SC - Buying books using the web

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Stefan wrote:

>After hearing this mentioned here I decided to try this a few days ago.
>The book I looked for was not a cookbook, but rather a book published
>in 1946, "Under the Red Sea Sun" about salvaging a port on the Red
>Sea. Anyway, I found a surprizing number of copies from $10 to $75.
>However a large number of the entries said the book had already been
>sold when I checked out the sites. After ruling out a few that I
>ruled out because they were in New Zealand, and I figured the shipping
>would be atrocious, I placed an order. That order required a check.
>Luckily before I got the check in the mail I recieved a message from
>the vender saying the book had been sold.

I´ve ordered books I found through bookfinder.com and abebooks.com several
times without any difficulties. Overseas postal charges are high, I guess,
but we are used to that here in Iceland. Last Friday I got a book I had
ordered from a bookseller in Arizona (this was a book printed in Laos - my,
has that book travelled). The price was $ 14.50 and postage and packing
added another $10 to the charge. The book was just as I had expected from
the description (which has generally been my experience with these used
books). And this was a hard-to-find book I´ve been looking for, on and off,
for almost a year.

I´ve paid for all my purchases by credit card so I really don´t have an
answer to your check-related questions but I´d wait for a confirmation and
ask them to hold the book.
>
>So, my questions are:
>1) How often are these databases updated? I checked again several
>days later and no entries seemed to have changed. I was using only
>the www.bookfinder.com address.


The individual booksellers are responsible for updates and some of them may
be slower to do it than others. I haven´t had this experience with my
purchases, either at bookfinder.com or abebooks.com. Once I placed an order
and got a message from the bookseller that the book was on hold and she
would let me know if the other buyer decided not to buy it. I admit I
haven´t checked how soon the books I´ve bought are removed from the
database, though.

>2) Is there a glossery somewhere for all these terms on the condition
>a book is in?


Yes. Check the homepage of bookfinder.com.

Nanna

>3) I just did another order for "To the King's Taste" and the merchant
>said he still had the book and would hold it. Even offered to send the
>book before the check got there. Is this what I should do, wait for a
>confirmation before sending a check, even if the merchants website
>says it is in stock?


>4) Even if I get a email reply that says the book is in stock, will
>it likely be held for me or will I find that the book has been sold
>while my check was in the mail?


>Thanks.
>  Stefan
>
>--
>Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
>**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
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