Well it finally happened. Abebooks of Victoria, BC has entered in an agreement with Amazon to be part of the Amazon family. They claim that they will continue to run as an independent company but that will not likely last too long. A sure sign of the times in which we live. Everybody buys their coffee at the same place, every goes to see the same handful of major films and now online we can all buy our books at the same place. yippee.
AbeBooks has reached an agreement to be acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. This is a major landmark in the 12-year history of AbeBooks.
AbeBooks will continue to operate as a stand-alone business with all aspects of AbeBooks’ bookseller and customer experience remaining intact. AbeBooks’ headquarters will remain in Victoria, BC, Canada, and our European offices will remain in Dusseldorf, Germany. We will continue to support both our international marketplaces and our domestic marketplace here in Canada. I will continue to lead AbeBooks. full press release here..
This post was writen by Guy Weller of Mr. Pickwick’s Fine Old Books.
This latest fee increase by ABE is ridiculous - I would have been far happier to see them increase their monthly rentals than applying this absurd sort of hit on the shipping component.
A great many sellers will increase their shipping charges at ABE, which will have the inevitable effect of costing some sales which climb through the buyer barrier of resistance, and any such lost sale costs ABE 8% of the book price + 5.5% across book and shipping combined on their credit card skim.
The average sale at ABE is around $US 13 and I guess the average shipping component would be about $US 5 or so. So on each $18 combined sale ABE currently reaps $1.04 + $0.99 in c/card fees at 5.5% or $2.03 (which is 15.62% of original book price).
Under this new scale the respective amounts will be $1.44 + $0.99 or $2.43 (or 18.69% of original book price).
Many booksellers will increase their shipping charges to compensate, and this price increase to customers must inevitably cost some sales, as the shipping climbs through the buyer resistance level.
I am not suggesting that buyers will abandon the site in droves, but look at the math:
For every sale at the average price lost due to increased shipping costs (and there will be SOME of these) ABE loses the $2.03 it would have netted had that sale proceeded.
It makes a mere extra $0.40 from each (average) sale processed under the new scale, and would need to “hold” 6 sales for every sale lost due to buyer shipping resistance before it actually made a revenue gain of $0.37 across the 6 x $18 = $108 gross revenue.
Obviously ABE will not lose 1 sale out of 7 (14%) due to this move, but it will lose SOME, and the anticipated revenue increases will therefore turn out to be in a significant part illusory for this reason, since each sale lost negates the next 6 made in terms of potential increased revenue.
In online planning, it is madness to increase shipping charges - you are MUCH better off running with a slightly higher price and lesser (or even “free”) shipping charges.
In fixed-store retail planning, it works the other way around - all the focus there is on the “advertised price” and very little on the half-hidden extras like delivery, installation, paid-for extended warranties etc.
ABE goofed when it introduced the c/c 5.5% (note that they are now actually reducing that on $500+ orders in partial recognition of this mistake).
They SHOULD have increased the commission then to 10% and introduced MAPS at 3.5%, which would have been a much easier “sell” to booksellers, and given them a much stronger income bedrock.
I don’t mind the idea of a corporation looking to fee increases to fund its growth, nor the prospect that the shareholders of a corporation deserve a decent return on the capital they have invested in infrastructure and providing the services on which we all to some extent depend.
I DO object to half-witted strikes in the WRONG fee areas, which this one is.
Shipping rates can be looked up on the Internet from most countries, and often are by our bookbuying customers to make sure we are not “rorting” them with extra loadings in that area.
Already I have to pay ABE’s blasted 5.5% on my c/card component of shipping, or 4% more than I was previously paying my provider.
Now I am hit with an extra 8% “fee” on this shipping - 12% loading in all on the publicly advertised and easily accessed postal charge (about $25 from Australia to the UK for an average book).
If I pass this on in full to my customers, it will not be long before some of them start querying why I am “loading” the postal costs so excessively, and they will be most dubious if I tell them that I am actually being taxed on this supply cost via my listing site.
They will conclude I am just taking a skim for myself - I would conclude the same thing myself if I were buying at ABE, and not in possession of the facts.
So this move is technically, philosophically and practically bad for ABE, and for all those who list there.
Higher costs and fees from ABE? I can live with that.
Ramping shipping costs to customers higher?
Strategic madness.
Cheers,
Guy Weller
Mr. Pickwick’s Fine Old Books
Half of an Elephant by Gusti. Copy supplied by publisher, Kane/Miller. Originally published in Mexico 2006.
The Plot:
An elephant is fast asleep when CRACK the world is split in two. He wakes up half an elephant and now has to search for his other half.
The Good:
The plot is a mix of silly and serious as elephant (and every other animal) has to go looking for it's other half. In a weird way, this is like an adult romance break up and get back together story: elephant has to learn to be strong on it's own! Elephant is so desperate to be whole that it hooks up with the wrong half of an animal! And at the end, when the two halves reunite because after all, they belong together, each half retains its independence. It applies to any situation where someone "cannot live without the other person" yet find out... yes, the can.
The illustrations are very inventive; as described on the book flap, they are "digital images of numerous discarded objects to show children that art can be created from objects that usually end up in the garbage can." As such, I can easily see this being used to inspire art projects. Aside from the story itself, it's fun to look at the various animals and figure out what they are made of.
For some reason; I think because of the combination of "found objects" and the way the half animals survive despite being cut in two; I also read this as magical realism in picture book format. OK, so magical realism isn't quite the term I mean... but I cannot think of a term to use where the text of the story is so serious and factual while discussing something that is impossible. The serious treatment of something magical; the treating it as every day and normal; appealed to me, especially since the illustrations are also other-worldly.
Links:
Kane/Miller Play Pages (great for parents & teachers) PDF
Propernoun review
Kids Lit review
a whimsy Pick for 2006
Big A little a review
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