the Buy It Now format, eBay listings always plummeted in December. Very few people used to list auctions in December. For the few auctions that did get listed, the prices tended to be very low, and I was always able to get very good deals on great books since everyone else was out shopping. The demographics of eBay have changed so much in the last two to three years that this is not necessarily still the case for eBay but it may be the case for other marketplaces where the vintage sellers now reside. My point is that sales of vintage items have always tended to slow down in December, so that is what I expect to occur for me in December.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #36

This time the question was for me. A prospective buyer asked, "I'm concerned about the disparity between this cover and the multipic endpapers, this looks like a very old dj (which is great) w/ a newer edition, especially w/ the listing to The Golden Pavilion which was, I think, after the sixties rewrites. Can you help me out on this one?"

This is the listing:

Nancy Drew #12 Message in Hollow Oak Carolyn Keene HCDJ

It bothers me to get comments like this. I am not sure whether they just need an explanation or whether they think I have misrepresented the book.

First, Golden Pavilion was published in 1959, which is not after the 1960s. My copy of Hollow Oak has a jacket that lists to Golden Pavilion, which means that it was printed in 1959. According to Farah's 12th edition, the book and jacket match the points for the 1959B-52 printing. This is not a mismatch, and there is no disparity.

The blue tweed books went out of print in 1962, so a blue tweed book cannot be from years later, if that is what the buyer thought. The blue multi endpapers were used on all original text books until they were revised, with the exception of #35-38 which had blue multi endpapers but were never revised. Additionally, the older picture covers for the revised books, #1-4 and #6, did have the blue multi endpapers. The blue multi endpapers were used on at least some books until when they were revised or went through a cover art change in the 1970s.

Aside from #1-4 and #6, all blue multi endpaper books have the original text (#35-38 do have the original 20 chapter text). This might be the first time that I have found someone who thought that the blue multi endpapers likely indicate a revised text book. The presence of blue multi endpapers is more likely to indicate that a book has the original text rather than indicate that it does not have the original text.

Hollow Oak was not revised until 1972, so all printings of Hollow Oak from 1935 through early 1972 have the original text.

All blue tweed books have the original text except for just a few printings of #1-4 and 6. Those are the only blue tweed books in which a buyer needs to worry about which text the book has. Even in those cases, the vast majority of tweed books that surface will have the original text. It is actually quite difficult to find #4 and #6 in blue tweed books with the revised text.

This is a battle that will never be won. We have quite a few people who are confused about formats and must not be visiting the several websites out there that explain formats. Just do a Google search for "Nancy Drew formats," and you will find the information you need.

I remain convinced that the popularity of the Nancy Drew Applewood facsimile editions is largely due to people who cannot figure out which of the older books have the original text, so they pay high prices for the Applewoods so they can be guaranteed to receive a book with the original text. For those who disagree, remember that someone once commented in this blog that it was too confusing to figure out which old books have the original text, so she found it easier to buy the Applewoods.

The Foam Pellet Disaster

This catastrophe can alternatively be called "The Foam Peanut Disaster," depending upon which type is used inside the package. Whenever I receive a heavy package in which the seller has used some type of foam, the foam is usually damaged enough that small pieces go everywhere when I open the package. It is worse when the foam is not the anti-static type and sticks to me and everything else. It can take forever to clean up. I received one such package this week.

I had bought a large lot of books. When I cut open the top, I saw a sheet of foam as well as tiny pellets that had broken loose. Oh no... I immediately closed the box and began dragging it towards the front door. Despite my quick action, a number of tiny pellets had already escaped. I pulled the box outside, then I went to get the vacuum cleaner, which I also took outside.

This is how the books were packed.



The books were packed well, but the problem was the foam. The little pellets that had broken loose from the foam sheets had found their way between the dust jackets and books and into the front and back hinges of the books.


In some cases, the smashed pellets had lodged in between the mylar covers and dust jackets. It took me 30 minutes to remove the books from the box and vacuum all of the pellets off of and out of the books.

This is why packing unwrapped books in foam peanuts or sheets is a bad idea. It causes the buyer to waste a lot of time cleaning up a mess. That same night, I wasted some more time on the next package. I went inside and opened that package, which was a lot of 15 books. That seller had wrapped every single book individually in paper and taped the paper shut. It took at least five minutes to extract those books from that package. I was not prepared to spend the better part of 40 minutes opening packages.

While I prefer to receive my books packed well, the sellers can go too far, such as wrapping every book securely. It would have been better to have wrapped the books in groups so that it didn't take so long to extract them.

As to the foam, it is always a nightmare.

The Destroyed Package

It was bound to happen eventually. I have written of some of my damaged packages, and sometimes the packages have been missing a book or two but most books arrived okay. I finally received a package which turned out to be a total loss. I knew it was likely a total loss as soon as I saw it.

The package was enclosed in a plastic bag that USPS places around damaged packages. The thin brown paper that the seller used was quite torn. The seller sent the package priority, so it was destroyed in the first two days of transit. I received the package a week later after it had been processed through the place where damaged mail is sent.


Before I opened the package, I could see what was inside. This next photo shows what I saw.


There were two DVDs, a book that was definitely not anything I had bought, and a mysterious smashed box-like shape. Hmm. This was definitely not good. I opened the package, and this is what I found.


I was the lucky recipient of two Pam Grier videos, Sheba, Baby and Fox in a Box. I had never heard of Pam Grier until I received these DVDs. Wow. No offense to Pam Grier, but I was not impressed. One of the DVDs was badly scratched.

Even better, I received my very own Reader's Digest Condensed book. I'm sure all book collectors know that RDCBs are the most unwanted books ever printed. You have to just about pay people to take them. Most book readers want to read the entire story rather than a condensed version.

The only item that was kind of cool but still unwanted was the mysterious box. The box was smashed, but the model railroad log car inside was in perfect shape. I noticed that the log car did not have a UPC on the box, so it must have been part of a set of railroad cars and got separated from the rest.

I knew that these items were so random that likely the seller did not mail them to me. I checked with the seller, and she had never seen any of them before. She is supposed to be sending me a refund for my payment.

What must have happened is that my package was ripped open, which was not surprising since the brown paper was quite thin. My books fell out and were separated from the wrapping. The package was sent to a mail sorting center along with all of the other damaged mail, and USPS was unable to figure out what the package contained. Someone took random stuff from other damaged packages and placed enough stuff in the wrapping to fill up the package, then sent it along to me. Nice.

I did get a good laugh out of the message on the plastic bag that contained my package. The beginning of the message read, "We sincerely regret the damage to your mail during handling by the Postal Service. We hope this incident did not inconvenience you." Inconvenience? I got random junk I did not want and will never receive my books. I spent 20 minutes taking pictures, cropping them, and sending them to the seller with a letter of explanation. It was much more than just an inconvenience.

I have heard of this happening to others in the past. I have been lucky that this is the first time it has ever happened to me.

In closing, remember that it is never a good idea to wrap a stack of books in brown paper, especially thin brown paper. If you must package in brown paper, at least run a strip of tape all the way around the package horizontally and vertically just like you would do if you were using ribbon on a present for someone. If this package had had tape around it, the books may have been damaged but would have arrived. I would rather have damaged books than no books.

Series Books for Sale on Bonanzle #3

This is a work in progress, but take a look and tell me what you think:

http://series-books.com/seriesbooksforsale.html

If you sell series books on Bonanzle, you will hopefully find at least a few of your books listed somewhere. I was working from search results and was not checking to see who the seller was, although I knew for sure in some cases. I tried to pick low-priced books plus a variety.

I did not mess with trying to sort items, since Bonanzle's widgets often sort the items the way they want. The main thing was to get the items in there to see if this might work the way I want. I know where I want to go with this, but I have no additional comment at this time. Let's just say that this has potential, which I'm sure you will readily recognize even though you don't know my full plan.

This page is not yet linked from my site, but since I have just linked to it from here, Google will know about it immediately since Google owns Blogger. It should get indexed fast.

If you have suggestions, let me know. I'm liking the way it is shaping up, and it looks much better than my first attempt earlier today.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #35

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories- Lot of 2 Books Item #110441656908

This auction was for two Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. The seller stated that the books have the wartime conditions notice, which dates the books to World War II. The seller stated that one book lists to Missing Map and the other one to Moss-Covered Mansion. The seller also stated that the books were printed around 1942-1943.

Question: Please send pictures of the book without the dust jacket. Are they blue cloth or tweed? Orange on blue or blue on blue? Are the inside end papers orange?

Answer: Yes books are orange lettering on blue. and inside Orange figures/pictures

The buyer's questions were all unnecessary. While the seller did not state the requested information in the original description, the books were printed during the early 1940s (for multiple reasons given by the seller and mentioned above). All Nancy Drew books from the early 1940s have orange print on the cover and orange silhouette endpapers. The prospective buyer asked whether the books are tweed. The tweed books did not come along until the 1950s, so the books cannot be tweed. Please see my Nancy Drew formats page for this information.

Some Tips for an eBay Seller

I had an email discussion with an eBay seller of series books this weekend. This person's sales have plummeted, and she wanted input. This post contains my responses with all identifying information removed.

October 31

It is frustrating, isn't it? I think some of my recent comments do apply to your situation. I know that you use the fixed-price 30-day listings for many of your listings. What I found when I analyzed search is that the fixed-price listings are getting buried in best match. They show up ranking high when first listed, but as each day passes, the ranking goes down. By the very last day, the fixed-price listings are at the very end of the best match search. For a search like Nancy Drew that contains 3,000 items, this means that on the final day your items would be ranking at around 2,800 to 3,000 in best match search. As a result, buyers sorting by best match may never see your listings regardless of how you price them.

People like me who use ending soonest see your items on the last day just fine. I see your stuff all the time. I suspect that a majority of buyers no longer use ending soonest since the default is best match. I think it is the reason your stuff is not selling like it should.

I think it was in September that eBay changed the best match formula to what it is now. Prior to September, fixed-price listings were getting preferential treatment in best match, especially if the sellers had high DSRs. The DSRs are no longer used in the same way they were prior to September. It no longer matters in best match if you have all 4.9s and 5.0s on your stars. The primary boost in best match seems to come from the auction listings and whether a seller is top-rated. Since your sales have dropped, which is eBay's fault, you do not quality for power seller, so you do not have the top-rated seller icon. You can't win.

I have been paying close attention to the fixed-price listings and how well several sellers have been doing recently on eBay. (ID removed) is a seller whose sales I have mentioned in my blog (never by name of course), and she has had mostly low sales for months. Unfortunately, you seem to have been pulled into the same quagmire as she.

When I recently mentioned some books that were fixed-price and moments before ending that were buried in best match, the seller was (ID removed). Her sales were still great the last time I checked, but even her listings are getting buried in best match, which truly surprises me.

You are now in the position I was in back in December when I found my books were not selling, and I was trying to figure how to make eBay work for me. Of course you know what I decided to do, mainly because eBay kept telling me on my seller dashboard that I was a bad seller.

So, what can you do? I don't have an easy surefire answer. I do believe that auctions are now receiving preferential treatment in best match due to my observations last week when I had some auctions running. My auctions had relatively high placement in best match the final two days that they ran. They were already showing around the 300th item position two days before closing and were fairly high on the very first page of best match during the last day.

Since auctions are finally favored again, my best advice would be to try running more auctions than what you have. Auctions are more expensive, but it might pay off. Let's say that you have 20 items up for sale as 30-day fixed price listings. You could try listing around 10 or so auctions, staggered as a couple each day, so that you would always have an auction close to ending. This way you would always have an item near the top in best match. What you would then need to do is put a blurb in your auctions (probably prominently placed somewhat near the top) inviting buyers to take a look at your fixed-price items. This way you might be able to get more traffic to your fixed-price listings, since eBay seems to want to hide them.

The economy may also be part of the problem. I have sold a lot of books on Bonanzle this month, but they were mostly very low-priced. I will have a summary of my sales posted to my blog either tomorrow or Monday. Earlier this year, I was selling some more expensive books, but it seems that most buyers want cheap books. On eBay, it is just about pointless to try to offer cheap books since the fees are so darned high.

After reading my message, the seller checked on the ranking of fixed-price items in best match and was shocked at what she found. She noticed that in best match, the top results are all auctions and all top-rated sellers with just a few fixed-price listings mixed it. She was not happy about what she saw and realized that she will have to completely change her selling strategies. My next response follows.

November 1

I just posted to my blog about a group I created on Facebook. It is supposed to be a place where sellers of series books can advertise what they sell. I'm doing it to help out the other people on Bonanzle who really aren't getting that many sales. If you wish, you could also use it to promote your books on eBay. Right now it isn't going to do anything since I'm the only member, but if I can get a bunch of people to join, it ought to help in time. It is public, so it could help to some degree even without having very many members.

I do think an increasing number of people are looking outside of eBay for books.

One thing that did help me out when I first started on Bonanzle is that I emailed a bunch of old buyers. I only went back six months, but I sent messages to all of those buyers about my booth on Bonanzle. I know that a few did join Bonanzle because of my message, and a few purchased books from me.

If you ever do list books on Bonanzle, when you sell books on eBay, you can include a paper inside your package advertising your books on Bonanzle. eBay can't stop people from advertising other sites inside their packages. It is a shame that eBay tries so hard to control all aspects of transactions.

My last response is next.

November 1 (later)

It is stressful, but just know that we can come out of this ahead in the end. All of the people who buy series books are out there, but we just have to get them to know where we are. I really think that my Facebook group could help us pull in buyers and direct them to wherever we choose to sell our books. I have my post about my October sales on Bonanzle written, and it will post at midnight. When you read it and look at the screen caps of my stats, you will see how many sales I have been able to get through my website.

I think that others can pull in buyers through Facebook and other means. I also have another idea that would pull in buyers for Bonanzle, but I'm not going to mention it until if/when I decide to do it. It requires a lot more work on my part than creating a Facebook group, but it could pay off big time if I decide to do it. It might be a project for Thanksgiving or Christmas vacation.

I'm going to take my original message to you and post it in my blog in the next day or so. I will remove the user IDs and will not mention anything that would identify you. I think it is very important that everyone know what eBay is doing so that they can deal with it.

Here is a direct link to the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=165267408961&ref=mf

In closing, I want to state that anyone who still sells on eBay should take a look at how their listings are displayed in best match, even if their sales are still good. If a seller is doing well, it is good to know why and try to make sure it continues. If a seller is not doing well, then it is necessary to know why so that changes can be made.

October Sales on Bonanzle

October was a good month on Bonanzle. It was my best month in the number of transactions and in the sheer number of books sold. It missed beating both August and May in the dollar amount in sales, since people are buying mostly very inexpensive books.


I sold a total of 126 books in October. I tallied the number of books by dollar amount, and this is what sold:

38 books— $3.00-$5.00
68 books—$6.00-$10.00
5 books—$11.00-$15.00
9 books—$16.00-$20.00
4 books—$21.00-$25.00
1 book—$30.00
1 book—$35.00

The average selling price was $9.39. So, as I knew all along, the higher-priced books are not selling.

The traffic to my booth dropped during the first part of October from what it was near the end of September. Near the end of September it had rebounded from the slump during the beginning of September, but the progress unraveled in early October. In the second half of October, my traffic began to increase again. Right now, my traffic is pretty good but still not at the level it was at back in late July and early August when it peaked.

The primary reason that my booth traffic dropped again is that Google did something that negatively impacted many marketplaces. Google changes its algorithm frequently, and the change that occurred in early October has caused some sellers to have very poor placement on Google or to have broken links from Google. On Bonanzle, some sellers are affected more than others. I know that I am at least partially affected but not to the extent of some others. We hope that the problems on Google will be fixed when Google next adjusts its algorithm.

In looking at my sales stats, it is quite apparent that a large number of my sales are coming off of my website. I am getting few sales from Google, which is not surprising due to the many problems. If I did not have my website pulling in traffic, I would have had fewer sales.


Many of my sales came from direct traffic as well, but I suspect a good portion of the direct traffic is actually from my widgets but just not counted as from my widgets. Notice that I did get a number of sales from Bonanzle search, so some people do recognize Bonanzle as a marketplace and are coming to Bonanzle to search for books.

Traffic to Bonanzle is steadily increasing. The venue is not to the point where everyone can have good sales—yet. I do believe that traffic will increase enough in the coming months so that we will begin to see great improvement in sales. I am constantly mulling over ideas on how to draw in more traffic. The Facebook group that I created was one of two ideas that I was thinking over. I thought of creating the Facebook group after I read this post on Bonanzle.

I think that the Facebook group could ultimately be a great central location to find all of the different places that people sell their books. Whether that will happen depends upon how many people join the group and how they decide to use it. Regardless, I think that it could have great potential.

Promoting Your Online Sales of Series Books

I am working on ways to drive buyers of series books to the other booths on Bonanzle. I have just created a group on Facebook for that purpose. As of right now, the group is less than an hour old, and I am the only member. I have posted a discussion topic asking where people sell their books. I have posted the URL of my booth on Bonanzle. I hope others will join me and post their links as well. Heck, I will probably post some links to other booths in the next day or so just to help others out.

The purpose of the group is to promote wherever you sell your books. You don't have to sell on Bonanzle to join the group and promote your books. Yes, eBay sellers of series books are very welcome. Some of you who sell on eBay probably need all the help you can get, so you are definitely invited. I do want to keep this group limited to series books. It's fine if people sell other stuff in addition to series books, but series books need to be the primary focus.

I named the group "Buying and Selling Juvenile Series Books" so that there would be no doubt of its purpose. I guess a link would help, right?

Buying and Selling Juvenile Series Books

I have not done anything with it except set it up and post my one message. Since I created the group, I am the administrator, but all members will be able to post messages, photos, links, etc.

The reason why I created this group is because the folks at Bonanzle have stated that Bonanzle is getting more traffic from Facebook than from Google. I figured that if that is the case, then why not give it a try? Let's see what happens.