Are you boycotting eBay this week?

If so, I'd love to hear about that. If not, I'd love to hear about that too.

I don't participate in any eBay forums so I'm not as caught up in the drama about this as some sellers are but I do think eBay shot themselves in the foot. They want to make eBay more appealing to buyers but seem to be forgetting that there can be no buyers without the sellers. The sellers are eBay's customers too and should be treated accordingly. If something is ticking the sellers off this badly, I hope they will snap to attention.

Bring on the ebay changes!

Most of my bookselling efforts are now focused on eBay because the types of books I enjoy selling sell best on eBay. Frankly, going to a library sale and standing in front of a stack of books with a scanner and scanning ISBNs does not interest me. Yawn. I focus instead on books the scanners leave behind because they don't have ISBNs.

So I probably should be upset about the eBay changes because they, on the surface, seem to hurt sellers.

But I'm not upset.

Bring on the changes! The more dramatic, the better.

Changes are a good wakeup call and a reminder that placing your inventory entirely in the hands of eBay and/or Amazon is similar to working for a corporation. You have very limited control.

The more changes you as a seller will be forced to endure, the more the more you will realize:

* You have excellent sales skills even though you might be an introvert.
* You know how to treat a customer with respect and good manners.
* You have an excellent working knowledge of e-commerce.
* You might even have learned some HTML basics along the way.

In short, your skills are invaluable and, ultimately, as a bookseller, you don't really need eBay or Amazon. In other words, you rule! :-)

Craig Stark recently said over at www.bookthink.com, a transaction takes place between two people. Trust is at the foundation of this transaction, no matter how many changes take place at eBay or Amazon.

I'll have more to say about this in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the new changes (yep, even the one that doesn't let me leave negative feedback for buyers).

Does anyone ever find books on these top ten lists?

As you know, BookFinder publishes the top ten out of print books for the year each December. If you haven't seen the 2007 list yet the US list is here and the UK list is here.

These lists are very cool and interesting, of course. What I'm curious about, however, is if any of you have ever found one of these books while out scouting?

Do you carry these lists in your scouting books? Or do you commit any of these titles to memory? If so, have you ever found one of these books while you've been out and about looking for new inventory?

Or have you ever found one through dumb luck, not even realizing it was a valuable title?

Just curious.

I'll dutifully print out this year's list and dutifully carry it in my notebook. Maybe this year will be the year I finally find one of the titles.

For your eBay reading pleasure

A friend of mine has started selling things on eBay. If you need some entertaining reading, check out her auction for some placemats and a flower art book.

I've seen countless eBay listings over the years and almost never have I seen listings as well done as these. I think booksellers especially tend to be rather uptight in describing their books and making sure to use proper lingo like "first edition, first state, with minor rubbing on the dust wrappers." But hardly anyone understands that lingo anyway. Most sellers, especially those with eBay stores, don't use any lingo at all and you're lucky to get a one line description.

That flower book only sold for five bucks but I looked it up on eBay and see it has a sales rank of four million and sells for $1 over there. So she did a good job of getting it out the door in a week, whereas it would've sat on Amazon indefinitely and would not have sold for as much as $5.00, if it ever sold at all.

She's received a lot of favorable comments about her fun descriptions and at least a few have placed bids just for the entertainment of it all. Way to go!

Perfume for the bookseller on your Christmas list

Here's a perfume for book lovers. It's a unique website with fun copy. Be sure to click on "story" so you can read the full description of the perfume. Their other perfumes look good too and are so different from what you see at the perfume counter at Macy's.

I'm glad that websites aren't laden with perfume the way women's magazines always are but this is one time I wish I could smell samples on a website.

Cool eBay Tool

Here's an eBay tool that let's you peruse the sold items of an eBay seller. It's easier to view than the completed auctions on eBay and also gives you statistics, such as the percentage of their auctions that sold and how much they spent in eBay fees.

In other words, it's a more efficient way to snoop on your favorite sellers.

The $10K Garage Sale

We went back to Castle Arkdale last month.

I was going to tell you about it because I was pleased with the small amount of inventory I found there. Then I read about the $10,000 worth of inventory Guusje found at a garage sale. And I've been speechless ever since.

Congratulations Guusje! You deserve it.

Obviously I need to rethink garage sales. I've been burned several times and rarely do I see a garage sale that looks interesting. From now on I will be keeping my eye open for unadvertised sales in garage apartments owned by natural healers.

Unusual eBay Feedback

I've bought and sold on eBay for seven years but have never seen eBay feedback like this before. Who knew that one could use feedback as a way to crank out funny one liners.