Smart Book Buying Tips

As a purchaser of books on the internet, you should be aware that some

book sellers are not what they appear to be. These sellers are

sometimes referred to as phantom listers, spider listers or

dropshippers (although there are many reputable dropshippers as I will

explain). Phantom listers are usually companies that use specialized

software to scan a book selling service, such as Half.com. This

software notes the books for sale and the asking price. The

phantom lister then uses their software to check prices for the same

books on some other services, like JuuuungleBooooks or others.

When they determine they can make a profit, they will relist the book

they found on Half.com over on the other service, such as

JuuuungleBooooks. They mark up the asking price (sometimes they

mark it up a lot if it looks like there may be buyers). They do

not purchase the book yet. If you buy this book from them through

JuuuungleBooooks, they turn around and immediately order it from the

seller on Half.com and have the Half.com seller send it directly to you.



This may not seem like a big deal, but some of the problems that phantom listers cause are:



1) You may not actually get your book since the phantom lister didn鈥檛

really have the book they sold you. They gamble they can buy the

book from someone else after you order it and buy it for a price less

than what you are paying. If the book they relisted is no longer

available or if they can鈥檛 find another copy in the right price range,

most will refund your money. But that refund may not be easy to

get and you may have wasted a lot of time and effort getting a refund.



2) The phantom lister cannot attest to the quality of the book they are

selling since they never had possession of it. Some will copy the

description and condition from the listing of the seller who actually

owns the book (not a particularly ethical practice) or they will just

substitute some generic comment (like, "Fast shipping!"). This

means you may receive a book that does not match the description of the

book you purchased.



3) The phantom lister cannot make any claims about packaging or

shipping since they won鈥檛 be doing that. They never had

possession of the book. They may claim to ship from a single

location, but in fact the book is shipped from wherever the true owner

is located. This may affect how long you have to wait for

delivery.



4) Usually by looking at a seller鈥檚 feedback, you can tell if this is

the kind of business you want to buy from, but in the case of the

phantom lister the feedback score only tells half the story. You

don鈥檛 get to see the feedback of the seller who actually has possession

of the book you are buying. You may actually be buying from a

seller you would not normally purchase from because of their bad

feedback score.



5) The phantom lister has no business arrangements with the current

owner of the book you are buying. If they did, that might offer

you, the buyer, some guarantee as to the quality of this transaction,

but they don鈥檛. Their listings are generated by computer programs

that are continually scanning the internet and looking for price

differences where the phantom lister can make a profit.



6) At least some phantom listers seem to not be concerned about the

level of service they provide their customers. If you look carefully at

the feedback comments of a phantom lister you will see a large number

of complaints about the kind of problems listed above. In

addition, you will likely see many complaints about how unresponsive

the phantom lister was when there were problems. The phantom

lister鈥檚 business is typically based on automated buying and selling of

large numbers of books, not customer service.



7) Phantom listers actively seek to hide parts of the transaction

from the buyer by often asking the current owner of the book to not

include price or to not include a packing slip when they ship you the

book. The phantom lister doesn鈥檛 want you to know how much you

could have bought the item for. They don鈥檛 want you to know who

actually owned the book you bought and they don鈥檛 want you to know

which selling service had a better price. Half.com requires

sellers to include a packing slip with every shipment.



8) You could have gotten the same book cheaper somewhere else.

Phantom listers make their money by buying the book after you order it

and then selling it to you for more. Usually you could have

bought the book somewhere else for the same price the phantom lister

paid. That is almost always less than what you paid.





Phantom listers make their money by selling to people who do not know

the intricacies of the way they do business and the anonymity that

selling on the internet offers.



I hope this discussion has made you more informed about potential

problems with phantom listers. If you鈥檝e had satisfactory

transactions with a phantom lister, good. But remember, the good

service, good packaging and fast shipping are the hard work of a seller

you are not supposed to know exists.



The term 鈥渄ropshipper鈥?is sometimes used to refer to a phantom

lister. True dropshippers are hard working, ethical merchants who

work very hard to ensure that they provide excellent products and

quality customer service. See the very informative set of four

guides by Ebay seller Idonewald99 called 鈥淓BAY SELLING: DROPSHIPPING FOR SUCCESS鈥?by using the guide search term 鈥渄ropshipping鈥?



Even a very conscientious book seller will occasionally and

unintentionally list a book they no longer have. While they may

just apologize and promptly refund the buyer鈥檚 money, sometimes a

seller will purchase the book from another seller and have it sent to

the original buyer. This discussion is not about these

sellers. They do not make a business out of selling books they do

not own.



If you are interested in knowing which book sellers may be phantom

listers before you purchase a book, here are some suggestions.



1) Look at the feedback total. If the number is very high (many

thousands or hundreds of thousands), continue checking. This may

be a reputable, high volume seller, but it may be a phantom lister.



2) If the positive feedback score is not 99 or 100%, look at the actual

feedback comments. Even an excellent seller can have a less than

perfect feedback score, especially if they don鈥檛 sell a lot of

books. But if you see a number of comments like 鈥淣ever received

my purchase鈥? 鈥淐ondition was not as described鈥? 鈥淲ould not respond to

repeated attempts to resolve problem鈥? be careful. Remember,

positive comments about the packaging or shipping are not a reflection

of the quality of the phantom lister, but the actual seller who sent

you the book. Comments about erroneous descriptions and bad

communications do reflect the phantom lister.



3) Compare the number of positive feedback scores to the number of

items the seller has listed in their store. On Half.com you can

do this by clicking on the seller鈥檚 name. I鈥檝e seen sellers with

very good positive feedback scores and a total feedback number of a few

hundred. When you look at the seller鈥檚 store you find they have

hundreds of thousands of books for sale. Be careful of this

seller. If a phantom lister鈥檚 feedback score gets to be too bad,

they may simply start doing business under a different name.



4) Look for comments and descriptions that indicate that someone looked

at the book being offered for sale. If you find a good

description, that is not proof this is not a phantom lister since they

sometimes copy the description from the actual book owner鈥檚

listing. But if the comment is some generic statement like 鈥淔ast

shipping鈥? be careful.



5) See where the book is being shipped from. If the code is 鈥淢L鈥?
(on Half.com this means shipping is from multiple locations), be

careful. This is either a very big company or a phantom

lister. I suspect that some phantom listers show a state code for

a shipping location instead of 鈥淢L鈥?even though your book may be

shipped from anywhere. They do this to hide the fact that they

are a phantom lister.



6) If you are not in a hurry, ask a question of the seller. On

Half.com, click on the seller鈥檚 positive feedback number (it is just

under the seller鈥檚 name). Once this window opens, there is a

button to contact the seller. Ask them a question about the item

you want to buy or just ask them if they have physical possession of

the book and can confirm that the condition and description in the

listing are correct. Then wait and see low long it takes to get a

response. When you get a response, make sure it sounds like a

response from a person and not an automated response. If you get

a quick response from a person, that is a good sign. They may

still be a phantom lister, but at least you鈥檝e got some indication they

will respond if you have problems.



Other book selling services should have a way to contact their sellers.



7) Always check Half.com for the book you are interested in.

Compare the description, price and seller feedback against the book you

found somewhere else. I think you will often find the best price

on Half.com.



Just to be clear, a person or company who finds a good deal, buys a

book, takes possession of the book and then relists and resells it for

a profit to someone else is not a phantom lister. This is just

good business and the heart of services such as Ebay and

Half.com. The problems with phantom listers most often stem from

the fact that they didn't own the book when they listed it for sale and

never had physical possession of the book. That makes it

impossible for them to make any claims about its condition, packaging

or shipping which is bound to lead to problems.



This guide is not meant to imply that you should never buy a book from

a phantom lister. It is not intended to question the business practices

of any particular book selling service or any particular seller. You

should weigh many factors before making a purchase, especially on the

internet where it is easier for unscrupulous people to hide their bad

business practices. This guide is written in the belief that an

informed consumer can make better purchasing decisions and that is good

for all of us.

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Orignal From: Smart Book Buying Tips