Has something odd occurred while I’ve been napping? Since when do book wholesalers/distributors or even publishers sell used books?
When we requested approval to sell our FIRST EDITION title(1981) from Bear Creek Press, Ouray, CO, was informed we couldn’t sell without an invoice for 10 books. Wasn’t unexpected-since we’ve only been approved for 2 publishers out of the last dozen since AMAZON apparently has become more stringent, reducing pre-approvals without purchase . We waited to be approved until our metrics problems, stated on another thread, disappeared!! We’re in great shape now.
Googled the publisher name, assuming another entity had purchased them. Stated their publications were dated 1910-2008! True, could have published additional printings/impressions but I doubt it, glancing at different library/sales websites
If distributors/wholesalers are now selling used books, shouldn’t they be entitled Antiquarian Booksellers? Or is it just AMAZON pulling their usual sleight-of-hand to reduce sales for actual used books sellers right before THANKSGIVING/BLACK FRIDAY?
We sell a lotta long-tails and still have at least half-a dozen listed back in 2012 when we first began our trip down the river. The title I mentioned had been listed 4 years, another one we attempted to get approval for today, approx. a year.
I agree w/ you that there’s ignorance at the top…and bottom.
Who, then, are requiring these specious letters of approval? TPTB-who always do this right before the holiday selling season? The names who require approval, are rarely those of the publisher and barely sound like businesses. …
To answer the question, I’ve bought “Used” from distributors many times. In technical terms it’s merely a Condition of the item, not an age.
Over the years I’ve posted about this a lot in the OSFE. Years ago I was concerned as Amazon started to merge the Marketplace (Book sellers) Platform into the Merchants@ Platform that the same standards for the other categories would befall our category. Much of it has.
The sad part is Amazon considers any item left in Inventory, either active or inactive, when applying it’s logic. Just having it still there is an issue.
In the past Amazon has followed a different set of criteria for items in the Books category, and if that’s changed it should be published openly as a News Article so that everyone selling any book older than 1-2 years can delete those from inventory.
Same with Comics … ALL Collectibles … or anything vintage.
This is the equivalent of the situation for Apple and Samsung among many other brands of product. Used product may only be sold by sellers who are approved to sell new product,
My departure from selling on Amazon was partially my reaction to being asked for invoices for ephemera associated with specific brands I was selling in the Advertising Collectibles category. I was asked for invoices for a 1930’s Electrolux brochure which was the final straw.
I assume that if Amazon made exceptions for certain categories, some sellers would list in those categories whether they were appropriate or not.
I decided that my offerings were destined to see a steady erosion in what I could offer.
I lean toward the fact that they just quote the per-written internal help template relative to the topic, which of course would not be relative to Used Books.
Sadly, as @lake mentions in his own experiences, all to often those in the silo revert to those same policies without any understanding of why and how certain general policies just do not translate to the “Books” category as a whole. Yes for “New” I can see the requirement, but for “Used” you either have to remove anything over 1-2 yrs old or figure out an exception.
I’m referring to vintage titles, age, rather than book condition, when a distributor offers remaindered or similarly flawed titles at a discount.
Glancing at our orders to be shipped tomorrow, the oldest is a 62 year-year old MASS MARKET(pub. 1962), newest, a 2019 hardcover. The average is 26 years. We deal in vintage titles, rarely selling anything “new”, never listing under “NEW” condition.
Just wondering why a publisher who hasn’t issued anything new for 16 years would be requesting invoices dated mid-2024? Is this an invention of TPTB, to reduce competition during the yuletide selling season? It’s happened before…usually 2 days before Thanksgiving.
My guess is that the imprint is on a list of imprints for a large publisher that they may rarely use. And the publisher provided the list of their imprints to Amazon.
Sometimes I get called upon to do a removal of all of the books in a professor’s or bibliophile’s apartment. Does Amazon want me to refuse the opportunity to provide their buyers with an excellent selection of out-of-print books because I cannot provide invoices?
What madness!
It seems as if something is going on with the approval process; for the last month or so, there have been quite a few books that I had to apply to sell, and when I clicked the button, got the blurb about invoices, etc.; in the past, I was usually auto-approved for all but a handful of publishers.
But yesterday, I had several cases of seeing the dreaded “Apply to Sell” button, but when I clicked on “Used”, it changed to “Sell this Product”.
I just now checked with a couple of books I was not allowed to list over the weekend; I’m now seeing the same behavior after clicking “Used”. So maybe something is changing, and for the better for once. Or else I need to list like crazy before the glitch is “fixed” and goes back to restrictions.