There may not be a more practical addition to the library of any book lover, parent, or college student this year than Stephen Windwalker's Buying Books Online: Finding Bargains and Saving Money with Booksense Stores, Amazon Marketplace, and Other Online Sites. Windwalker is the longtime bookseller who wrote the book on Amazon Marketplace and online bookselling with his recent bestselling entrepreneurship title Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon's Marketplace and Other Online Sites, one of the top 20 small business titles of 2002 at Amazon. In his new book Windwalker demonstrates the same capacity for providing the inside scoop as he shows book buyers how they can safely navigate the global internet book marketplace to find the new, used, or rare books they want and need, in great condition, at huge savings.
For starters, Windwalker's book helps buyers to understand the basic terminology of bookselling so that they will be able to distinguish between different copies of a title with respect to condition, edition, binding, size, and age. They will learn how to evaluate the apparent professionalism of a seller based on customer feedback, book descriptions, customer service policies, and other available information, and are provided with a helpful listing of the best places to buy books on the Internet. Beyond these basics, the book buyers will pick up some useful "tricks of the trade:"
How to use "pre-orders" and "wants lists" to get the more scarce books you seek, at the best possible prices;
When and how to use email to communicate with a seller to pin down important information;
How to build a special relationship with a seller by establishing yourself as a responsive, repeat buyer;
How to request and get special assistance in building a collection, acquiring a set of an author?s first editions, or buying the books on your college course syllabi;
How to read, use, and leave customer feedback to help yourself and other potential buyers;
How to make the best use of available payment methods to protect yourself against fraud and to get your orders shipped as quickly as possible;
When to consider re-selling or donating one or more of the books that you have purchased, and how to make the most of that experience;
How to use a title-searching site such as Bookfinder.com to help you identify the "best buy available" for any book you are seeking;
How to develop a quick reference checklist to evaluate a seller before clicking through to submit a purchase; and much, much more.
