Easton Press Resellers Hall of Shame

Hear, hear, let's keep this updated.

Wailofatail, did you intentionally miss spell gabrielac or was this a mistake? Also, you sure have a vengeance against anyone who seems to disrupt you from adding to your collection of 1500 Easton Press volumes. Added to listings that end immediately, you tend to target any person who gets more than 'their share of listings' which implies you dive deep into book collecting and to whom gets what.

Plus you have complained in missing offers by Easton Press in their catalogs. Considering nearly all titles last longer than a month unless they offer a volume by accident out of print you must not be buying direct. With your skills and long history of advice you sure sound like a dealer.

If we're on the topic of price gouging, then you hve to add:

engineer-69

http://shop.ebay.com/engineer-69/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&...

he does have some decent auctions at decent prices, but many of his other auctions are very inflated. He has the complete works of Dickens for sale at over $273 PER VOLUME!! Does he really think someone is going to pay for that? Not really, that's why they all have "best offer" next to them. I hate it when people list something for 2-3 times what they think it's worth, and then put "best offer". Then again, people are entitled to do as they please. No one is forcing anyone to purchase anything... so I'm somewhat ambivalent on this topic. I tend to just laugh at the ridiculous prices and not let it bother me...

Buyers who re list items frequently are violating no policies, and frankly, you sound like a jealous competitor trying desperately to hurt the competition.

wailofatail, your tone sounds malicious for anyone who tends to re list items often. I know of a couple who are listing more transactions than anyone and you are not arguing about them.

Is it the starting price that bothers you or the fact ones find the biggest offers? I also question the fact of you likely are searching often for items that are fortunate of before you discover it you post your negative and insulting filth online in front of hundreds of watchers for Librarything.

Your arguing that there should not be anyone re-listing sets or individual items. I doubt you are a pure collector, you might as well call out a dozen others who are doing the same thing for years from leather editions to signed first editions besides greenstar; engineer, djsms, keg, roachd, ka399, armando, zeds, and so on. You should post on your eBay page ''buyer resellers not welcome on eBay". This would open a boat load of items open to the public, sounds like you are sour-graping about missed items you wanted.

One bidder last year specbought a sealed George Bush 'A Charge to Keep' for $75 that was offered for $100 buy it now or best offer, it sells for at least $600 up to $1000; another Muhammad Ali for $250. Both lasted less than 20 minutes. I can't say enough about engineer and the other account. Not to gripe about complaints but you really don't have ground basis.

Regarding the Hardy Boys, shipping was free & it has sold as high as 200 years earlier, other postings higher prices. The three were first time listed & less than the average price of zeds, near veryfinebooks and gilded-legacy with a difference of sealed and non sealed which collectors can be picky about. Btw, it was someone else who bought the Hemingway set for $490 (there were bookplates attached on the one you pointed out), that I remember was bought by a DIFFERENT reseller keg.( item number 260761503741 on message below. You are confusing with a different listing posted earlier.

Do your research, prices are only worth what they sell for on the market, the big cons in my opinion are those who dishonestly request sellers to cancel or revise items to buy it nows at a discounted price beating out others immediately re-listing at double the market price, which happens more often than anyone of us know. At least one or two I know of live in Texas. One seller online in particular lists all his books he bought weeks earlier monthly at 250 listings starting at $24.95 each volume.

Prices are unreasonable if proven to be far off other confirmed end of auctions. I am not surprised you have been policing and calling out dealers, bet very much you have been listing items too that you bought the same year.

> Can anyone tell me the differences between trading often online and listed auctions?

* Your arguing that there should not be anyone re-listing sets or individual items.

answer: I see sellers re-listing items all the time, I don't hear about you arguing about most of them. Half a dozen re list immediately within weeks.

* I doubt you are a pure collector

I am a pure collector; part of the reason I find such practices so aggravating.

answer: So you are a pure collector watching all items and sellers listing . I see astropi has been trading, offering items for sale on this site and asking to buy. He asked me once about a volume earlier last year. I bet he sold on eBay before often and would recognize the name. What is the difference for one and the other?

Evidence:

answer: I have evidence of re sellers, one hour chat and would convince anyone there are far more than you know wailofatail.

* You should post on your eBay page ''buyer resellers not welcome on eBay".

Definitely plan on taking this under advisement if/when I get an Ebay page. Currently I do not have one but it is a splendid idea!

answer: If you create a blog on who should or should not be on eBay, you have too much time on your hands. Added note you also are on frequently looking for great offers. It takes one to know one. This alone is concrete proof you are watching buyers and ended items looking for deals yourself weekly if not daily.

* This would open a boat load of items open to the public)

What?

answer: Let me rephrase, if the most profitable items were not purchased by the top buyers on eBay there would be a large opening of books for others to find. 4 out of 5 are purchased by an estimated 12 bidders, one includes your eBay name I have come up with after reviewing patterns and connecting the dots.

* sounds like you are sour-graping about missed items you wanted.

Possibly. Truthfully though, you (I mean greenstarenergy) don't give folks much of a chance to decide what they want before you, (I mean greenstarenergy) buy them and raise the price 300%. But had I the chance, and had I decided I did, it would have been for the lower price, not the new and unimproved price.

# If you bought them, you're saying you would list for a lower price than what greestarenergy would be price? Have any solid proof greestars prices are triple the market of the highest offers? Are you telling greenstarenergy buys most of all under priced listings?

* One bidder last year spec-man bought a sealed George Bush 'A Charge to Keep' for $75 that was offered for $100 buy it now or best offer, it sells for at least $600 up to $1000; another Muhammad Ali for $250. Both lasted less than 20 minutes

Wow! Just think of the mark-up you could have gotten on those! As indicated previously, as a collector of Easton Press books I want E/P books listed for sale on Ebay to sell to other collectors and if an E/P collector happens to find a bargain, God bless him/her. It is re-sellers who patrol Ebay's 'Buy It Now' listings and auctions, snatching up every Easton Press bargain with the sole intent to re-list them at increased prices for their own selfish gain to which I object.

answer: There are countless items open to the public not one person can take them all. There are however a small handful every week that stand out. Most items under priced are buy it nows that happen daily.

* I can't say enough about engineer-69 and the other account.

So far you haven't said anything substantiative about either of them. However, should you choose, this is the thread to do it. I'd sure like to know.

answer: They are one in the same, before his feedback on one was turned to private I read a number of comments posted by others years earlier. Not to mention it's uncanny items show up weeks later.

* Not to gripe about complaints but you really don't have ground basis.

But you are griping about complaints and I do have ground basis. I outlined it all in my post.

answer: you didn't get the shipping correct, there was no shipping on the two of them and the listings cannot be changed with the 'revision history' links. Once listed they cannot be changed without evidence. Once again they are listed many times for over 150 sealed. Sounds like wailofatail you are a wailer every time you miss an item.

* Regarding the Hardy Boys, shipping was free & it has sold as high as 200 years earlier, other postings higher prices. The three were first time listed & less than the average price of zedsbooks, near veryfinebooks and gilded-legacy-books with a difference of sealed and non sealed which collectors can be picky about.

Not sure what your point is unless you are saying the Hardy Boys listing was simply too good a deal and you (I mean greenstarenergy) had to do something about that by purchasing them and raising the price closer to something that zeds or veryfine or the gilded one would charge.

answer: I brought it up since you brought up this as an example first. I don't take complaints lightly without just cause or frivolous accusations because one found it first. The volumes are sealed which brings a higher price than non sealed, they lasted less than 10 minutes and you discovered it how??? I bet you would buy them too, plus all the others you conversation about.

* Btw, it was someone else who bought the Hemingway set for $490 (there were bookplates attached on the one you pointed out), that I remember was bought by a DIFFERENT reseller likely keggs or armando. You are confusing with a different listing posted earlier.

I'm not mistaken. As noted in the next bullet, I do my research.

answer: You have mistaken one set for another. Missed out on another set you wanted?? I checked within a few minutes and found the item id 260761503741. This confirms you are incorrect, feedback is different and matches keggs.

* Do your research, prices are only worth what they sell for on the market

answer: I have seen them sell or listed often for as high as $80 each, for a complete set a full series $40 each which brings the total to $760.

Not sure what you are trying to say here but if there is one thing you should feel certain of by now it is that I do my research. I wouldn't dare post such remarks otherwise.

answer: I do research myself, I would be referring the ones who lie or cheat about listings, urging ones to end early when they supposedly can't wait for it to end. One rule I have is an auction stays an auction, buy it nows are luck and are open to anyone who finds it first, those last usually less than 30 minutes and have been time after time to a repeat bidder. Also, with a big red flag sellers who never ship items and are serial thieves. Found one in 2009 named Ben who must have a couple hundred accounts, even was on the news from CA for Mail fraud. Maliciously threatened to destroy and sabotage anyone who crossed paths with him. A lawyer crossed paths and turned the screws with the retaliations.

* the big cons in my opinion are those who dishonestly request sellers to cancel or revise items to buy it nows at a discounted price beating out others immediately re-listing at double the market price, which happens more often than anyone of us know.

This would be a good topic for a separate post in this thread. I agree with you that these folks abuse the system too, again to the detriment of the collector and again to the gain of the unscrupulous re-seller.

* At least one or two I know of live in Texas.

Who?

answer: gobuz or other named engineer, he has been on for years, armando but have respect for him and many others. There have been a number of cases since 2006 that come to mind. Once I bid on a BB King Signed edition later finding it was removed, relisted and sold to gobuz for $100 after a request, with two others & re posted a week later over 800.

* One seller online in particular lists all his books he bought weeks earlier monthly at 250 listings starting at $24.95 each volume.

What? Is this stream of conscienceness?

answer: not a coincidence, one of many who I found out over the years who are not quite as skilled but have the same goal.

* Prices are unreasonable if proven to be far off other confirmed end of auctions.

??? I'm complaining about E/P hostage takers here, not high prices. Whatever your (I mean greenstarenergy's) new price, it is always higher than the 'Buy It Now' listing from which you (I mean greenstarenergy) snatched it. From where I'm coming, if someone is going to benefit from a bargain listing I want it to be a collector like me, not a re-seller like you, (I mean greenstarenergy.)

answer: you can't police the market and expect all to follow it. Added do the same by purchasing the same items you find, watch specific bidders who beat you to the punch. Hostage taking???? Many would be guilty of this.

* I am not surprised you have been policing and calling out dealers, bet very much you have been listing items too that you bought the same year.

What's your bet?

answer: you asked me about one book I had extra of, have seen long lists on google about requests and trades. Wasn't astropi the one who offered a Chaucer for $2k on Amazon for a friend? Believe the same for your history about collecting, one can't keep all books and still keep on bidding, your library must be extensive then. Quite a few duplicates I presume, a comment you posted on a thread mentioned you would never sell any of the books you purchased and expect your kids to do the same. This is an impossible feat for anyone to make sure it would happen. If you mention what your eBay name is it would shed more light if you are telling the truth or telling fibs.

EastonQuality, I think you might be confusing wailofatail with astropi.

>12 Highgate:

You are right Highgate, it was regarding wailofatail and not astropi. Was under pressure to leave up town at the time as a distraction and checking up on their complaints. It does make more questions on which user names wailofatail and astropi are with accounts on amazon and eBay. Certain we have heard of them before, no news that is new.. I for myself am not on amazon, and abebooks has been dormant for buying in the past years for the most part.
-----
When the top 'cookies' have competition they complain about their competitors. Once the top competitors that were first take hold, a number of them block others or sabotage when possible. I frown on ones who intentionally try to take others down by sabotage for their own gain.

I highly doubt one who buys more than usual per month is cornering all the offers online, it is impossible to check each and every listing. There are plenty of signed & special collector's editions for one third or less of the original Easton price. Is one asking too much if they are offering for a hundred when the retail was one fifty?? Overpricing is when one consistently offers books for at least double the average, check out abebooks for instance, every title has countless offers far more than average. Will you start one of those groups about Abe wailofatail & astropi? You need to ask yourself, is it the value or the competition of the market that convinces one to start groups for hall of shame talk. If you know the bidder you must be doing a lot of research as a true collector & as a trader for LE editions from what I read. ''This is considered negative gossip behind someones back no matter who it is''

Err, what? I see lots and lots and lots of text, and then my name mentioned... I know we've talked about this matter a number of times. As I said before, I really don't care much one way or another. You could argue they do a service (such as increase the value for the collector by artifically increasing the prices) or that they do a disservice (by snatching items on eBay and reselling them). I think both of these have merits, but in the end you reach some sort of equilibrium since people will pay for rare items, but only to a certain extent. That's my view on it. I don't understand what people are talking about "sabotage" and other such matters. In fact, I'm not sure what EastonQuality means by "which user names wailofatail and astropi are with accounts on amazon and eBay. Certain we have heard of them before, no news that is new.." Yeah, you've heard of me before. I post quite a bit in this group :P I think his statement is supposed to be an insult or something, but whatever. Myself, I'm satisfied with the books I have!

I think many of these problems could be addressed with EBay allowing user comments to be posted on items up for sale.

I'd love to go into a Gilded_Legacy auction charging umpteen-hundred dollars for a Lord of the Rings set and just post a link to the Easton Press website with the real price.

>14 astropi: I read one message on my page and astropi asked for a trade of an Asimov edition. Plus rambling about posting a Chaucer on Amazon for a friend. The list goes on, there appears to be a long list on google with specific detail of offers and trades on librarything regarding one or both watchmen on eBay and this site.

Sirs', both of you are attacking anyone who buys more than you believe they are allowed. This I call 'sabatoge' by telling the world no one should buy from certain eBayers since they are 'in your own words' hostage takers of eBay. Tell that to anyone else who tends to find 'too many good deals' You are wasting my time and done with this nonsense, at least one or both of you two are the biggest talkers reading and posting comments.

>8 EastonQuality:--16

The one statement with which I readily agree is that some people "have way too much time"--and I'm not limiting the comment to just one individual.

(And before someone posts back to me with "physician, heal thyself," I readily confess I spend too much time on these boards--and e-bay--for my own good.)

17: sounds to me like the kettle is calling the pot black. Sounds to me like you're a talker (how long is your post #10). No problem, I can just ignore you. I think there's a way to permanently ignore someone on Librarything. Now if someone could be so kind as to explain how exactly do you do that?

edit: "attacking anyone who buys more than you believe they are allowed." I never stated that (clearly you don't bother to read what I post) and that's not exactly what wail was stating other.

16: I asked for a trade of an Asimov edition? Good Lord! how could I? Imagine that, actually trading a book... well sarcasm aside, I don't see your point. As for my friend selling the Chaucer, yes he did. The only person rambling here without actually contributing anything (just being annoying in my opinion) is you.

astropi, I could not find the message (perhaps deleted) I received asking for a trade on Prelude to Foundation set. Backtalk now? You have targeted others more than anyone on LibraryThing, now wailofatail is starting. I don't post often, only once in a while, today was the longest I have done since 2009.

astropi's message he posted in Sept 10' that claims to not have sent:

"I would consider a sealed Prelude. I am more interested in the other titles I don't already have from the Asimov Foundation set, but let me know what you're interested in. Also, is that the only book you have for trade?"

21: No, I didn't delete anything, not even the post you sent me on September 30. However, I wouldn't be surprised if you deleted any post I may have sent you (frankly, it sounds like you have some psychological issues). Anyway yes, that certainly sounds like something I would ask, and the problem is what? Target others for what? For trading books? Do you realize that a trade is when someone exchanges goods for other goods to a mutually beneficial outcome. You can't force people to trade. Yes, I do enjoy trading because I am downsizing my collection. wail is not targeting anyone as far as I know, other than stating that he does not like resellers. I don't know why you're being such an ass, other than 1)you're just naturally obnoxious, and 2)perhaps you are one of the resellers. I personally don't care, I'm just waiting for someone to tell me how to put you on permanent ignore!

1. Your analysis of the listings for the 2 Hardy Boys were flawed, there was no shipping charge on the books.

2. Hemingways were not bought by greenstarenergy on the mentioned $475, keggs was and proven with the id number.

3. You denied ever sending me a message in one statement, found two with the second one reading:

"I'm not really interested in paying for the Prelude. As I said, I already have a copy of it, but it would make a nice gift. Let me know which books you have for trade. My trade/sale list is here, although a number have already been traded/sold:"

The messages were in the deleted folder, perhaps I deleted one or both, you denied the messages all together.

Fourth you denied earlier trading books from what you were telling me. Trade and selling can be considered one of the same, one can gain from a trade by expecting an upgrade. A few of your traders mention your requests are out of their ballpark. It only takes a minute or two to discover this, the reason why I am so intrigued by this is because it is the most unusual I have seen in LibraryThing and became more frustrating to hear about your complaints. You are in a way targeting others by pointing out ones who beat you to the punch. Apparently one item bought yesterday by a known seller just listed it today, I presume he has multiple copies of signed presidents.

Speechless with your response, "I asked for a trade of an Asimov edition? Good Lord! how could I?"

wailofatail:
wanted to add, wail has been using gabrielac's photos posting onto LibraryThing

Why someone buys a book is irrelevant - their money are as good as yours and they can choose to sell the book, burn it, throw it away, use it as a doorstop or whatever. If they buy it to make a profit... well - welcome to the modern world. I might not like it but that is how some people earn the money they live on.

PS: I hate to see that happen - and I see it a lot more with the comics than with books. But still - that's how the world works - if I missed it, I can blame myself and not the seller that got it in order to flip it back on ebay. Singling sellers for having the sense to see how they can make some money is weird.

>was more curious if you or someone else had been re posting pictures of a couple listings. It is not against the rules to post elsewhere besides eBay without permission that I know of but if it is on the auction site against the rules to copy any descriptions or photos without permission and list an item.

As a thought, what prices should there be on eBay comparing to the original price from Easton Press? Nearly all books over 4 lbs are at least $120. Say one third, one half or original price more or less $20 if one decides to offer? To say one seller is overpriced even if the original price is higher will complicate what is allowed. & out of print rares can be consistent double or higher the original amount, most of all books devalue yet some become highly desirable in the collector's world within a few years.

If an eBay member has a high star rating there is a reason, Powerseller status is good for those with guidelines and minimal or no complaints.

Good signs they are great to deal with:

> Powerseller Highest Rating
> 98% or higher (preferred rating over 99.6%)
> If there are negatives or neutrals, they are explained by the seller why it did not go well (not all buyers can be completely satisfied no matter what is done)
> Official Store Logo (it helps with pointing out who continues to maintain the account monthly)
> Seller leaves feedback on all items
> Clean and clear photos
> Described well for conditions (more detail the better)

I agree, I think it stinks that there are sellers who have NO interest in owning a book, but will snatch it up, then turn around and sell it for a lot more money than it's really worth. Sure, they have the right to do it, but I don't like it. It means that I miss out on a lot of books I'd like to have, because I can't afford to pay those outrageous prices. The only thing I can do about it is not purchase books from those sellers, but the problem is, there are people out there who have more money than they have sense. It is those people who keep these sellers in business.

Funny thing is, most people I know would think I didn't have good sense if they knew I paid $45 or more for a book.

> 29

I am just now feeling the frustration of this process. In addition to the "Buy It Now," sellers also do the "Buy It Now, Or Best Offer" which is seemingly hopeful because the book could go for fair market value. However, it's not "Best Offer" at all! I have offered within $5 of the "Buy It Now" price to be rejected. Not even counter-offered! Why even put the "Best Offer" choice!? Makes me so angry...

>24 wailofatail: Your statement, "I just want them to stop competing with their own customers." sums it up best. I feel the same way and have blocked some of these resellers from my ebay searches.

BTW, gilded-legacy-books is the curent high bidder on five Wyeth Adventure books whose auctions end this evening.

>31 Tom41:

Regarding the five Wyeth Adventure books, apparently gilded-legacy-books intends to take them hostage too. I'm reasonably confident he does not want them for the pure joy of owning them. If I didn't already make such poor use of my time I might research if he already has copies for sale. Such a shame. Ebay used to be a great place for collectors to buy and sell amongst themselves. With the arrival of the professional re-seller, no more. Personally, I've never purchased anything from any of these sellers either. Besides their ridiculous re-sale prices, I don't like their practice of bidding against the very people to whom they might sell, which I perceive to be predatory. Not sure if a boycott of two will ever make enough difference to persuade them to change their ways, but who knows.

Of course, Ebay is complicit in creating opportunities for this type of thing and perhaps more should be said about that. It is to the advantage of Ebay's bottom line to turn a blind eye and in some respects, make it easier for these types of shenanigans to persist. Free market systems rely on transparency. Ebay, sadly, has moved in the opposite direction.

>31 Tom41: g-l-b has eight Wyeth Adventue books for sale on ebay ranging in price from $149 to $199, including Drums for $189.

In my opinion the ebay/PayPal alliance restrains free trade. I have experienced no other internet business that does not accept credit cards for payment directly. Amazon, Abebooks and Alibris all take credits cards for purchases from private individuals without that middleman called PayPal. And PayPal is the only company I know of that penalizes people who spend over a certain amount by requiring banking information so they can raid your bank account.

>33 Tom41: I think this has changed. I bought something on Ebay recently and it gave me the option of using Paypal or having the seller run the charge through a credit card. This might only be available to certain Ebay sellers. I sell items on Ebay and I'm definitely not equipped to run credit card charges through on my own.

>34 spacmann: I think you are referring the PayPal guest program which allows non-members 15 transactions. Since I had closed my PayPal account several months ago, I tried to use this recently. After I entered my info, it would not complete the transaction unless I rejoined PayPal and surrendered by banking info. I ended up paying by check.

>36 wailofatail: Ebay sellers can only list approved payment methods which must include one electronic method. Checks and money orders are not allowed; however here is a quote from their policy, "A seller can accept check and money order payment from a buyer if (and only if) the buyer requests it."

After June 30, 2011 ebay will no longer process third party checkouts.

Visa announced a few months ago they were rolling out a payment system similar to and in competiton with PayPal later this summer. Ebay will probably consider it a third party system and not accept it. My book buying has stayed constant, but it has made a major shift away from ebay to Alibris, Abebooks, and Amazon.

>36 wailofatail: I've had a few bad transactions as both a buyer and seller and I can say that there has never been an unfair judgement (and no, not all of these transactions ended in my favor). I learned a few lessons from some of the bad transactions.

>37 Tom41: I remember reading something about those new changes. I usually gloss over the changes as they usually don't affect me, but there are some coming up that might. Fee and category restructuring changes.

29: You just like to argue with anybody, right? ;) Actually, I wasn't referring to greenstar specifically. I've never even looked at his (her?) auctions. I meant those resellers whose prices are ridiculously high, as you put it, prices for the "rare fat cats and occasional idiots".

> 7

I don't know what the protocol is in these groups for copying other people's posts, but wailofatail, I could not have said this any better myself, kudos:

"Mind that I am not arguing the fairness or even the moral issues of such practices. I am merely stating my opinion that I think greenstarenergy stinks for conducting such practices and encouraging other collectors not to reward them. As a collector of Easton Press books I want E/P books listed for sale on Ebay to sell to other collectors and if an E/P collector happens to find a bargain, God bless him/her. Re-sellers who patrol Ebay's 'Buy It Now' listings, refreshing their browsers repeatedly day in and day out, snatching up every bargain Easton Press sale with the sole intent to re-list them at inflated prices for their own selfish gain, are parasitic blights upon all earnest collectors. Unite against them and bring on the demise of such opportunistic practices at the expense of hard-working, earnest E/P collectors."

> 29

The last two paragraphs say it all. Ditto.

It must be the pornography tariff (remember the illustrations?)

>41 wailofatail:

Well, they are returning to their country of origin. But it is a strange listing. Maybe you've stumbled across some cosa nostra activity. Be careful!

I've always preferred The Pentamerone myself. The Heptaméron is interesting.

>41 wailofatail:

The EP Decameron is one of the heftier volumes.....perhaps these are filled with some "special contents"? :P

Probably hollow them out. Stuff them with anything. Those chinese chips from The Departed. That took place in Boston too...oh man, I think we have stumbled on something!

I think most drugs are coming into the US via homemade submarines and tunnels.

>42 SilentInAWay:
Italians have no need to import pornography. Berlusconi provides it for them.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1940229,00.html

But post some pictures, I'm curious ;)

It seems hypocrical you point out some and ignore others, for ones who seem to wail and complain. I would bet a number here are buying the bargains they can find and when one is missed they go to this message board to talk about it. I can name a dozen who are watching daily and a couple seem to be on the right time frequently. So, it is okay to buy thousands of books and re list as long as the starting prices are under $25, any higher is outrageous?

I wouldn't always trust the titles and descriptions, not only are there private sales some never are completed.

> 41
While that is outrageous, and I have an even bigger beef with New Boston for an uncompleted sale (they claimed it was a typo and refused to sell me the books at the listed price...this may have been ABE though and not eBay), I found another auction rape from our old standby Gilded-Legacy-Books.

He SOLD not just listed the complete Easton Press Andrew Lang Fairy Books still sealed. Now naturally I would expect this to command a somewhat high price, given that they are no longer available direct from EP, it is a complete set (saving a potential buyer the trouble of hunting down the most rare titles...though we all know that can be half the fun), and they are still sealed. But seriously, $2,499.99 PLUS $11.50 shipping?!!?!! That is $209.29 per volume, which is quite a premium over the EP catalogue price of $59.95...a mere 350%!

And as I have pointed out before, it amazes me that buyers are so ignorant as to pay those prices. If no one did, he would either be forced to sit on inventory forever or adjust his prices.

I am stunned at times how a set can sell around 900 non sealed and see the same set with a bid of $2500. I know there are some unusual bids, yet some equal to the Fairy Books is hard to believe. It likely was a false bid with many others in the past including the Decameron, unless extra volumes were never mentioned as a private sale.

For my own ideas I go by the bid history, sealed or not, original prices, age & how scarce they are.

>47 UK_History_Fan:

I wonder the same thing. I never buy ANYTHING online without looking for in at least 3 common online retailers, checking Google Shopping, and even Craigslist sometimes. Maybe it was someone who just had to have the set, no matter what, though...

Personally, I'd rather wait till it gets republished or listed somewhere for less before I ever support the resellers who try to jack the price up astronomically.

Wailofatail, So you say are a tattle tale, considering your previous comments it sounds about right.

btw, have you traded the Hitch-hikers set you offered earlier with a number of others offered for trade on the site?

If you wish, contact members in eBay directly for any questions, it would result with easier contact and answers.

eBay has been known to be a complex web of accounts, wailofatail if you could tell us the limits for what is offered or bid upon? What differences are there between small bookstores in towns and stores on Abebooks, eBay, Amazon for buying and selling?

One ebayer that I know of jmds--, haven't heard of him on here yet and I can't imagine the 3k feedbacks this year were from his personal collection.

>51 EastonQuality:
EastonQuality, at the risk of sounding mean, and I am really not trying to be difficult or offend, I never understand your posts!! You write very "stream of consciousness" which I never have liked in other contexts because I don't do well with abstractions. If anyone else can interpret for me...

I have seen wail offer a number of sets on Librarything plus once where he complained about Easton diminishing the value of the Horror set in his personal collection by re printing the series.

I speak what comes to mind and yes I have a different way I type, don't we all? I think fast and post it at once. Ones who are involved usually know what a message means right away, nothing personal UK Fan. Multiple words of ideas work best with separate lines and spaces.

All this talk of unscrupulous sellers on ebay is sort of moot. If someone wasn't enabling these guys by buying their overpriced wares, they'd probably move on to some other product where they could get those higher margins. As much as I hate all the shenanigans on the 'bay, they really wouldn't happen without the consumers (sometimes unwitting) participation.

It happens all the time at Public Library sales and Estates, one who is last in line would find the desired books at local bookstores or online auctions. To find the best titles since I can remember you had to be first in line and dash to the hot spots or it would end up in bookstores at triple the normal auction price. That unfortunately happens when competition for quality is crowded

A parent who is saving up for a students college expense happens often in the US, is that unethical for one to buy and resell at will?

Either it was you or Astropi, no matter it seems the one who has the set makes their own rules and expects others to follow.

I would love to find a well paying job, eBay is very tempting, after watching professionals it makes things difficult for distractions on more important subjects. If you can suggest ideas for improvement be my guest.

I likely am one of the youngest in this group, will be shorter with what I text, with multiple thoughts separated and carefully planned. Didn't think it would be so difficult to post messages answering as many open ended questions as possible in one post.

To stand by and listen to multiple complaints about multiple sellers is not worth reading about what the complainers missed or think the world should know. You may be surprised how kind they may be. What does bother me the most would be requesting sellers to cancel, or lie about specific listings.

Sorry, EQ -- I came really close to asking you what you meant too...

To stand by and listen to multiple complaints of multiple sellers is not easy to know they exist and don't do anything about them when little seems to be wrong

For example...huh?

Wail: how did you make the italics? I don't seem to have any formatting features available within the save message/preview/cancel options.

EDIT: Nevermind, there is no way to demonstrate on the board itself. Try this:

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_formatting.asp

Basically, just wrap the text you want to highlight with the corresponding tags.

...

I believe the red flags pop up when a swear word is posted correct?

I think it may simply be a language issue, my understanding is that EastonQuality is Italian and English may not be his first language so while he may feel what he has written is clear it can come across as confusing to a native English speaker. I do hope there are no hard feelings though, its alright for people to disagree and still respect one another. We can't change everyone else's mind all the time.

> 66 :D

> 68
I hope I made clear I mean no cultural insensitivity or disrespect, but it does become difficult when someone is clearly trying to make a point or several if the others cannot follow the train of thought. It sort of defeats the purpose of participating in the discussion.

>68 Highgate: You are correct, did checking and believe he does have Russian history.

Very funny highgate, I would say I tend to post all thoughts in bulk on one message

> 72 EastonQuality, it really wasn't very nice of you to steal wailofatail's login info and post under his name LOL

>72 wailofatail:

You know what they say: "People in glass houses sink ships".

Back to the shameful resellers....

Has anyone noticed the pattern that as soon as Gilded-Legacy actually sells something at his ridiculously inflated prices, he immediately manages to have another copy to list at an even higher Buy-It-Now price than his previous copy sold for? Now I realize this makes perfectly sound business sense, but it certainly does contribute to the price inflation on certain featured books/sets. I noticed his shrink-wrapped 3 volume Edith Hamilton Mythology/Greek Way/Roman Way set sold recently for $299.99 plus shipping. It is now "re-listed" at $319.00. Gee, I obvsiously shold forgo ordering it directly from Easton Press for $207.00 (item no 1866) since who wants to own the cheap version of this classic work? Clearly what you pay for something reflects its true desirability so the $319 version featured by Gilded-Legacy is much more desirable than the "blue light special" EP is offering at $207.00. After all, who wants to shop at K-Mart when there is Niemen Marcus?

Yeah, he's probably buying it from himself to establish a price (hey--see what this book's worth!) and then relisting it slightly higher.

(It's fun to imagine one of these resellers rarely making a sale other than to themselves.)

>72 wailofatail: If I posted a message similar I would be criticized for confusing others with crackers in space.

>73 UK_History_Fan: Login info??? What is that about? If I understand you correctly he was asking me last year if I wanted to trade a couple books, I bet very much he would be expecting an upgrade on a more popular title. There was a denial about the entire thing and couldn't find the post until I looked in archives. A number of post on here were request for trades, I don't see any big differences from 'trading' and 'listing'.

>72 wailofatail:>78

What's the Italian word for parody?

(no answers, please--the question's rhetorical)

79 > I think you need a new "handle" since having Silent in yours is no longer fitting since you keep making me laugh. Glad to see at least someone got the joke!

Ok, so now that one of you taught me how to do Italics, how do I only italicize one word and then turn the formatting off? In other words, if "i" is what creates Italic font, what HTML command makes it go back to normal? I'm really not as computer ignorant as these boards make me sound it is just my speciality is more spreadsheets rather than HTML or Wikis or whatever.

Well some of our favorite hyperinflationary re-sellers as having quite the banner day over at eBay:

Zedsbooks: the more rare 6-volume Wizard of Oz set for $685.99

engineer-69: Churchill's Second World War (6 Vol) - $521.84
engineer-69: Churchill's War Speeches (3 Vol) - $521.84
enginner-69: Churchill & Roosevelt Complete Correspondence (3 Vol) - $446.84

Now as someone who owns EACH of these sets, I want to thank those dastardly re-sellers for jacking up the value of my own personal library. But since I do not intend to part with any of them, not sure that matters. Also, since I am obviously a huge Winston Churchill fan, I feel sorry for whoever is getting fleeced to feed their Churchill admiration. These particular auctions do not indicate who is buying (not that the eBay buyer codes are even traceable).

Oh, how lovely, like this? Of course it took some experimenting in preview since I did not know the brackets were called chevrons and I can never remember the difference between a forward or a back slash.

Excellent, thanks for the tip. While I do submit some posts from my iPhone or iPad, when in front of a computer where it is much easier to access and insert special characters, I so prefer to Italicize book titles. Perhaps I am old fashioned.

And now that you've mastered i (italics), you can move on to b (bold) and my personal favorite:

blockquote

which indents everything between the tags (great for lists).

SilentInAWayA747IsSilent

true dat

>81 UK_History_Fan: It seems the market meltdown is causing a rush to safety, which means investors are demanding treasuries, gold, and Easton Press books.

It happened in a lot of categories, many hobbies from all kinds were affected.

What's the average cost on the embossed OZ?

oops

What? No, I didn't buy that set from Zed's. Give me some credit, man.

I did, however, spend over $542 for mine a while back. I won't say how much I spent (or where). I will say, however, that I'm very happy with my puchase. The books are truly mint!

KA_CHING!

> 90
what is your source for the average? Do you have a price database too? Have I met my evil twin? Naturally I don't really think you are evil but those two words always seem to belong together, even in jest.

Funny, but it was a serious question as to source even if most of what followed was jest.

>81 UK_History_Fan:: So what's so special about Churchill's war speeches that they're "worth" $75.00 more than the Churchill-FDR correspondence? Only engineer-69 knows?!!

No worries Wail, I was laughing harder than you think at both posts...especially the comment about the shelter under the bridge. Perhaps we can be bridge buddies and even cross-read each others' library! It actually scares me some of the similarities. I started my database to:

1) help me track resale value (though I will only sell duplicates, nothing large-scale)

2) help me avoid overpaying on ABE and eBay

3) help me analyze asset transfer and insurance (from savings to household goods: library)

But it is extraordinarily time consuming and often quite tedious! I do think it has helped me save some money by avoiding overpaying in the past few months on choice titles. Though I'm afraid it never seems to fail, the minute I buy a "bargain" at a price well below average it sells within a few days for even less just to taunt/torture me.

Now, if you evil twins really want to undermine unscrupulous resellers, you can create a "what's this Easton Press book worth?" web site that quotes a price range using an algorithm that incorporates recent purchase prices, historical data, book condition, and (most importantly) the price at which Easton Press is currently selling the book (if it is still in stock)!!

Thus screwer becomes screwee!!

Then at night you can read Boccaccio, Dante and Milton to all the homeless, addicts and whores.

We'll just have to find a bridge and a river in a fully climate-controlled rare book room with no precipitation and acceptable levels of humidity. The slightest moisture simply ruins the gilt page ends on EP and Franklin books.

> 100
I would imagine War Speeches are simply more rare than the Churhcill & Roosevelt Correspondence. Certainly I have not seen any on offer beyond engineer-69's auction and he has relisted these for months, never lowering the price. Clearly his persistence paid off.

And I realize I fibbed in an earlier post when I said I own all the sets. I do not in fact own the War Speeches, though I do have each of the other sets I called out.

Still, the Correspondence volumes are completely overpriced which means the War Speeches are more costly from an inflated base.

Our dear old friend gilded legacy over at eBay has a shrink-wrapped copy of the DLE Gulliver's Travels for only $269.99 plus shipping. That is a surprisingly tame mere 35% markup over EP asking price. He is alas showing uncommonly remarkable restraint. At least until it sells out and then I fully expect asking prices of $349 to $399. Can't wait to see!

Only $269.99 for DLE Gulliver's Travels is a bargain compared to gabrielac's - Classic Books Online price of $299.00.

But wait, there's more....

Just today, Gilded Legacy listed the DLE Mediations of Marcus Aurelius at the bargain basement price of $865.98 (incl. S&H).

I never bought this when EP offered it, only minimal interest and not at the price EP was charging. But I don't recall their exact price for it, does anyone else remember? I am wondering how great the markup over 100% is on this particular offering. Yes, I realize it is officially out of print at EP and his copy is still shrink-wrapped, but seriously this is getting into the territory of the absurb!

2548 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (500 copies): $199.80 (4@49.95)

112: all the info on the DLEs can be found in the first post of the DLE thread which I keep updated:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/122092#2871585

also, my personal opinion is that the DLE Meditations is most definitely worth the $200 cost. I for one, am a fan of Flint, and it's a beautiful book. Relatively inexpensive compared to other DLEs, and the tipped-in art is wonderful :)

Gilded also has the Crusades LE listed for $1899.99, a 380% markup.

> 115
Well then I see now just what a bargain the DLE Crusades book is, since the Meditiations markup is 433%!

115: you know, as high a price as that is, at least the set is out of print. There's a seller on abebooks which is trying to sell the DLE Slaughterhouse-Five (currently available from EP) for $1000... a nearly 380% markup for something still in print!

114>

I'm sure that it would take more time than you could afford (certainly more than you could commit to), but it would be really cool if your master list were to include recent confirmed sale prices (the amount paid, not the amount asked) for OOP DLEs...

Just sayin...

> 118
I might worry about disclosing too much to the reseller that troll these pages. If they were thinking of listing something for $300 but saw that it recently sold for $500, I am quite confident they would ask a higher price thereby eliminating ANY chance of a reasonable second hand purchase of a title we may have missed or elected at the time of release not to purchase. As someone who is still looking to acquire a few of these, "I'm just sayin'...

Oops, cat is out of the bag now

SIGH

> 119

9.Midsummer Nights Dream - $429.00

Why the hell did I just order this from EP direct at $500 if it isn't even selling for full price still?

Wail, please send me a message, I am curious what the actual prices are. Having bought all of these, I'm wondering what they do sell for. I hardly pay attention to them on ebay.

>119 wailofatail: & 124: Ditto that, Wail. With a very limited listing/sale history for many of these, I'm equally curious (and I usually discount eBay listings as being quite unrealistic/unreliable due to the f*****' resellers - apologies for the implied profanity) :-/

I think I finally figured out why the eBay store is called Gilded-Legacy-Books. At these prices, he will be leaving quite the gilded legacy to his heirs (or her heirs, but I believe someone mentioned in an early post that Gilded Legacy for all of his ridiculous pricing, is actually a really nice guy).

Latest offenders:

DLE Dante Divine Comedy - $1,008.16

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books - 12 Vol Set - Sealed - $2,511.49

Note that works out to $209.29 per volume, just a small mark-up from the EP catalogue price of $60 per volume when it was still available. But I guess I can't blame him, since he already sold a set for that price in the past month.

I'm going to move my money into someplace safe like Andrew Lang's Fairy Books...

This wall of shame is great, really...if we could just get all the resellers to make an appearance it would crack me up.

> 127
I suspect many of them "make an appearance" but they are mere lurkers rather than contributors!

>119 wailofatail:, Wail, you could seriously set up a website and have subscription access to the price information. I would be fascinated to know teh prices. And my wife also fears the day that I pass and she is left with many things that she doesn't know what to do with. I keep telling her that several (but not all) the EP books are worth more than I paid for them. I would love to show her this is the case.

I swear that I could provide data records to prove that I do not belong to the resellers hall of shame, and thus am worthy of access to the hallowed halls of wails data archive...

I think putting together a reference book for dealers and collectors would be the way to go. Not so much for the prices, but for the other information that no one person has. You have a lot of the pieces, but other contributors would also be necessary. Different people be responsible for certain serieses. A team effort. Since EP does not have the information you and a few others have, it would be a nice project. Don't know how much you would make from a book, but it would certainly sell a few copies.

For what it's worth, I believe I may have found a way for anyone who would like to speak with Engineer-69 in person, although I am not 100% sure (more like 95%). I noticed that his books listed on eBay are pretty much exactly the same books listed under a seller called "Fine Binding Books" on AbeBooks, located in Houson, TX. The prices are slightly different but not much, probably to make up for the loss from eBay seller fees. It would be pretty coincidental for the same 2 sellers to have so many of the exact same, full sets.

I then Googled Fine Binding Books + Houston, TX and found a website: http://www.finebindingbooks.com/index.htm. At the bottom of the page is a contact number: Phone: 281.768.8055.

>132 Arknight:

Thanks, Arknight, nice sleuth-work. What I want to know is what (if any) other account is he using to buy under on eBay? I suspect he is the one that keeps doing private negotiations to end auctions early for a low Buy-It-Now price (though why sellers are agreeing to this is beyond me). I have had him "steal" books out from under me (as distinct from simply winning them fairly and squarely by outbidding me in an auction). Have even, though not recently, had sellers cancel my bids so that they could do the BIN transaction with him. So annoying. I wish sellers would boycott these shenanigans (a few do and state so on their listings!) but the only thing I can figure out is he has done extensive business with these sellers before. I can find no other motivation to "reward" him with low-priced BIN deals on things that will clearly go higher in an open and honest auction.

Ok, I will pack the soap box away, but this is a particularly sore topic with me.

Are sellers allowed to do that?? Cancel an auction in mid-bidding and then offer it as a Buy It Now?? That doesn't just sound shady; it sounds like a violation...especially if someone has privately negotiated with them and knows when the Buy It Now is going to appear.

If we see a trend here, we could probably report it to eBay. I suspect that one or another of their terms are being been violated here...

The sad thing here is that this may only be a violation for the sellers, and not for the real culprit...

I don't pretend any mastery or even any familiarity with the intricacies of eBay's constantly evolving rules. I may be conflating two different scenarios. If the seller cancels all bids "because the item is no longer available" they would have to relist it under a buy it now style auction as a new listing. I doubt it could be the same item number. But I believe if there are no bids the seller can modify any auction terms he/she wants including changing from a regular auction to a BIN. The seller can then inform the shady buyer exactly when it will be relisted to ensure they win the BIN auction. Again, I can't imagine the seller's motivation. And at that point I don't understand why they don't just do a completely private transaction outside of eBay. What is the point of advertising what you are doing? But I have definitely seen it happen, have been the victim of it and I believe this was one of EastonQuality's recent complaints, having previously been victimized by the same.

> 136 GRRRRRRRRR!

Interesting. Doesn't make much sense. Any idea why some BIN auctions show 1 bid and you can at least see the cryptic eBay code for the winning bidder and others just say "Sold"? There was no info available on this one, obviously or you would have told us!

Sure
Item number: 220841698278

I tried making a link...I fricking SUCK at HTML (it is so non-intuitive to me) and in general I am not techno-phobic. In fact, I am often an early adopter!

>138 wailofatail: These were re-listed by the same seller this morning. Didn't check whether the prices were different.

142> one where you can simply upload files and let the site do the rest

That's precisely how LT handles the covers of your books in your catalog (which is a core capability of the site). The Talk threads--even though they are used extensively--are really ancilliary to the core catalog and catalog-comparison features.

The catalog-comparison features are really cool (although they operate at the level of the work, rather than the edition):

-- On each member's Profile page there is a "Members with your books" list. This is a list of other members whose catalogs are most like that member's catalog. There are three modes: weighted (giving greater importance to relatively obscure books), raw (which simply lists those members who share the most books) or recent (new member whose libraries correspond most with mine). For each entry in these lists, there are two links: one for the other member's Profile page, and another (within parentheses) that displays (in catalog view) all of the books that the other member shares with that member.

-- There is a Legacy Libraries page that shows which of your books were owned by various famous people (one of the longstanding community projects here at LT is the logging of these 'legacy libraries')

-- Also on the Profile page is a list of the member's selected connections: friends, interesting libraries, or any user-defined category...

-- On the "Main" page for each book are lists of which of your connections also own that book. As well as lists of 1) the members who have most recently added that book to their catalog, 2) the legacy libraries that contain that book, and 3) those members in your LT-calculated 100-most-similar list that whose catalogs contain that book

-- On each Author page, there is a list of the members who own the most books by that author, along with similar lists for 1) members who have recently logged books by that author, 2) legacy libraries that contain books by that author, 3) members in your connections lists who own the most books by that author, and 4) members who have specified that the author is one of their favorites. For all but the last of these lists, the entry provides two links--one to the user's Profile page and another (within parentheses) that displays the member's books by that author in their catalog.

-- You can mark authors as being one of your "favorites." Not only will links to these authors' pages be included on your Profile page, but you can also call up a 'shared favorites' list to discover which members have the most favorite authors in common with you.

-- When you view another member's Profile page, there is a "Books you share" section that lists books in the member's catalog that are also in your catalog. By default, the list is sorted in obscurity order (so that the rarest books that you hold in common are listed first), although you can also view the list sorted by author or title (click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the box).

-- When you view another member's Profile page, there is a "Compare books" section just below the "Books you share" list. If you click on the "What should you borrow?" link in this section, it will analyze both of your libraries and give you a list of those books in the other person's library that (based on the book in your library) you would most like to borrow (or own). It does this by comparing the other member's catalog with those of the LT libraries that are most similar to yours and listing the books that appear most frequently in these similar libraries.

-- There is a Recommendations page that provides lists of recommended books (either generated automatically by LibraryThing or based on Member recommendations) for any given member. The LT Recommendations feature compares any member's library with the LT libraries that are most similar to theirs and then generates a list of recommended books. There are actually two alternate algorithms for generating LT recommendations: the default algorithm and a "read-alike" algorithm (I won't go into the differences here). The Member recommendations list books that have been recommended by other LT members (you know, the "if you like this book then you'll probably like this" type of recommendataions).

-- On the Main page for each book are lists of LibraryThing recommendations and Member recommendations based on that book. (These recommendations are based purely on the book and the various libraries that contain it, rather than the holdings in your library).

-- There is a Connections page that lists recent activity for your various connections (friends, interesting libraries, etc.). You can use this page, for example, to see what books have been recently added, reviewed or rated by those libraries in your connections list.

All this is in addition to the cataloging features (which provide for library-quality catalog data from the Library of Congress and hundreds of other sources around the world), community-derived data (series definitions, Common Knowledge data for each book, etc.), sponsered publisher data (including viewing your lists by publisher, and viewing all of a publishers current holdings), and special LT 'memes' that use Common Knowledge data to categorize the books in your library by the gender or nationality of the author (or whether they are dead or alive), etc.

Sorry to drone on and on about this in this thread...but wailo's comment that LT hasn't yet "come into the modern age" completely misrepresents the site as if it were designed to be a host for conversations. As a whole, the site is the most sophisticated book cataloging site there is--even if the talk threads demand a certain level of skill to do anything more than simple text.

Foregive me...but I am definitely invested here.

I understand. If you allow me to indulge myself in the role of apologist for a moment:

LibraryThing was originally introduced as a way for people to create library-quality catalogs. This bias informs much of this site (LibraryThingForLibraries, for instance, is a major source of LT's revenues). So, for books with an ISBN, cataloguing is pretty straightforward. In most cases, it really is search (using the ISBN) and click. For books with no ISBN, yet which are held in one of several hundred supported libraries around the world, you can also perform keyword searches. In fact, for each book in your catalog, LT even tracks the library from which your bibliographic data was 'lifted.'

Unfortunately, Easton Press books not only do not have a ISBN, but are typically not included in the collections of most major libraries. In other words, EP books represent a small subset that LT handles the worst!! (Even I have found it easiest to enter my EP books manually). Requests to allow members to add books from other members' catalogues have been discussed and dismissed -- due to concerns that it might result in the propagation of sub-par bibliographic data (such as uncorrected data from amazon.com which, prior to Overcat, was the default source for many people's books).

The short answer is: yeah, the entry of EP books is a pain-in-the-ass, although I'm pretty much immune to it by now (but then, I have catalogued over 7400 books, only about 10% of which are from Easton Press).

Your criticism of the talk threads is spot on as well. However, when Tim Spalding (LT's founder and lead developer) introduces new features, he usually discusses them with members before and after the changes actually go live. I don't really remember other members ever making a big stink about how difficult it is to add images to talk threads. Tim's priorities are often arcane, yet are rarely unreasonable once you understand his goals. He is unlikely to spend time enhancing an ancillary (albeit immensely popular) capability with features that do not appear to have widepread support. Believe me, wailo, there are arenas on LT in which your complaints would be heard, should you wish to nurture them in public...

Also, pardon the length of my previous response. When you wrote "Something is bound to usurp this website though if it doesn't come into the modern age soon," however, I couldn't keep Silent. This myopic judgment fails to appreciate the many cutting-edge, book-related interactions that are available nowhere else but here. You are certainly entitled to criticise those aspects of the site that frustrate you -- but please don't overstate your claims in a statement that could be interpreted as applying to the site as a whole...

Peace out.

>63 UK_History_Fan:, etc.

For those interested in fancy font format tricks in your posts, there's a good thread over on the Green Dragon group that you should ★star★ for future reference:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/35356

Most of the best are in the OP. For example, you'll learn how to include the actual chevrons/brackets (< >) so folks don't have to know they're called chevrons, or confuse them with brackets of other types, and how to indent a link or block of text.

Os.

147: oh dear, introducing everyone to the voting option could open up a can of organic worms... :D★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Oh, god, O.

I've refrained from introducing votes into this group so that it doesn't turn into one attempted referendum after another.

>149 SilentInAWay:

Who? Me? ;-)

Os.

> 149

"I've refrained from introducing votes into this group so that it doesn't turn into one attempted referendum after another."

May be we should have a vote on the issue.

I vote "no"....but reserve the right to vote "yes" if so moved....

Found New Bostons ebay store. The infamous ABE seller with uncountable EP stock.

http://stores.ebay.com/NewBostonFineAndRareBooks?_trksid=p4340.l2563

.

.

> 155
Once again, I have to agree with everything that wailofatail articulates in his post. It is extremely frustrating for those of us bibliophiles who have to maintain full time jobs to support our passion to almost never get the opportunity to bid or purchase a bargain because there are full-time re-sellers trolling eBay seemingly every second to restock their inventory. Again, nothing they are doing is illegal or against eBay policy, but it doesn't really seem fair that the same handful of profit-hungry resellers seem to win all the auctions or bid them up beyond what a collector knows is a fair price. Since eBay is the largest and most convenient clearing house for second hand collectible books, it really limits the options for the sincere collector who does not have unlimited funds to always overpay for a desirable title. It also seems that this has become more of a problem over time. When I first starting using eBay to fill out my library, particularly for OOP or OOS titles, there were bargains to be had and there was some joy in finding them. Sure there were likely resellers also competing, but they did not monopolize the purchase side like they do now. So some of the frustration is that the experience has changed considerably.

>156 jekyllhyde:
Again, as I tried to explain in 157, it isn't the practice itself that is so objectionable but the dominance of the resellers in the transactions. Your point that we collectors should simply outbid the reseller is exactly the problem...becuase the reseller is trying to ultimately re-sell the book for an inflated price, they are more willing to pay initially more than market which drives up the price beyond what a rational collector would pay. For example, if a more rare EP title goes up for a really low starting price of say $9.99, when the true market value is $59, but a reseller that regularly inflates prices plans to sell it for $159 (clearly inflated above market), then that same reseller will drive up the bid price beyond the $59. Sure they are able to pay $79 for the book and still make a profit minus commissions (which admitedly are steep on eBay), but by bidding it up above the market price (or aveage price), it excludes the collector from having a shot at it when the collector knows full well they would be overpaying at that level. I am probably not explaining this well enough but do you see now the source of the frustration? I am not saying a reseller should not be allowed to take advantage of finding a bargain as well as the rest of us, but when they are artificially inflating prices by gouging uneducated buyers on the next transaction then they are excluding legitimate knowledgeable collectors from the opportunity to compete fairly.

.

Although this has nothing to do with EP, I was trying to buy a collection of a dozen LEC Monthly Letters that went for over $150 (way over my budget) only to find them listed for $30 and $40 each. I believe it was only me bidding against someone else.

I understand both arguments and I do sympathize with buyers/bibliophiles like myself. It is so irritating to initially be overbid on something at a lower price only to be listed a day later at an inflated price sometimes even using the same original seller's picture.

>160 jekyllhyde:
If you are who I suspect you are (in terms of Ebay user ID), you are not the type of "reseller" I generally rail against and your prices are not unreasonable, just a little higher than I care to pay usually (obviously you need to recoup eBay fees so it will need to be above market). So that is why I did not pummel you in the forum. You also seemed to be asked a legitimate question rather than being confrontational or defensive.

I would disagree with the reseller about market value though. Sure there are outliers, but when I refer to market value I am referring to average sales prices, excluding clear price gouging (like the person who recently sold a regular copy of Beowulf from the 100 Greatest series for $200!!!).

I couldn't resist a poll...I probably could be more specific in the wording, but I leave as is! It will be interesting to see the results.

cheers,

-astropi

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Jesus, who actually voted no?

165: OK, maybe at times I like to play devil's advocate :)
But what makes you so sure I voted 'yes'? Who says I voted yet...

It was eBay that voted no :-)

I vote no, mainly because of the wording of the poll. I don't think resellers drive prices up over market price. I think they quit when the auction gets to fair market value, they are counting on buying under that value so they can make money on the mark up. I feel most resellers are not going to bid over that value, otherwise they may have that stock for a veryyyyy long time trying to make a profit. Flame on> :)

>154 jekyllhyde:,156,160,169: "--and the fatcats dined on wine, honey and ridiculously price-inflated EP books"...O.K., forgive the possibly stupid question, but how did "Mr. Hide" HIDE his posts/identity? All I see under Jekyll's posts are "."s?!!! How are you able to read them? Thanks.

Don't forget to vote!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/99352#2949742

Currently: 8-yes, 5-no 0-undecided

I seriously cannot believe it is this close. I would have expected nearly 80% to vote yes!

Right now it's 8:7 nearly a perfect split!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/99352#2949742

Who here is tired of all these ridiculous polls? :)

I actually like them. But I live in Chicago. "Vote early, vote often"

176: wail, I have to admit, you sound like a bitter old man :)
The current poll

http://www.librarything.com/topic/99352#2949742

is 9-7. It's over 10 people, so yes it's statistically significant. Based on that poll, roughly 45% of people on this forum do not believe that resellers greatly drive up prices and hamper collectors.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around 176.

We see the buying and turning around selling at a much higher price in the used rpg book market as well.

Nothing unique.

If someone wants to buy at these prices then someone will sell at these prices. It is called basic economy.

Does this suck for collectors? Of course it does - as in any other collector market (I am pretty sure that anyone in comics collecting will love a Batman 1 for $3 in fine condition but the realities are different).

Any seller can set any price they want. If they want to buy cheap and sell expensive, isn't this how it usually works anyway?

Not that I am a fan of the guys that sell a lot more expensive than I wish they do (or than I think they should) but....

As long as there are suckers these practices will thrive. And the shocking thing is that there appears to be no shortage of suckers willing to pay double the price for a book still in print that they can order direct from EP.

> 183
Good point David as the "sucker market" is perhaps the most puzzling part of this whole scheme.

>183 Quicksilver66:

Some people hate doing research. They see a nice book that cost $300 and they think it is a bargain -- because there are some that are even more expensive and are not even leather (I spent some time awhile back explaining to a friend why a leather book is not necessary always the best or most expensive edition).

180: thank you, I would like to think of myself as a smart-alec young punk :) Truth of the matter, I'm probably more crusty than I would like to admit. At any rate, more people have voted, but the numbers have not really changed.

183: how often does that happen? I think most people are fairly informed, and the books that sell for high (surprising) prices tend to be OOP books.

I fail to see the connection between the two items. Appear totally unrelated to me.

187- You didn't mention the Le Guin set also sold by the same seller and appears to have been bought by the same reseller and relisted.

>187 wailofatail:, 189
Wail, you know I am a fan of yours, but I also do not see a connection on this one between these two sales/listings. I think the more likely explanation, and quite a common occurrence on eBay, is that the 2nd seller, having seen a recent sale of something he/she had in inventory decided to list a copy at a higher price to see what the market would bear. Now I don't like this practice of trial balloon pricing because I think it tends to artificially inflate prices over the long term, but there is really nothing unscrupulous about it.

All of that is conditional, of course, on whether or not you have some other evidence that the purchase under one eBay id belong to the different eBay id of the "re"-seller.

>193 wailofatail: You haven't given any evidence or proof to substantiate your allegation.

I don't think there's conclusive proof, but there is a high likelihood that it was purchased by a reseller who is now selling it for a 100%+ profit. That's what they do, scour the market for cheap deals that they can quickly turn around. I'm not saying this is "evil", but it is in some ways unfortunate for the rest of us. But on the other hand, does this not also inflate the value of our books?

>195 astropi:

Only if someone else actually purchases one of these items for an outrageous price. All we can hope is that nobody does, forcing the sellers to lower their prices.

> 192, 193, 194, 195
Ok, color me convinced. I was so leaning against believing there was ample evidence for this connection but after further investigation and research, I am now completely certain that Wailoftail is correct. I would rather not go into the details here, but anyone with clarification questions can feel free to PM me.

Wail good catch! I clearly would not have figured this out on my own!

Well yay for all of us who own the DLE Divine Comedy. Our dear friend and price appreciationist Gilded-Legacy books sold a copy today shrink-wrapped for a mere $999 and then immediately turned around listed another copy for $1,699! Evidently, it was so successful, he feels the need for an immediate 70% mark-up. Perhaps he didn't have to sit on its inflated $999 price as long as he expected. In any case, I almost hope he does sell a copy for $1,700 as that will make mine that much more valuable, but not until EVERY member of Library Thing (non-resellers that is) gets a copy if they want it.

Wowza, these DLEs are really appreciating quick.

With these goddam resellers and their shenanigans, how long will we have to wait to get any true notion of average valuations for the DLEs or any other EP series for that matter? One would think the market for the DLEs in particular will always be a thin one, at least in terms of numbers and frequency of known sales. Wouldn't this tend to affect values, even aside from resellers' machinations?

Unbelievable! But I suppose nothing about resellers should surprise me. Gabrielac already has a copy of the DLE The Prince and The Pauper listed on eBay with the bargain Buy-It-Now price of $504.46, a mere 77% mark-up from the Easton Press direct price and this has not even sold out yet! What is most frustrating to me is I have been on the pre-order list for months and I still haven't received my copy. I wonder how these people always seem to get first in line. Perhaps the theory that some of them are Easton Press employees bears out, but I don't think it applies in this case since Gabrielac lists his location as Washington state.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Prince-And-Pauper-Easton-Press-Sealed-Ltd-Ed-ONLY-400-Co...

>203 UK_History_Fan:

The Pauper is $500 or best offer, what he accepts is up to him.

There is a good possibility he requested a shipping method for a bit extra for fast delivery.

198-200: WOW! just wow... I don't know how I feel about it. On the one hand, I think we're all entitled to a free market. On the other hand, it seems harsh. On the third hand, those of us that actually purchase our DLEs from EP, have a great investment (not that we plan on selling them) thanks to Gilded and his merry... er, umm, yeah.

> 204
Good poins, I did miss the Best Offer option. Also, you are probably correct about expedited shipping, which I never select. But at these prices, he can afford the extra shipping.

> 205
I totally agree with your mixed emotions about this, astropi. Obviously, I don't mind them increasing the value of my holdings, but I do worry about those Library Thing members and other genuine book COLLECTORS who come late to the party or miss out while paying off previous purchases. I fear they will end up massively overpaying in the second-hand market for no reason if these re-sellers continue to artificially inflate prices above normal supply and demand economics. Certainly I expect to pay a bit extra for a sealed DLE once it is out-of-print, but not 70% to 350% extra, and not "while supplies last" at Easton Press. I also pity the poor fool who pays these prices only to discover that their copy is likely to not be "heirloom quality" based on the recent experience so many members have had with DLE volumes.

207: so the thing is, once it is OOP, paying an extra 70% to 350% is not necessarily wrong. For example, the Kelmscott had a price of $600. It's been selling for $2000+. In 5-10 years from now, who knows it may sell for $5000+ in which case the extra 70-350% seems like peanuts. There was a copy of Moby Dick by the Arion Press that sold within the past year for about $30,000. That's about 30 times the original price. The point is, I don't necessarily find anything wrong with selling books for a hefty profit, if it's really worth that value. How do you determine the value of a book? I don't really know. I would hope that in the end things just fall naturally. For instance, if a book is just "not worth" the price people are asking, then no one will purchase it. On the other hand if someone has the money and really wants the book, then despite the price he/she will be happy with the purchase. Am I making sense? Look, I'm sure we've all paid a significant amount more for a book that is OOP than the original price. The one thing that would GREATLY bother me, is if these resellers would purchase ALL the stock in the EP DLEs and then turn around and try to sell them for ridiculous prices. I sure hope the folks at EP limit the amount of limited edition books an individual can purchase.

edit: as another example, a copy of the Arion Press Flatland (retail price $400) recently sold for $2300!

>208 astropi:

$2000 is hard to believe, weren't they selling this year multiple times between $800 and $1000? Gobuz bought one this summer for $700 and now is asking $2500 with no offers so far.

I have my copy of the Chaucer and certain it will increase over the years.

Out of print copies of DLEs are difficult to determine the value, it is up to anyone who wants it more by paying more and a bidders common sense.

Easton Press may likely be going through a phase between 2009 December-2011 fall similar to the late 90s with this years DLEs resembling the increases in signed editions of many well known signed rareities back then.

The resemblance link for example includes the Double Helix, Muhammad Ali, Astronaut set of 6, plus Nelson Mandela (2004), Stephen Ambrose editions and a bunch of others. The same increases for these may happen or are already half way there with ones offered this year.

For the Divine Comedy I doubt the one who bid was actually paying for it, it's not the first time I have seen listings twice the value of one earlier in the month or past six months. Unless I see a Paypal receipt I will not believe what I see.The Fairy set that sold for $2500, a different listing as auction ended with a final bid of 12 volumes $800 non sealed.

I trust auctions more than the buy it nows in high priced stores.

209: I know for a fact that the Chaucer has sold for more than $2000. I'm not saying they all have sold for that amount, but I do know that some have (I believe those that did were brand new and unopened). I don't understand your last statement:

"For the Divine Comedy I doubt the one who bid was actually paying for it, it's not the first time I have seen listings twice the value of one earlier in the month or past six months. The Fairy set that sold for $2500 a different listing as auction ended with a final bid of 12 volumes $800 non sealed. I trust auctions more than BINs."

why do you "doubt" that the bidder paid for it? Do you have any evidence to support that statement? What do you mean by "The Fairy set that sold for $2500 a different listing as auction ended with a final bid of 12 volumes $800 non sealed."? I don't understand what you're trying to say. Also, why are auctions more trustworthy than BINs?

I doubt because once in a while the bids appear false, for a bid to be triple of a previous listing weeks earlier or at the same time, it seems very strange.

Not one on eBay of Chaucer sold for $2k, you must be in a different book website and have credible evidence.

Most trustworthy sets or volumes are auctions, not likely to be a trumped or faked offer to jump the values into a false market.

For anyone who is wondering how resellers are listing so quickly, here are the details:

Shipping Information;

Regular Shipping:
Ships 2 to 4 weeks after date of order (or backorder date).
(Included in price of item unless otherwise noted)

Faster Delivery:
Arrives 3-4 business days after date of order (unavailable if product back-ordered).
Faster Shipping - $9.95 per item

Fastest Shipping:
Express Delivery - Arrives 1-2 business days after date of order.
Express Delivery. Cost is based upon weight of item being shipped.

>210 astropi:

I think what EastonQuality was saying is that auctions with a BIN price could be "bought" by dummy accounts to make it appear that an item has sold for a certain price before. When an item is actually auctioned, then it would be harder to control the outcome; if you were trying to.

Just my guess....correct me if I got it wrong EastonQuality.

>213 Arknight:

Yes, it is what I was leaning towards, otherwise a bidder is intentionally sabotaging the seller.

If it is not the case there is some explaining to do why one week to the next the values may triple and go back a month later.

>214 wailofatail:

Apparently wailofatail, you don't know the seller can request a cancelation of a listing reversing the final ending expenditures.

215: hmm, but wouldn't ebay get suspicious after once or twice? Although you may certainly be right...

>203 UK_History_Fan:: That sure looks like the two volumes of Ovid under the shipping box in Gabrielac's eBay listing, mmmmm.....

I actually know gabrielac exists out here in Washington. He's picked up a couple books from me. He only bought shrink wrapped copies.

Now it gilded ships from Washington we have a match.

>219 boddhidharma: To the batmobile

> 219
Interesting, I have never considered that Gilded Legacy and Gabrielac were the same seller, and I do have my doubts about that, but really don't know anything definitively. Gabrielac tends to price considerably lower than Gilded (though still higher than market prices) and also has been known to frequently purchase under that eBay id, whereas Gilded Legacy and the source of his books remains far more mysterious. Though if someone does have any evidence of a link, I would love to know. Certainly I have been made aware recently of other not-so-obvious connections through Wailofatail's sleuth work, so nothing would surprise me at this point.

> 220
While I have fond memories of watching the Batman TV show as a kid (in re-runs of course!), that animated gif is REALLY distracting!

> 221, 222

It's great to see that on the usually serious EP Forum. A reminder of why I loved Batman when I was a kid. It is mesmerising though.

The old Batman TV series was goofy but charming. In my opinion though, it doesn't hold a candle next to the amazing Batman the Animated TV series.

I was browsing through the completed listings today and noticed those listings, there was another seller that also sold one as such. Unbelievable. I always thought of emailing those sellers and asking how they could tell they were firsts but never got around to it.

Two words, 'fake bids'

Ever notice some sealed sets or singles sell with one seller for an astronomical amount while just a week later another exact set listed ends with no bids for half the amount?

> 226
Yes, and I think the man or woman behind the greatsharkhunt moniker on eBay should fess up what their Library Thing id is. At these profit levels, they must be able to afford a fabulous library and I would love to know what is in their collection! Though I am sure anything I admire would be happily sold to me for 800% over its FMV.

Oh wail, didn't you know? He buys them from the Hall of Shame bookstore, where members enjoy an exclusive 25% discount, but only if they can prove they have screwed genuine collectors out of a minimum of 5 books per year to keep membership current.

Perhaps he should be reported for making false statements in his listings. You can't do anything about his rip-off prices but deliberate falsification is actionable on ebay.

I also asked one of the others doing it, he also did not respond. But, did take 1st out of the title.

I have noticed greatshark has sold a number of 1sts lately, 3 of To Kill A Mockingbird at $200 each.

Here's someone selling 52 EP editions for a thousand bucks: http://houston.craigslist.org/bks/2712999708.html .

>236 TrippB:: To each his own, I guess...

236: sooooo, why is this in the resellers hall of shame thread? $20 per book, even for the 100 Greatest seems quite fair to me :)

>238 astropi:: Sorry--blame my laziness. I don't buy Easton Press, but thought I'd share it with a group that does. This was the first Easton Press thread I saw.

Gabrielac just sold a DLE of Prince & the Pauper for $498. Still available for $255 at Easton.

Yeah, but maybe he ships faster...

>241 boddhidharma:
Price by Easton for the Pauper is $285

> I need to learn the difference between $270 Plus $15 vs $270 minus $15 apparently. ;)
> Funny!

I figured P&P might sell for $500 or more, but I was not expecting it to hit such prices until after it was sold out!

Welcome Kikixm (3) to the eBay Resellers Hall of Shame. Of course, at this point, I don't know for sure you are a reseller. But you certainly deserve your induction into the Hall of Fame for the following listing of Gustave Dore's Illustratated The Raven published by Chartwell and rebound disappointingly by Easton Press. Yes, this did just recently sell out, but seriously, a Buy-It-Now price of $725???????????? Well, hey, at least you are offering free shipping right?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Raven-Edgar-Allen-Poe-Easton-Press-ill-Gustave-Dore-/250...

>247 UK_History_Fan:, 248: Item location = Malta. Doesn't gilded live on an island too? I know one of the resellers' items are listed with Mercer Island, Washington as the location, don't remember if it's gilded or someone else. Pretty clever of them anyway: living on islands makes 'em harder to find, physically, for infuriated buyers who've been duped and want to dish out some well-deserved whuppass!!

If you look at Kixxims FB, you'll see that they actually purchased this book from Gilded For $149 and are reselling it, recycling the photo at the same time.

Gilded did recently sell another copy for $249.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Easton-Press-RAVEN-Illustrated-Gustave-Dore-SEALED-/3505...

> 248
Yes, that is definitely gilded's table, which is what first caught my eye as even he does not sell at quite such an inflated price (well, at least not yet)

> 249
I did notice the location. Good thing there is free shipping. Too bad I already bought this directly from EP because otherwise I would be so tempted to Buy-It-Now at this price!

> 250
I had not noticed this Wootle, thank you for tracking down the book provenance. I guess my "welcome to the eBay resellers" then is entirely appropriate.

Ok, 251 posts. Time to continue this thread on the next topic page.

I see sellers copying others all the time, I don't take it that seriously, it is more irritating one can't take their own pics.

The seller with the photo used in the listing mentioned is likely a copycat, he lives in Malta.

Frankly, hearing about one complaining about another is not only annoying but disrupts the message boards about more important customer service or collectors questions.

252>

I thought that complaints like this were the entire purpose for this particular thread.

If you like, you can prevent this thread from appearing in your list of topics by clicking on the "Ignore topic" link at the top of the page.

Of course, if you are ever in the mood for whining along with us, you can view this thread again by clicking on "More options" in the list of options in the upper-left corner of this page, and then selecting "Ignored topics" (from within a ignored thread, you can always choose to "Stop ignoring").

This, of course, is only practical if members agree to quarantine all bitching about resellers to specially-designated topics. Otherwise, you may end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater...

Then again, members could always conspire to piss you (and others) off by distributing complaints of this sort randomly among various topics in this group. Some might consider such behavior to be a serious breach of etiquette, whereas other members might view it as an obligatory adjunct to their right to free speech.

I know of one seller who re list everything he buys, has 500 books listed every three weeks. I haven't heard wailofatail complain about him, bet it's not about the listing price that is a bother, more about who beats to what first.

In my opinion you are sick in the head by looking at everything that ended and complain what you missed. You are obsessed with looking on eBay buyers and sellers, get a real hobby you can work with, you already have over 1600 Easton Press books and still go after more.

The only reason why I can logically see for one looking is for one who buys a lot himself for any deals, hypocrite not quite there, if not already so. Are you planning to keep all the books for your kids or plan to keep all for the next 25 years, Michael? Home computers are not the only way to find listings.

Btw, how much does the Chronicles of Narnia set go for these days? Do you have any idea? The same with Agatha Christie, isn't the same series offered in multiple places for $200 per volume?

Considering the Christie set, you are implying you have been watching every move on the bid history of buyers. There is a thin line between a stalker and a curious watcher. The part that breaches that barrier is harassment.

255: Could someone explain to me how the Narnia set sold for $63.99? I've had Narnia on my saved searches for a while and this one never came up. I've never seen the set sell for so cheap. How does the reseller get this so cheaply without others bidding on it?

> 259
It was listed as a Buy-It-Now. Resellers are notorious for snatching up BIN bargains within minutes of their being listed. I don't know who has time to be constantly in front of an electronic device to monitor new eBay listings 24/7 though. Perhaps they hire interns to "watch" new listings. This has always puzzled me.

It is also obvious in this case that the seller of this set was incredibly naive in their pricing and did not even do the most cursory research prior to listing. If he/she had, they would have discovered that $63.99 is not an outrageous price for a single book in the set, let alone all 7.

260: Ah, I see. I posted the question because I just couldn't believe a seller was clueless enough to set a buy it now price that low. As Charlie Brown would say: good grief.

With your long, long winded sentences it would not surprise me you have been bitter for years. A few on library thing do not appreciate your attitude, I am not the only one, messages left confirm this. Freedom of speech goes both ways, remember that.

Books are not always the best investment. If each book including the rares average $60 in your library of 1600+, astronomical. & you are still buying, not a surprise, and will never sell them which is hard to believe. (your own estimate count of books earlier last year) Anyone who wants to keep that many and never want to sell one is focused beyond belief. You must have all the time in the world reading and admiring them. From what you told us your home is buckling beneath floors.

There was a person who left a message on your page regarding you as Michael.

The only way to know about the Christie set is looking at personal bid history of a buyer constantly, you have been a repeat offender with this statement.

> 264
Just for the record wail, I do appreciate your attitude and have long enjoyed your posts both here and on other topics.

Please check this scammer on ebay. His User ID is: rare-book-cellar. He consistently receives the highest prices on ebay for Easton Press books by calling them 1st Edition First Printing. I have reported him to ebay by filing reports on individual auctions; as well as having a long and in depth phone call, where the ebay trust and safety agent understood about the 1st ed 1st print problem and is going to take action; though if more folks like you also complain, we might be able to eradicate people like rare-book-cellar from ebay. Also Rare Book Cellar is the name of his business in Nyack or Pomona New York. Google it and call him and email him like I did.

144treereader
Yesterday, 7:05pm Top

I'm fairly certain rare-book-cellar is (was) also greatsharkhunt051977.

Yes, greatsharkhunt051977 is now rare-book-cellar. Check out his Ayn Rand paperback from 2004 that he has priced out $75.00 on abe and $60 on ebay, which can be purchased on abe for $10.00. Below is a response from him when I called him out on his "1st edition/first printing Easton Press books:

"Many titles are true first editions and are signed by the author. The rest are first edition of sorts or Thus. This is widely know and practiced. Buyers should do due dilagnce.

If a buyer thinks a book from the 1800's is a true first from Easton press or Franklin library they should not be buying books! Du-diligence."

Best Regards,

Ben Moss

So it appears he thinks commiting fraud is okay if the buyer is ignorant enough to go along with his deception.

Edit | More

I was drawn to this forum after having today looked at rare-book-cellar's store and seen innumerable EP books for $275 and up, with meaningless "or best offer" options. I could not help sending him a few nasty messages. What amazes me is that there are people who apparently pay absurd amounts for these EP books that can be had for 20-25 dollars in the next auction. There is absolutely no defense for what this re-seller is doing; no appeal to the principles of a free market or buyer due diligence will avail. It is immoral, unethical, and sleazy. I ran a bookstore in Los Angeles for a number of years before moving into academia. That was before ebay became really big. All the book sellers I knew would have found such practices simply unconscionable. Wailofatail is absolutely correct. It's just unfortunate that there are really ignorant buyers out there who give rare-book-cellar (greatsharkhunt) a reason to exist.

Perhaps this EastonQuality person, with his ungrammatical and semi-literate posts here, is, indeed, rare-book-cellar. Surely, something can be done to harm the former's racket on ebay? The more I look at this thread and his ebay store, with not only EP but a vast collection of junk books listed for offensively absurd prices, the more incensed I become. Unfortunately, ebay will take no action against such book gangsters, but the internet is a good place to spread the word. I was even considering making relatively small purchases from this seller just to leave bad feedback.

Does anyone find it intriguing that the new account started today is 'Don_Quixote'? As for Quixote implying that I am rare-book-cellar, this is highly offensive. Leave me out of your quarrel with him on your personal vendetta.
You sir, Don_Quixote are no medieval knight. As a note, Quixano in the novel was a Spaniard not entirely in his right mind who was seeking his own chivalry, personal revenge. How did you come up with your LT name, should I be assuming you have another account? I am curious why you and a few others never mentioned one eBay member who re sells more than 500 books per month. One of a few who must not-be-named.
This Thread was dormant since 2012 until you and bookfisher decided to post messages. There is an active thread you over looked that was continued due to the number of postings.
Sabotage of feedback is a sure way of being kicked off eBay. I consider it deeply disturbing for a bidder to intentionally target another for their own satisfaction on the basis of competition.
As for rare-book-cellar, any personal complaints in depth about his excessive prices 'with best offer option' is between you and him.

Yes, I think EastonQuality may really be a shill for rare-book-cellar.