Phil’s Diary - [Blog @ http://www.philsdiary.net/]
I’ve been trying for a long time now to by the EE Doc Smith Skylark series. It appears the books are no longer in print, which is always a pain. So eventually I stumbled on the Amazon marketplace site, which is essentially a second hand bookstore with a search engine (ie. saving a lot of trecking around).
As usual for Amazon though they hide, and then sting you on the postage costs.
I ordered two books, one £1.95 and the other £1.49 (these books are older than me).
Amazon of course then wacks on £3.75 postage and packing… onto each book. Making cheap second hand books quite expensive second hand books.
What narks me most isn’t the cost directly. It’s two factors. The first is that with the second hand section you have to pay P&P for each item. The second thing is the way the P&P is only added at the very very end of the ordering process.
I really really wish they’d make their pricing either transparent (why advertise the book at £1.49 when, no matter how you bake it, you’ll end up paying £5.24 ?
And if they can’t make it transparent… why don’t they pop the pricing in a more prominent place?
Probably because they know that their P&P costs are rather high.
I’d avoid using them if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve not found an alternative for these particular books.
For everything else I don’t use Amazon.
Posted by Phil on September 27, 2002 08:45 PM | Categories: Thoughts
Fantastic... thanks for that. They have copied of the last two boosk (which I was looking for).
I've not read the lensman series (yes, I know... far more famous), so that'll be next I expect.
That said... I've such a backlog of books to read, it could be years down the line.
Posted by: Phil at September 30, 2002 3:27 PM
Try Abebooks: http://www.abebooks.com/. Searching on Doc Smith turned up 2000+ hits. Sorting on lowest price turned up a UK (Helter Skelter Books, 8 Main Street, Ingleton, via Carnforth, NYK, United Kingdom, LA6 3EB.
Phone: 015242 41101. Email: orders@hsbooks.co.uk) shop with Skylark of Space for $1.56 US, plus p&P (at cost, they say). I never really got into the Skylark series, still less the Family d'Alembert, but thoroughly enjoy the Lensman series (curiously, I was just thinking it's time to re-read them).
Posted by: Jon at September 30, 2002 3:19 PM