So, what happened with the ability to create links to books available on Amazon.com? I mean, I'm having a love/hate relationship with Amazon right now, but it would be nice to make a buck or two from Amazon for linking to a book that someone already cares to buy. Now all I can find is a wonkey widget that is more a pain in the butt to create than I think it's worth (but it exists if you care to look through some of my favorite books).
I love Amazon because they have the simplist system for selling books (the only thing that I am selling at the moment) and I don't have pay a hosting fee (my problem with ebay and etsy).
I dislike Amazon because they're fighting on-line sales tax to the detrement to the community (they're fighting VA's lawmakers by threatening to not move here unless they get like 5 years exemption from sales tax--a tax exemption that other on-line retailers will not get--at least the law they're fighting there will benefit all on-line retailers...while making it cheaper to do business online rather than with a brick and motar).
And on Amazon, I don't understad sellers who sell for $0.01--I mean, are they trying to make it impossible for people like me to make a buck or two? For instance, I have books that I paid $7.99 for. I read them and now want to turn them over. They're in great shape and I think $5 is a fair price, but they'll never sell because I have 100 books to compete with, selling for $0.01. This means that their turn over is so high that they can still make a profit selling books for less than $1.00 (you pay $4.00 and Amazon takes $1.50, the post office takes another $1.50)--it makes you wonder where their supply comes from that the books cost, what, $0.20 wholesale.
I don't buy $0.01 books. I'd rather pay $3 for the book, plus the $3.99 for shipping, plus tax, and know that I'm not funding something that I don't even know what it is. I guess the assumption is that they are brick and mortar stores that also sell their inventory on Amazon, but if so, what store doesn't have it's own website? GoogleSites makes setting up one easy, so there's really no excuse in today's economy. Heck, if I owned a small bookstore, I'd sell on Amazon, too, and probably at a reduced price so that with shipping costs the prices are comparable, and just pull books off the shelf when they sell online. I think that that's what it's supposed to be (besides people like me who have books that they just want to get rid of), but random people with access to very cheap books, who take advantage of Amazon's storage facilities, now open "bookstores" which may or may not be contributing to the demise of the brick and mortar bookstores that we know and love.
And before I hear from the complaint department, I use the library primarily. I've only bought books on Amazon during college for class (and saved a ton rather than the campus bookstore). And when I do buy books I like to buy used.
So, I ask you to take an extra minute or two and see who you're buying from. If it seems fishy that they'd sell for $0.01, even though they have thousands of positive reviews, maybe you should buy from someone else.
I love Amazon because they have the simplist system for selling books (the only thing that I am selling at the moment) and I don't have pay a hosting fee (my problem with ebay and etsy).
I dislike Amazon because they're fighting on-line sales tax to the detrement to the community (they're fighting VA's lawmakers by threatening to not move here unless they get like 5 years exemption from sales tax--a tax exemption that other on-line retailers will not get--at least the law they're fighting there will benefit all on-line retailers...while making it cheaper to do business online rather than with a brick and motar).
And on Amazon, I don't understad sellers who sell for $0.01--I mean, are they trying to make it impossible for people like me to make a buck or two? For instance, I have books that I paid $7.99 for. I read them and now want to turn them over. They're in great shape and I think $5 is a fair price, but they'll never sell because I have 100 books to compete with, selling for $0.01. This means that their turn over is so high that they can still make a profit selling books for less than $1.00 (you pay $4.00 and Amazon takes $1.50, the post office takes another $1.50)--it makes you wonder where their supply comes from that the books cost, what, $0.20 wholesale.
I don't buy $0.01 books. I'd rather pay $3 for the book, plus the $3.99 for shipping, plus tax, and know that I'm not funding something that I don't even know what it is. I guess the assumption is that they are brick and mortar stores that also sell their inventory on Amazon, but if so, what store doesn't have it's own website? GoogleSites makes setting up one easy, so there's really no excuse in today's economy. Heck, if I owned a small bookstore, I'd sell on Amazon, too, and probably at a reduced price so that with shipping costs the prices are comparable, and just pull books off the shelf when they sell online. I think that that's what it's supposed to be (besides people like me who have books that they just want to get rid of), but random people with access to very cheap books, who take advantage of Amazon's storage facilities, now open "bookstores" which may or may not be contributing to the demise of the brick and mortar bookstores that we know and love.
And before I hear from the complaint department, I use the library primarily. I've only bought books on Amazon during college for class (and saved a ton rather than the campus bookstore). And when I do buy books I like to buy used.
So, I ask you to take an extra minute or two and see who you're buying from. If it seems fishy that they'd sell for $0.01, even though they have thousands of positive reviews, maybe you should buy from someone else.
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