Sex by Madonna tops BookFinder's Top 10 out-of-print list for 2006

Madonna's 1992 erotica-laced hardcover tops BookFinder's list of most sought-after books of 2006 in the United States. Copies in excellent condition often sell for $300 and up.

Here's the list:

1. Sex (1992) by Madonna

2. Football Scouting Methods (1963) by Steve Belichick

3. Touch Me Again (1978) by Suzanne Somers

4. Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words (1975) by Johnny Cash

5. Treasury of Great Recipes (1965) by Mary and Vincent Price

6. The Principles of Knitting (1988) by June Hemmons Hiatt

7. The Lion's Paw (1946) by Robb White

8. The Secret of Perfect Living (1963) by James Mangan

9. Once a Runner: A Novel (1978) by John L. Parker, Jr.

10. One Way Up (1964) by John F. Straubel

The fascinating thing about this list is that only two of these books are "collectibles" in the traditional sense. I don't recall seeing any of these mentioned in a collector's price guide. However, these are the books that are scarce and people are willing to pay good money for them. It's a democratic measure of book scarcity, much like Amazon's Buyers Waiting list.

Read more about these books on the BookFinder.com Journal.

Q&A: At library book sales, how can I find the gems?

QUESTION: I recently went to my first library book sale. I ended up buying nothing, even though I was one of the first people through the door. I couldn't find anything that looked valuable. I checked about 30 prices with my cellphone and couldn't find anything worth more than about $2. There were some obvious pro buyers there with shopping bags full of buys.

When I saw about 20 "microwave cookbooks" with yellowed covers on a shelf together, I left the sale in disgust. What am I doing wrong? Did I just go to the wrong sale?

ANSWER: I'm betting that either the sale you went to had very few bargains due to poor donations, or that the sellers you saw with bags of finds may have grabbed all the goodies before you had a chance.

Library sales are the most consistent source of good used books for me. The larger, regional libraries in particular seem to get tons of donations, and they don't have room for all those books on the shelves.

However, one trend I've noticed is that some libraries are starting to "cherry pick" their donations. They'll check the prices on all their books before offering them at a sale, and the ones that are really valuable, they'll sell themselves. Or they'll set aside a "special collection" and price them ridiculously high. At one sale I attended, the books had a range of prices from ABE. Very few of the books sold.

Another possibility is that the Friends volunteers who staffed the sale were able to get first crack at the merchandise before the doors opened. When the merchandise has been cherry-picked before the doors open, it's hard to find much good material.

Having said all that, this was your first sale, and it takes a while to get the knack for finding books. Finding really good books at a library sale is sort of like finding a needle in a haystack. Even at the really good library sales I've been to, 90 percent of the stuff available is junk -- as far as reselling is concerned. But through experience you're able to quickly spot the good stuff that you can resell.

So I would suggest two things for you:

• See if there's another library sale (at a different library) where you can go through the same process. If the first sale you went to had such bad donations (or the donations had been cherry picked) the odds are you'll have much better luck at your next sale, particularly if it's at a different library.
• Get some general practice picking books. Like if you could get to a library that has a shelf-full of books that are always for sale, any day of the week. That way you could get some practice picking books outside of the pressure of having to get them during a library sale, when you're limited by time.

One of the weird things that I've always found from going to library sales -- the more experienced I've gotten at picking books, the higher my expectations are. So these days, I'm always disappointed on the way home -- my first impression is usually, "Well I spent three hours, and what a waste." But after I start listing the books, my mood improves. There's usually several nice surprises.

So all is not lost. It seems like you have high expectations too. Just get in there are start buying, and you'll find the gems.

Q&A: How can my Amazon customer remove negative feedback?

QUESTION: I received my first negative feedback from a buyer on Amazon Marketplace. When I contacted the customer, she realized that she had made a mistake; she meant to leave the negative feedback for a different bookseller. Can she change the feedback to reflect this error? How can I instruct her to make this change?

ANSWER: Buyers can't change feedback, but they can delete it.

Here are the instructions Amazon gives to customers for removing feedback:

1. Go to http://www.amazon.com/your-account.
2. Find the pull-down menu next to "View by Order." Select "Orders placed in the past 6 months", and hit the "go" button.
3. After you sign in, you'll find a listing of your recent orders. Select the relevant order and click the "View order" button.
4. You will find a feedback section 2/3rds of the way down the page. To remove feedback, click on the "Remove" link in the feedback section of the order summary.
5. You may only remove feedback if it is 60 days or less since you left the feedback.

I usually do something a bit different, and I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble or not. It takes a bit longer to do but it helps ensure the customer finds the correct feedback. Here's the script and link I use:

Here's where you can delete the feedback, about halfway down the page you'll see your feedback comment and a link to "remove". I'd greatly appreciate it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/summary/edit.html?orderID=XXXXXXXXXXX

Replace the series of Xs on the end with the customer's order number.

The difference with my technique is that the customer isn't looking at a list of orders, they only see their order with you.

You might want to test out both techniques and see which one you think is best. You can take a look at the screens yourself if you've left feedback for a Marketplace seller within the past 60 days. After that point, buyers can't delete feedback.

ABE wants "feedback for improving AbeBooks for all booksellers"

Just in from ABE:

We'd like to follow up with you as a former AbeBooks.com bookseller to find out more about your bookstore and ways we can improve our service. We ask that you take a few minutes to complete a short survey for us; we'll use your feedback in developing tools and features for all of our booksellers.

Take the survey here.

We'd also like to let you know about a few new features we've added since you closed your account:

• Booksellers are creating their personalized storefronts, a sleeker, more customizable version of our old bookseller homepages.
• Quantity is available to all booksellers in our online listings manager, or your custom conversion. It will also be available soon in HomeBase 3.0.
• Our search results now ask "Did You Mean . . .?" when a search returns 0 results. We're helping buyers to find the books they're looking for!.
• When buyers initiate a return for the reason "Item did not arrive," we provide more opportunity to contact the bookseller for resolution before completing the refund.
• Our booksellers' listings are now searchable on 5 international marketplaces: IberLibro.com is an official AbeBooks Web site.
• We've introduced a new, streamlined shopping basket that makes it quicker and easier for buyers to purchase books.

If you'd like to try out some of our new features, we'd like to welcome you back to AbeBooks with one free month's subscription. Just visit our Sell Books page to get started on your application, and mention this e-mail when you hear from a member of our Registrations team.

We appreciate the support you've shown us in the past, and we hope you'll continue to support AbeBooks booksellers in the future. Whether you'd like to re-join or not, we hope you'll participate in our survey today.

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback; we look forward to receiving your response!

Sincerely,

Sue, Jordan, Marc & Maria
The AbeBooks Sales and Account Management Team

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. Let's hope that ... well, let's just hope we don't get lots more of these surveys.

Q&A: What are velocity limits on Amazon Marketplace?

QUESTION: Today I was surprised to find no Amazon Marketplace orders, so I checked the "Payment Processed" list for my seller account. I found several orders processed yesterday and today that haven't shown up on my order list. I haven't received any "Sold, ship now" e-mails and I got concerned about customers having their shipments delayed due to some Amazon glitch.

I called Seller Support, and they told me I had reached my "velocity limit," a speed at which orders can come through for each 28-day period, and a seemingly arbitrary dollar sales amount. Thanks to the busy holiday season, sales have been up for me this week, far beyond what is usual, but it came grinding to a halt today.

I was told I had to e-mail Amazon (at payments-request@amazon.com) and request an increase in my velocity limit. At the present setting, I'm not allowed to exceed a certain dollar amount in sales (which, by the way, must also include the postage amounts because the value of books sold doesn't equal the amount they quoted me).

It's been several hours since I emailed them, and still, no orders posted. Plenty of items down to "0" quantity, with unsuspecting customers on the other end. I typically follow-up order reports immediately with a confirmation to the customer & notice of intent to ship today, tomorrow, or whatever.

I find it very frustrating that Amazon should delay these orders from posting, even for a few hours, especially going into a weekend with holidays fast approaching. I actually took it upon myself to contact each of the customers with the pending sales, just to let them know there seems to be some kind of delay in the posting of their orders to me.

Have you ever heard of this? I don't understand the logic of limiting the dollar value of sales. Amazon should not be doing anything that will get in the way of 100 percent customer satisfaction. To be sure, if the delays caused by Amazon for these pending orders leads to any negative feedback, I will be sending some strong complaints Amazon's way...

ANSWER: Ho, Ho, oooooohhh damn.

I think you've said it all. Almost.

I bumped into velocity limits five times in my first few years selling. It's a fraud-prevention measure, to makes sure the seller is actually filling orders. It's probably based on the same type of software that credit card companies use to monitor accounts for unusual spending -- and hence an alert for a stolen card.

However, in my case Amazon always contacted me before I reached my velocity limit, so I never had a gap in sales. Each time, I got an automated e-mail from Amazon, asking me to reply with my full name and phone number. They never called me back; they simply approved my new velocity limit within a few hours.

From your comments, it seems Amazon isn't sending those alerts out anymore -- they're simply letting seller accounts get locked up, with the poor seller having to figure out what's going on. I don't know whether it's a glitch or simply a new policy. If it's a policy, it seems like an incredibly foolish one to me.

I agree, it's an awful time of the year for Amazon to be dropping the ball on velocity limits. Amazon is shooting itself in the foot and leaving customers in the lurch. Not to mention we poor sellers are being hung out to dry.

I keep saying it and saying it, and I'll say it once more: Every Amazon Pro-Merchant should have an account representative who can help get crap like this straightened out promptly. Anything less is a disservice to us and a shoddy business practice by Amazon.

In the meantime, put in another phone call to Seller Support at 1-877-251-0696. Tell them Santa is holding and wants to speak with a supervisor.

Will eBay scrap Express? Wall Street thinks so...

Well, eBay Express has certainly turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments of 2006. Lots of sizzle but no steak. eBay promoted it, but where are the buyers?

The talk on Wall Street is the thing's going to be scrapped:

"It's a flawed concept," says financial analyst Philip Remek from Guzman & Co., who thinks Express has little chance of success and will likely be scrapped. "This effort will bear little fruit and potentially will be a management distraction. I don't see any revenue driver in eBay Express."

I had hoped Express would provide a real alternative to Amazon Marketplace, but that's a pipe dream now. And whatever happened to Half.com? I've had about five sales there all year!

How to be a hero instead of a villain at the Post Office

I don't know what I'd do without online postage. My pet peeve is standing in line, and there's nothing worse than standing in line at the Post Office, if you ask me.

To make it even worse, some of the sourpuss postal clerks just hate to see us online booksellers lugging our day's worth of sales up to the counter. That's another pet peeve of mine: Being hated for bringing someone business.

And there's more: In the past year or two, Post Offices have been outfitted with a new postage printing system that works much slower than the older system, which can make your time with the clerk even longer. Another pet peeve: New, "improved" technology that makes tasks harder to do, not easier.

I've been using online postage practically since I started selling books six years ago. I print my postage at home and drop my packages at my Post Office's loading dock -- half the time, they don't even know I've been there. And hardly a day goes by when the thought doesn't go through my mind, "What will I do if Endicia is down and I can't print postage tomorrow?"

But believe it or not, there are some people who actually enjoy going to the Post Office. Here's a note I received from Carlos Sandoval, who looks forward to taking in his mail every day. If you take your mail to the counter too, pay attention, because Carlos a great idea for making your trip more pleasant, especially during this holiday season. He's been through the drill so many times, he knows the Postal Service's computer system better than most of the clerks:

Call me old fashioned, I still like the interaction with people and like to talk with the people behind the postal counter. And so it goes for the many years I've been selling books, CDs, and movies online.

But a funny thing happened just a month before the busy holiday season -- the USPS decided to outfit all their Post Offices with a new system complete with new software and touch-screen display units. This was supposed to streamline the processing of mail. But, alas, it did the opposite -- many counter personnel complained that it slowed down processing with answering of many questions, slow refreshing of many screens of information, just to process one piece of mail. And, of course, there was learning a new system in a short amount of time.

So standing there with stacks of mail to process was starting to wear on me and the counter person. I could see the frustration they were experiencing, and what was once a pleasant visit was fast turning into drudgery. But I noticed what was going on with the new system. The clerk put on a piece of mail, typed in the Zip code, and proceeded to punch at the flat screen before them, waiting five seconds for the next screen and punch another response, wait for the next screen, and so on. Finally it would spit out a label and it would be applied to the package. On to the next.

Want to be a hero to that person behind the counter? Here's the secret. Tell them to quit punching the screen, keep their hands on
the keyboard. Each of the "buttons" they have to "push" on the screen correspond to the F keys (function keys) on their keyboards. So on a particular display, F1 equals the first button, F2 is the second, F3 the third, and so on. By memorizing or writing down the series of F keys you are hitting for each type of mailing (Media Mail, First Class, Priority), you can speed up the processing dramatically. For instance, I know the "code" for processing First Class mail is: Put in the zip code, F2, F4, F8, F1 (the first screen of information the second button is always pushed, the second screen the fourth, etc.). So instead of waiting for each screen to come up, the clerk types Zip code, F2, F4, F8, F1. And as he is waiting for the label, he takes the package off the scale and is ready to enter the next package as soon as the label is dispensed. The "code" is different, of course, for all the other kinds of services, especially if there is Delivery Confirmation or insurance. Caution the clerk when entering Priority Mail, the different screens for regular Priority Mail and Flat Rate Priority.

Processing time for my Post Office visit used to average about a half hour for a box of miscellaneous packages; it's now reduced to as little as ten minutes. I still have postal clerks thanking me for teaching them this shortcut that isn't in any of the postal manuals.

Q&A: I was suspended by Amazon alliance. How can I reopen my seller account?

QUESTION: I recently began selling on Amazon and had been having great success, selling an average of five books a day. However, today I was suspended from Marketplace after receiving a message from Amazon Alliance. The message said that my account has been linked to another account that was closed for violating Amazon's "Community Rules."

I have no idea what this is about. Do you have any suggestions on how I can get back on Amazon and clear up this mess?

ANSWER: Amazon Alliance polices Marketplace by kicking off unethical sellers -- those caught selling pirated products or those who have excessive refunds or A to Z claims.

By and large, I think this system works pretty well, and is one of the reasons the typical Marketplace buying experience is positive. The problem is, there's no apparent communications channel when Alliance makes a mistake. Apparently Alliance screens seller accounts for names, phone numbers, or addresses they've identified previously as a bad sellers. When they have a match, they block your account and send this message:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

This message is to inform you that we have blocked your Amazon.com Auctions, zShops and Marketplace account. Your open listings have been cancelled and you are no longer able to sell on our site.

We have taken this action because it has come to our attention that this account is related to an account which has been previously blocked for violations of our Community Rules.

While we do not provide detailed information on how we link related accounts, we have thoroughly reviewed our records and confirmed that we have significant evidence that this account is related to another account previously closed for community rules violations.

If you still have items to ship, please take appropriate steps to resolve your pending sales. Your Seller Account will remain accessible and you are encouraged to refund or ship pending orders.

Your funds are on temporary hold for 90 days from the date of your final sale. After 90 days, the funds will be disbursed, provided we do not receive chargebacks or A-to-Z Guarantee claims against your sales. If you have further questions about your disbursement, please email payments-funds@amazon.com.

While we appreciate your interest, please understand that the closure of an account is a permanent action. Any subsequent accounts that are opened will be closed as well. Thank you for your understanding with our decision.

Regards,

Item and Seller Quality
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com

It certainly does seem unfair and downright un-American to terminate someone with no appeal process. Since Alliance doesn't suggest any alternative, try this:

1. Call Seller Support at 1-877-251-0696. Ask to speak with a supervisor.

2. Write to community-help@amazon.com.

3. Send the same message to reports@amazon.com, the address where Community Rules violations are reported.

4. Send the same message to alliance@amazon.com.

5. Send the same message to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' staff at jeff@amazon.com

If anyone knows of a more effective way of dealing with this, I hope they'll chime in with a comment.

UPDATE: Two weeks after his original message, our correspondent reported good news:

I used the contacts you sent me and was able to clear everything up. I did buy a used computer and think somehow this flagged Amazon of past problems. Thanks for the advice.

That's interesting, and a possibility I never thought of -- that they're identifying sellers by the machine, perhaps cookies? If that's the case, it might be best to log into your seller account only on your home PC, and certainly not at a public library. And if you purchase a used PC, reformatting the hard drive is probably a good idea too.

If I sold it

Some lucky booksellers must have made a bundle by getting their hands on a few copies of the orphaned O.J. Simpson book, If I Did It. According to this GalleyCat article, about 100 copies were sold last week, many of them on Amazon.

Looks like they're all gone now, and Amazon even deleted the cover image.

Someone has a copy on ABE for $4,200. Give me a break!

I have a prediction, though: In two years this book will be selling for 1 cent on Marketplace. This inventory is going to be sold to another publisher who's not afraid of a PR backlash. I'm not defending it, I'm just predicting that these books will be sold eventually, and once the public gets their fill, the books will be worth about as much as the other O.J. trial books, like this one and this one.

Here's a fascinating article about how they got bookstores to order the new O.J. book in the first place, it's called "blind" selling.

Another take on bookselling: eBay for children's fiction books

I focus on selling a high volume of nonfiction books at fixed prices, mainly on Amazon, but plenty of people do just fine with a completely different approach: They sell fiction and children's books at auction on eBay, selling fewer books, but at higher prices.

There's even a how-to guide, How to Sell Used Books Using Online Auctions, an e-book by Elaine Krieg Smith. By focusing on antique and children's books which aren't adequately described on Amazon Marketplace, Elaine concentrates on selling small lots of books by topic targeted at homeschooling parents and teachers.

To be sure, there are some common principles in Elaine's book and mine, The Home-Based Bookstore: Good customer service, fulfillment, and keeping good records. And we both agree on not wasting time buying and listing books that won't sell. The ultimate goal is maximizing your profit while expending the least amount of time and energy.

If you're interested in finding out more, my friend Christine has this review of Elaine's book posted on her blog, "The Thinking Mother."

Q&A: Are Google and BuyBundle a threat to Amazon, or sellers?

QUESTION: What the heck is going on? Is Google Base an alternative marketplace for us to sell books? Is it a listing portal, or something else? I've read their Web site and I still don't get it.

And I wonder about the implications of Amazon listings being populated on Google via BuyBundle. Or via that Google Base Store Connector. I'm wondering if Amazon's participation agreement prohibits it.

Also, Steve, I wonder if there is any business relationship between you and BuyBundle or between you and the parts of Google that apparently look to compete with Amazon.

ANSWER: Google used to have something called "Froogle," which was supposed to become a marketplace. After keeping Froogle on the back burner for years, Google apparently is scrapping that project. Base is essentially a collection of product listings, including items from Amazon, eBay and Yahoo stores.

It's hard to know where Google is going with this. One theory is that by getting all standardized products (anything with an ISBN or UPC) into Base, Google can stop sending free search-engine traffic to Amazon, eBay and other e-commerce sites. Instead, Google could send people searching for books and other items to Base. Then any e-commerce sites that wanted product-search traffic from Google would need to pay for it through Adwords. That's the theory.

Google is shaping up as a huge competitor to Amazon. I know Google has serious plans for book retailing on Book Search. They're signing up publishers now to provide online viewing of books, with Google keeping a 30-percent commission. Whether they'll add physical books to this or a connection with Base is anyone's guess.

As far as listings from Amazon showing up on Base, I'm sure Amazon is concerned about it to the extent it would enable Pro-Merchants to conduct transactions outside Amazon. Who owns the listings? It seems to me sellers do -- the book cover images and descriptions are provided by publishers, not Amazon. Does any of this violate our agreement with Amazon? I don't know, but I'm sure Amazon will try outlawing it if they see fit.

Until now, eBay has encouraged sellers to add their store listings to Google Base, but perhaps this will change if Base becomes a marketplace and threatens eBay's revenue. It's an interesting coincidence (or not?) that eBay and Amazon recently undermined the effectiveness of stores (eBay by raising fees and removing items from search results, while Amazon replaced zShops with non-functioning stores).

BuyBundle enables sellers to accept PayPal. If Google plugs Checkout into this equation, things will really hit the fan.

It will be interesting to see what happens, I don't have a clue where this is going. However, just for the record, I don't have any connections or financial interests in BuyBundle or Google. The only advertisements on this site are the obvious ones in the right column.

Q&A: How can I refund my Amazon Marketplace buyer?

QUESTION: I recently sold a book on Amazon. Now the buyer wants to return the book, saying he ordered the wrong one by mistake. I want to help him out but am not sure how to refund his money. Do I refund him through Amazon or do I send him a check?

ANSWER: Tell the buyer he's welcome to return the book for a refund to his account. Since the buyer is at fault in this case, I'd definitely wait until the book is returned before refunding. You can also keep the shipping fee, but I usually refund in full even when the customer is at fault.

When you refund the buyer through your seller account, Amazon will credit the buyer's account and debit your seller account. You and the buyer receive an e-mail confirmation from Amazon a few minutes after you submit the refund. Here's Amazon's help screen for refunds:

Though Amazon.com processes all Amazon Payments from your buyers, it is a seller's responsibility to initiate refunds. We provide online tools for this purpose. If you would like to make an Auctions refund, please follow the links for more information. General guidelines on Amazon Marketplace returns and refunds are also provided on our Handling Returns and Refunds page

Q&A: Can I sell my National Geographic magazines on Amazon?

QUESTION: I have about 500 National Geographic magazines. Is there an easy way to list these books on Amazon?

ANSWER: I am not sure why, but Amazon doesn't allow people to list magazines for sale on the site.

Pro-Merchants can add all sorts of things to Amazon's catalog by creating a detail page. But items in these categories are prohibited:

Magazines
Apparel
Beauty
Cell Phones & Plans
Food
Health & Personal Care
Jewelry

This is the sort of thing that probably would have worked OK with zShops, but we know what happened there. I can understand why Amazon wouldn't want Pro-Merchants to list food items or cosmetics, but I have no idea what the rationale is for banning magazines.

I'm not sure whether National Geographics is something that would work on eBay or not. Perhaps you could sell a collection at auction, but I'm not sure if you could recover Store fees by listing them at fixed prices.

Amazon will keep zShops listings until February

Amazon will keep zShops listings on life support through January 31, 2007:

Pro Merchants with zShops listings will continue to have access to their listings for reference until January 31st, 2007.

This change from the previously announced date of December 5th, 2006 was made to provide more time to Pro Merchants to migrate their zShops listings to Marketplace listings well after the Holiday selling season.

Pro Merchants can access their zShops listings via Seller Your Account > Manage Your Inventory > zShops Open listings. Please note that zShops listings will continue to not be visible by buyers on Amazon.com. Any changes to your zShops listings will not be reflected on the website. They are for your reference only.