Seller Engine will stop supporting its original Amazon software

Along with many other Amazon Marketplace sellers, I purchased a lifetime license to Seller Engine in 2003. The program enables sellers to reprice their inventory using a simple interface.

Several months later, Seller Engine began charging monthly subscription fees. But the company allowed its original customers, who paid $150 to $200 for their licenses, to continue using its software.

Now, Seller Engine says it will no longer support its original license holders, but they are welcome to pay $39.95 monthly for "Seller Engine Plus."

Here's how Seller Engine's Jack Keegan explained it to me in an e-mail:

"... We have offered free support and upgrades for Seller Engine users for four years now, and unfortunately the old Seller Engine program is built on a technology that is obsolete now which makes it very difficult for us to upgrade it and to keep up with the changes at Amazon."

The program I use every day is obsolete? I had no idea. But I'm not a programmer, so I'll refrain from calling Mr. Keegan a liar.

Perhaps it's just a huge coincidence that the Seller Engine folks decided they couldn't support their original customers at the same time they introduced a different product costing lots more.

In the past, I've consistently recommended Seller Engine on this Web site and in "The Home-Based Bookstore." In the future, I'll be sure to mention that Seller Engine stands by its promises only as long as it's convenient for them.

Tower Records launches online bookstore

The music-store chain Tower Records opened an online bookstore. Tower has been expanding the book and magazine sections in its 89 U.S. stores.

About 500,000 titles will be available through the online store, with Baker & Taylor handling fulfillment. Tower is discounting bestsellers 40 percent, and most other adult hardbacks are discounted from 34 percent to 40 percent off suggested retail.

Tower's online store will charge $2.95 for standard shipping, and buyer must also pay state sales tax. Tower has been struggling for several years as sales of music CDs have declined, and currently the company is up for sale.

What's in a (seller) name?

Choosing your business name can be lots of fun. New online sellers devote more thought and creativity to this than perhaps any other issue. And for good reason -- most buyers get their first impression of you by seeing your seller name. So a memorable name is like free advertising.

A seller name can be serious or lighthearted (like "Bent Pages", "Odd Banana," or "Chapter 11 Bookstore"). It can make you sound like a big company, or a part-time hobbyist. The words in your seller name might be real -- like your actual name -- or a word dreamed up from thin air, like Verizon.

When I started selling in 2001, it seemed many sellers were trying to make themselves sound like big companies, with names like "National Book Retailers" or "Super USA Deals." Perhaps they thought buyers would be more comfortable with a name that sounded big and established.

But I took a different tack in naming my store, deciding on "Steve Delivers." I wanted to keep it simple, suggesting not a big company, but just a guy who filled your order. The idea came from my own experiences dealing with companies, large and small. Whenever I'd send e-mail to a big company, for example, it seemed I hardly ever got a response. I found smaller companies and individuals were usually more responsive, so I decided on a seller name suggesting a "real person" was behind it.

Recently I asked my friend Katy Paturzo, a regular reader of this blog, for her ideas on picking a store name. She said:

... It's important that it's something simple. You want to select an easily memorable name, such as 'booksarefun.com' as opposed to something like 'books132/product/...'.

Also I think it's good that, if you specialize in a particular genre of literature, to possibly incorporate that into your name (like - 'mysterybooks.com'). However, if you carry mostly mystery books, but also other genres, you don't want to deter possible customers who might be interested in browsing those alternate genres.

You want to think of all your possible target populations and keep in mind what they would regard as a legitimate, trustworthy sort of name.

The seriousness of the name is debatable. Again, you have to take into consideration your target population. If your bookstore has a catchy name, that's one thing but, if it's over-the-top, people might not be able to take you seriously as far as a business goes. I think this issue is a more subjective one.

Some good advice, thanks Katy.

For her own seller name, Katy decided on bookworm_literature. She found a simple logo for her store, a worm with eyeglasses perched atop a book. Cute, but not so cute that buyers will worry it's not a dependable service.

How did you pick your seller name? Add a comment to the end of this post to add your own thoughts.

This topic is debated endlessly on Amazon's seller message board. Here are some "greatest hits:

Getting the inspiration for your seller name
"Professional" versus "unprofessional" names
How to think up a great seller name
Unusually long seller names
More ideas for seller names
Worst-ever seller names

Amazon reduces affiliate commissions

Amazon.com is reducing the referral fees it will pay to Web site affiliates. Members of its Associates program will no longer receive premiums for "direct links," but will receive slightly more when they bring in more than 20 sales per quarter.

Amazon previously paid higher commissions when affiliates linked to a specific book and this generated sales. Web site owners who made most of their fees from these "direct links" will probably make less now. Several years ago, Amazon paid up to 15 percent on Associate sales, but has consistently scaled back the program. Now the top rate paid to high-volume affiliates will be only 8.5 percent.

Consumer electronics sellers are taking the brunt of the reductions. Now electronics sellers can earn only a flat 4 percent, regardless of their sales volume.

The cuts were necessary to "maintain a healthy Associates program over the long term," Amazon told its Associates in an e-mail sent this afternoon.

eBay deletes store items from search results

After bragging it had improved visibility of eBay store items by including them in auction search results, eBay abruptly deleted store listings from search results last night. The reason? Lots of store items were turning up in search results -- just what eBay had promised.

This does not bode well for booksellers depending on their eBay stores to move fixed-price book listings at low fee. eBay may be trying to discourage booksellers from opting out of its Express platform set to launch in the coming weeks.

'Sneak peek' at Abookworld feedback design

SkuFlow wants comments on its seller feedback design for its planned bookselling site. Last week the company said it will launch a marketplace called Abookworld by early May.

Suggestions may be sent to info@skuflow.com.

Q&A: Should I leave negative feedback for another seller?

QUESTION: I bought a book from an Amazon seller. It never arrived, but I was refunded. What feedback rating should I leave? Positive feedback might mislead other buyers -- if the book was never shipped. It wasn't a "positive" experience, that's for sure. Would a neutral rating be appropriate? This is my second recent problem with a seller with good ratings.

ANSWER: Sellers should go the extra mile to prevent bad feedback. Stuff happens, and buyers should give sellers the chance to go that extra mile.

How proactive or apologetic was your seller? Did they provide a good explanation, or at least attempt to? My sense is you didn't need to file an A to Z claim to get your refund.

If your seller didn't bend over backwards, blast away. Honest negative feedback is a service to the marketplace because it warns buyers of unreliable sellers.

I don't have much sympathy for sellers who have lots of "mishaps" since I usually fix the occasional problems on my own dime. I watch my bookselling business like a hawk, yet a few times every month, I'm unable to ship a book for some reason. Either I can't find it, or it sold yesterday. Or I discover it's missing 75 pages and I've described it as "Like New."

Whatever the problem, I usually buy a replacement from another Marketplace seller, via "expedited" shipping. If I can't do this, sometimes I'll buy the customer a new copy from Amazon. At the least, I write personal apologies to customers who don't get what was advertised, and I've dodged many bullets this way.

So if your seller was nice enough about it -- and sincere -- I think the neutral rating is probably punishment enough.

You're right, it seems as more folks get into online bookselling, reliability has declined. But it's not only hobby sellers that slip up. For example, a month ago I ordered a used book from a Marketplace seller (who also runs a brick-and-mortar shop). The sale was never acknowledged, and I never got the book. I e-mailed the seller last week to ask about this, and received no reply.

I can understand if a one-person business is out of town for the week and can't reply. But when a business with employees can't respond to a paying customer, that's really pathetic. It casts a shadow on us all.

Any other thoughts out there?

SkuFlow plans bookselling marketplace

SkuFlow plans to launch a book marketplace by early May, promising booksellers an alternative to Amazon, eBay and their competitors.

Sellers will pay Abookworld a 10 percent commission, which will cover the processing of buyer credit-card payments. Or, sellers can pay a $9.99 monthly fee and collect buyer payments themselves, said Chris Hendrix, owner of SkuFlow and Abookworld.

The new site is recruiting collectibles dealers, as well as sellers of new and used books. After the bookselling operation is launched, Hendrix plans to expand into music and video sales.

Sellers will be able to upload inventory to Abookworld using text files, Amazon Pro-Merchant reports, or UIEE exports from BookTrakker, HomeBase or other software.

Several new bookselling sites have flopped in the last two years after sellers complained of meager sales. Abookworld might have success luring unhappy sellers from ABE.com, which recently announced a series of unpopular policy changes.

SkuFlow offers a variety of inventory systems for retail merchants, and operates a wholesale book business called myremainders.com.

Amazon 'Low Price' change in the works

Amazon will change the function of its "Low Price" icon for sellers' Marketplace Open Listings page.

Currently sellers see the "Low Price" icon even if another seller has the same item listed at a lower price but in a different condition.

Within a few weeks, Amazon says the "Low Price" icon will only be shown if the seller's item is priced lowest regardless of condition. Sellers with feedback on the proposed change can send comments to myl-feedback@amazon.com .

I'm not sure if sellers will be happy about this change. On the one hand, it might encourage lowballing, as sellers cut prices to keep the "Low Price" display. But apparently many sellers asked for this change, and it's not often that Amazon changes anything in response to feedback from sellers.

What do you think?

Q&A: How can I manage my Amazon book inventory on a Mac?

QUESTION: I love Macs. Is there any seller software that works with Amazon for managing inventory and assigning SKUs?

ANSWER: Unfortunately there's a real dearth of seller software for Mac users. However, you can add new listings and assign SKUs using a spreadsheet. You can upload the spreadsheet to Amazon as an "Inventory Loader" text file.

This is how I list books using my PC. When I started on Amazon, there was no seller software, so I started this way and never changed. You need a Pro-Merchant subscription to access the Inventory Loader function.

If you're listing just a few books, it's easy enough to click on the "Sell Yours Here" button, and list through the Web. But for a stack of books, you can save lots of time with a spreadsheet. I prefill my spreadsheet with most of the variables, then just enter the ISBN, condition and price for each book. Excel has an "autofill" feature you can use to populate a whole column of cells, so typing each one isn't necessary.

Amazon has a tutorial for building and uploading your Inventory Loader files, and it includes a spreadsheet template to get you started.

For checking prices on your existing inventory, one free option is comparing your prices with the "low price" through your seller account "open listings" page on Amazon's site.

One seller product I'm aware of has a Mac version, BookHound.
And a new price-checking service that came out recently is Tooyen. Since this service is provided over the Web, I imagine it would work fine for Mac users.

I hope other Mac users will chime in with additional comments to this post.

Mutiny at ABE

Sellers at ABE are incensed about recent changes at the bookselling network. Starting in April, sellers must use ABE's credit-card processor even if they have their own merchant account. Yet ABE is reserving the right to file chargebacks against sellers.

This week, one longtime ABE seller went ballistic, firing the below message in an e-mail blast to previous buyers:

Dear Customer,

ABE is changing its business model to be more like Amazon and Alibris, a move toward new books and textbooks, with minimal contact among buyers and sellers. Beginning in April, you will have little contact with your ABE seller. Questions about your purchase or shipping options will be difficult, and shipping for most orders will be delayed by some days.

ABE will no longer allow book dealers to process their own credit cards, and this has several implications for you, the customer:

1. Because we will not be processing your credit card, you will no longer receive a credit card receipt with your purchase.

2. Ordering on the ABE order page will prevent you from requesting shipment to an address different than your billing address. The seller will not be able to accept your order for a gift to be mailed directly to a friend or relative.

3. In addition to its high monthly fees and commissions, ABE is adding high fees for processing your payment. Because of this, many dealers plan to raise prices on ABE, while maintaining current prices on Biblio, TomFolio and ChooseBooks, which don't interfere with sellers. And many of its best dealers already have abandoned ABE.

4. We won't discourage you from shopping on ABE, but we encourage you to avoid its high fees. Go directly to "Bookseller & Payment Information" at the end of every ABE listing, and click on "View Bookseller's Homepage." You'll find the dealer's address, phone number, and e-mail address. That way, you can order outside the ABE site, and any special requests you have can be handled promptly.

Q&A: What selling approach is best for contemporary books, versus antiquarian books?

QUESTION: I collect and sell vintage children's picture books and other more eclectic hard-to-find vintage interest titles (sports, art, gay literature, etc). What do you see as the major differences in selling approaches between newer contemporary titles versus collectible vintage and antiquarian books? Is there ever an advantage to auctioning a vintage title rather than selling at a fixed price? Is there ever an advantage to listing vintage titles in lots?

ANSWER: Those are great questions. I don't have great answers, but I'll take a stab at it. And I hope other readers will chime with some "comments" below.

Undoubtedly, online bookselling has expanded the market for nostalgia items. This includes books appealing to baby boomers, reminding them of childhood. Amazon and eBay expose lots more people to the idea of buying nostalgia items. Many of these buyers would never have taken the initiative (in pre-Internet days) to go to a collector's show, shop, or catalog to buy such things. But after stumbling across these items online, they buy.

I think the contemporary stuff requires less preparation, fewer selling skills, and less creativity. And many of these buyers aren't necessarily building a collection they hope will be worth a certain value.

I've never actively pursued collectibles. So I've never auctioned any rare books on eBay, but I've sold a ton of high-priced scarce titles on Amazon, along with a few marginally collectible books I've gotten by chance.

I'm not a big fan of online auctions. So often it seems the seller wants an unrealistically high price, while the buyer wants an unrealistically low price. Live auctions conducted by a professional are much more palatable for me, even when the item up for bid is a piece of junk.

Perhaps I prefer fixed-price selling mainly because Amazon Marketplace is my normal mode of operating. But I see these advantages:

-- You set the price and wait for a buyer to meet you there

-- No fees are incurred until after the item sells

An advantage with eBay in the past has been that you could list any item, no matter how obscure. To sell on Amazon, the book needed to have an ISBN. Now, however, Amazon enables Pro-Merchant sellers to add books without ISBNs into Amazon's catalog. I think this will enable Amazon to capture a much larger share of the collectible book market in the future.

I'll construct a hypothetical example to illustrate why I think fixed-price collectible book sales will increase on Amazon. Let's say you have a book printed in 1950 that isn't very rare. But your copy is signed by the author AND a friend of the author whose signature is rare. What would happen if you listed this book on eBay for a 10-day auction? It might be seen by a few hundred people and you'd get a few dozen bids. Whether the ending price was to your liking is totally left to chance.

Now, Let's say you listed this book at a fixed price on Marketplace. You set the price at which you're happy to sell, the highest range you think is reasonable. And instead of hoping to find a buyer within 10 days, your item is for sale indefinitely on Marketplace. Because Google and other search engines index each Amazon product page, your book might be found by anyone searching for the names and words in your listing -- whether they were shopping for a book or not.

There is a limit to how much you can do online, though. There's a point -- perhaps $800 or $1,000 -- where people resist buying a collectible they can't inspect in person first. And perhaps there's a midway point -- around $400 or $500 -- where you can sell it online, but you really have to know how to sell -- you need the freedom to write 1,000 words and include a dozen pictures. So for that, perhaps an eBay store would be handy -- you can't get very creative on Amazon.

On your question about listing vintage titles in lots: In some cases, you can sell more effectively with a "lot." Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts -- but this usually happens when some of the parts are weak by themselves. For your outstanding items, avoid distractions.

One-day eBay promotion: fixed-price listings for 10 cents

Last night eBay annnounced a one-day promotion with 10-cent insertion fees for fixed-price listingslistings. Full details are available here.

MarketShark wants Amazon Marketplace software testers

MarketShark wants beta testers for the software it's developing for Amazon sellers. Testers will get free lifetime use of the software, which will cost $39.95 per month.

The software will automate inventory uploading and downloading, price adjustments, and postage printing. Apply for the beta by sending mail to beta@marketshark.net.

Q&A: At Friends of the Library sales, should I go for quantity or quality?

QUESTION: I'm going to a big Friends of the Library sale, and looking for nonfiction. Should I grab a lot of books quickly, say $400 worth, or should I buy fewer books after I've checked their prices?

ANSWER: Wow, I wish I were going to this sale! The most I've ever managed to spend at a library sale is about $275. But I never worry about how much I'm spending -- I know the more books I buy, the more money I'll be making in the future.

I hardly ever research prices at a sale, I'm too busy grabbing books. My strategy is to buy in volume -- anything that looks like a winner, I snatch it, as long as I'm getting it for a few dollars or less.

The only time I use my cellphone to check prices at a sale is when there's a special collection of high-end books on sale for $4 and over. Then I'll look up the prices to avoid taking big losses on my mistakes. I've snagged some monster books this way, including this eight-pound gem for just $30. But I wouldn't have taken the chance without being able to see its price on Amazon Marketplace.

I can't always find something in the "special" section of a library sale, so I save this for last -- after I've combed the sale for all the regular hardbacks and trade paperbacks I can find.

New book wholesaler plans 42 percent discount

BookStream, a wholesaler of new books, plans to open its Web site for business soon, offering a 42 percent discount off retail. The company already is opening new accounts but is still testing its systems with a limited number of customers.

BookStream's goal is to "flatten the playing field" by offering the flat 42-percent discount to all booksellers, according to president Jack Herr. Most book wholesalers require a large order before granting discounts in the 40-percent range.

The Poughkeepsie, N.Y., company expects to compete mainly in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, where it can offer two-day delivery via United Parcel Service.

Meanwhile the publisher HarperCollins launched a new site to sell books directly to sellers.

eBay will require book condition for Express listings

Only eBay listings which specify a book's condition will be eligible for display in the soon-to-be-launched Express fixed-price platform.

Sellers will indicate whether a book is "new" or "used." By contrast, eBay's Half.com has condition guidelines similar to Amazon Marketplace: New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable.

See more on Express listing requirements and condition guidelines.

The guidelines cover most nonfiction and fiction books, but don't cover collectible or antiquarian books.

Q&A: I bought a skid of worthless remainder books, what should I do?

QUESTION: I purchased a skid of 450 remainder books for $2.50 per book from a wholesaler on the Internet, thinking I'd resell them on Amazon. I didn't get to pick the titles, and it turns out they're all worth pennies. What should I do?

ANSWER: This is why I don't recommend that new sellers jump into the remainder or overstock business. If you're buying a pot-luck assortment, be prepared to lose most of your money.

But don't get too depressed. The only way you'll become a better bookseller is by making a few mistakes, so chalk this up to experience.

I see three possibilities here:

-- Group the books into small lots, three to 10 books per lot (grouped by author, genre, or theme) and auction them on eBay, listing the title and author of each book. Set just enough of a shipping fee to cover the postage. This seems to work well for lots of people on eBay -- in the "Books, Wholesale, Bulk Lots" category. This is the most labor-intensive option, but would provide the best financial return (and build your feedback score on eBay.)

-- Auction the books in larger lots (25 to 50 books per lot) without naming the titles. You should indicate in you listing that the lot is a great deal for book readers, but not for booksellers. Include a picture of the stack of books to encourage more bids.

-- Donate the books to your local library or charity such as the Salvation Army, and you can probably arrange pickup of the books and a tax deduction.

Don't dwell on your mistakes, look on the bright side. I've got about three tons of bookselling mistakes sitting in my basement, but I've learned a lot from it.

Q&A: Why do some Amazon sellers list books at very high prices?

QUESTION: I was listing a chemistry textbook for sale on Amazon Marketplace. New copies were available for $20.22, while a used copy in "good" condition was listed at $1,346.00. Why would a seller list their book at such an exorbitant price?

ANSWER: My hunch is this seller is trying to make a fast buck without really doing anything. This has been going on at Amazon ever since I started selling five years ago, although it's a lot less common now.

It's possible this seller made a typo when they listed their book for sale, or while editing their listing. Maybe they meant to enter a price of $13.46 instead of $1,346.00. I've made mistakes like this a few times, so I don't want to convict anyone without a hearing.

But, there have always been several sellers on Amazon who price books at 10 to 20 times their market price. They do this on all their listings, so it's no accident. They're counting on one dopey buyer out of a million who figures the highest-priced book must be best. Or maybe the seller is hoping Amazon will accidentally cycle off the lower-priced listings, so they get the sale.

These "highballer" sellers probably don't have any books in inventory, they just have a file of ISBNs they upload to Amazon Marketplace after jacking up the prices. When they get a sale, they probably drop-ship through another bookseller.

I guess this is technically legal, you can sell a used book for whatever the buyer pays for it. But it's sleazy, and makes all of us honest sellers look less credible. These scammers degrade the marketplace, just like spammers ruin the e-mail system for everyone else.

But it seems this practice is a lot less common than it used to be, so perhaps Amazon is finally beginning to police its Marketplace. Better late than never.

Tooyen reprices Amazon seller inventory for free

Amazon sellers tired of paying expensive subscriptions for inventory repricing have a new option. Tooyen uses the most sophisticated re-pricing routine I've seen, and it's free.

Tooyen was launched this week by software pro Andy Bruce, whose wife is an Amazon seller. Initially the project was simply a way for her to quit shelling out $40 a month for a repricing tool, but now it's available free to all Amazon sellers. The site's Tooyen drunken monkey mascot also stars in her own farcical blog.

I tested Tooyen today using my seller account, and it worked just as advertised. Response from the site was a bit slow, but I'm sure any kinks will be ironed out quickly enough.

A note of caution: This is a feature-rich site, and it will take a while for you to absorb everything. Set aside 45 minutes so you can explore, and read the help file. If you've never looked at your Amazon Open Listings report in a spreadsheet before, your learning curve will be steeper.

Andy recently explained why he developed Tooyen here on Amazon's message board. He explains how the repricing engine works by considering several variables, and his plans for adding eBay and Half.com to the service.

Tooyen's base service will remain free, but will probably be supported by advertising and fees for premium services. My hunch is that competing services are going to have a tough time justifying their high fees if enough sellers migrate to Tooyen.

To enhance security, Tooyen doesn't ask users for their Amazon seller ID, e-mail, or password. This makes the service a bit harder to use than it might otherwise have been, but is probably a smart idea. With all the recent concern about Amazon seller accounts being hacked, it's nice to know of one seller tool that doesn't require any personally identifiable information from its users.

Q&A: Amazon refunded my customer, who claimed she never ordered the book!

QUESTION: I'm pretty angry. Six months after shipping an order, Amazon refunded my buyer, who claimed she didn't place the order. She never contacted me or returned the book, and Amazon took my money! No A-to-Z Guarantee claim was filed, and nobody asked for my side of the story. What can I do?

ANSWER: You should do what I've done in similar cases: become a very squeaky wheel. If you squeak loudly and long enough, Amazon may provide the grease.

I've sold to about 110,000 buyers on Amazon and 18 of those orders have resulted in A-to-Z claims. In every case, Amazon denied the claim after I provided the delivery confirmation number.

But recently, like you, I noticed a suspicious refund made outside the A-to-Z Guarantee. The buyer e-mailed me several days after the order, asking that it be cancelled. Since the book was already in the mail, I asked her to refuse delivery, and I'd refund when it was returned. I never heard from her again, and the $9 book was never returned. But nine months later, in October 2005, Amazon deducted the money from my account with no explanation.

To add insult to injury, when I e-mailed Amazon demanding an explanation, they replied (incorrectly) that I'd failed to reply to their chargeback inquiry. Evidently the customer had gotten a refund from her credit-card company, claiming the transaction was "unauthorized."

After asking (in three e-mails) for an explanation from an Amazon supervisor, I finally received an anonymous e-mail from their billing department, apologizing for their error, and my funds were restored. I was irritated -- to put it mildly -- at how much time this $9 dispute consumed. But I didn't want a precedent established where Amazon would be refunding willy-nilly on orders I'd fulfilled.

This is a vivid illustration of why Amazon should assign account representatives to Pro-Merchant sellers, something I've recommended since 2001. Disputes like this can't be resolved using canned e-mail responses -- sometimes human intervention is required. I'm sure Amazon believes they're saving a bit on support costs, but this type of shoddy business practice generates ill will among Amazon's best customers: its Pro-Merchant sellers.

So if I were you, I'd send Amazon a friendly e-mail by clicking on the yellow button on the right, asking that the funds be restored to your account. If that fails, I'd phone Amazon's seller-support folks at 877-251-0696. I can't promise you'll have a satisfactory outcome, but I'd encourage you to protest vigorously anytime you think you've received unfair treatment. Good luck!

I'm interested in hearing from other sellers on this. Have you been able to resolve disputes with customers and Amazon's billing department?"

Book Review: Official Price Guide to Collecting Books (5th edition)

This book's extensive guide to collectible book pricing is fascinating and valuable in itself, but what I enjoyed even more was the numerous interviews with longtime book dealers. These interviews, sprinkled throughout the book, provide a keen insight into today's out-of-print bookselling and collectibles market. Of course, the experts disagree on some points, but that is all part of the fun -- you get to decide what makes the best sense for you, and apply those ideas to your own book-hunting adventures.

This guide also thoroughly covers genre collecting, the care and repair of books, and includes a glossary and references to many additional sources of information.

So whether you're a book auctioneer, bookshop owner, an online dealer, or simply a lover of collectible fiction or nonfiction treasures, I'd recommend that you read this book from cover to cover and put it on your shelf for future reference. When I read this book a few months ago, I found myself underlining a few paragraphs on nearly every page. It will give you a finer appreciation of how the Internet has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for book collectors and dealers alike.

Internet used-book sales up, report says

Used books now account for 8.4 percent of all book sales, thanks largely to growth in Internet selling, according to a study sponsored by U.S. publishers. Over 111 million used books were sold for $2.2 billion during 2004, a 33-percent increase over the previous year.

"The rapid growth of the general-trade used book market is a direct result of the Internet eliminating much of the friction in the buying and selling process," said Jeff Hayes, study co-author. More details of the BISG report are available here.

It's the first comprehensive report on online used bookselling, based on data provided by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Alibris and eBay, and more than 500 U.S. booksellers.

eBay will streamline item listing pages

eBay is revamping its layout to reduce clutter on item pages and display certain seller and shipping information at the top of pages.

The new design also hides some details previously displayed by default, such as listing starting time and duration.

The changes are based on eBay research showing that many buyers get frustrated with complicated listing pages. For more details, see the announcement on eBay.