Bird Dog posted a link to an interesting article about Amazon.com yesterday, and while it was a fun story, I thought the first paragraph deserved a response. So I'm reposting this puppy.
The article begins:
What do you usually expect to pay for a book on Amazon? Perhaps $7-$10, if you're scouting for a paperback? Around $20 or so if you're looking to score a hardcover?
Well, not exactly.
Like I suppose many people, I thought Amazon.com only sold new things. Not so!
I became a big fan of Robert B. Parker and his 'Spencer' detective novels. I had about ten of them out of the thirty or so that are out there. Having a few bucks on hand, I decided to blow the wad and complete my collection. I headed over to Amazon.com, dug up the first book I wanted, then noticed an odd "used" link down near the bottom of the ad. I clicked on it and discovered a whole different side to Amazon.com.
Want to guess how much these used books were going for? Five bucks? Two bucks? One?
"A quarter?"
Nope. Not even close. Gee, you're not very good at this 'guessing' stuff, are you?
How about a penny?
The deal is, these are all third-party used book merchants, and they charge $3.95 per book for shipping, so apparently they'd rather make a buck off the shipping — plus one penny — rather than just let the thing sit there rotting on the shelf. The ol' better-something-than-nothing approach.
It's to note that only the fairly old books go for a penny. Slightly newer ones actually cost a whole quarter or more, so be prepared to spend some big, big money.
I ordered 20 books. Granted, I paid $79 in shipping, but compare that to spending two days traveling to every used book store in the tri-county area and paying three to five bucks apiece for them. Nor, most likely, would I have been able to nail down all 20 books missing from my collection.
For what it's worth, one book didn't show up. I emailed the vendor, nothing back. Emailed again, nothing back. I emailed Amazon, gave them the invoice number, told them what I'd done, and my credit card account was reimbursed within the day. Ordered the book from a different vendor and out it came.
It's to note that there are also 'used' links for things like DVD movies, audio CDs, and a bunch of other things. I'm not so sure I'd go for a used rectal thermometer, but most used items are probably fine, and the 3rd-party items fall into little sub-categories such as "Like New", "Very Good", "Acceptable", "Seriously Trashed", etc, along with a brief description, so you'll have a clue as to what you're getting.
And then there's... The Secret of Amazon.com II
