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Re: A Spring Harvest

Subject: Re: A Spring Harvest
by Findegil on 2012/4/22 11:14:19

We've had a few instances of ABE orders being canceled because the book was previously sold, but in all those cases, the seller also had a web presence or an open shop, or also sold by printed catalogue. None of which made us any less disappointed or annoyed, but we understood. We too looked up Strawberry Hill Books and couldn't find that they sell anywhere but on ABE. There certainly doesn't seem to be any way to make a "reservation" through ABE's automated system. Like Stu, we suspect that someone wrote to the seller, having found the book already sold, and made a private offer; or it could be that the seller, having seen the "unprecedented response", realized that he had seriously underpriced the book and canceled the sale in order to re-list or sell otherwise at a higher price. Although ABE's sellers policy doesn't expressly forbid this sort of behavior, it does require prompt responses to sales, frequent updates of the database to remove sold books, and maintaining a high standard of sales completions in order to be a seller in good standing.

Wayne & Christina