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What's a missing page or two? [and reviews on ABE] (1 Viewer)

the comments are pretty funny -

"Bukowski was a degenerate pig who fancied himself an artist. His art was the slimy fantasies of an alcoholic with rage issues."

"The work of Charles Bukowski affirms the destruction of literature."

"His editor did him a horrible disservice by not lopping off about 100 pages from this interminable tome."

etc.
 
The confidence I have in the human race is always affirmed by reading reviews like that.

As for that copy of Women, I have a roll of toilet paper here that's worth more than that. And the CD isn't even included.
 
Whoa! I hadn't even noticed the customer reviews. I didn't know you could comment on ABE books.

From now on all, all my eBay listings will say "There could be a bunch of pages missing. What do you expect? It's used, for crying out loud." This will save me loads of time writing the description of the book.
 
It's hardly worth the $15 he wants when the spine is taped back on etc.
The "CD not included" bit is funny.
 
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Personally, after finally listening to the 'Women' companion CD a couple of years ago, I'd never recommend buying a copy without it...

Women_CD_BSP95b.jpg
 
do you have any more info on the women CD? the thing that intrigues me is that it is published under the "graphic arts" imprint, which seems weird, as all of the other books under that imprint that i know of are lavish, deluxe productions.
 
I have'nt seen it before either. Maybe it's a relatively new feature.
 
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Bukfan - Checking the dates on these reviews they stretch back a bit so I'm seriously questioning my vision when checking books out on ABE. Or I'm browsing books that only I'm alone interested in reading (thus explaining the lack of reviews). Still strange never noticing this before. But given your comment plus Rekrab's makes me think these are new additions?! As a private seller I don't think I'd like this type of Amazon-like-random review. Personally think Women is a beautiful book but the reviewers take a caustic piss on it. What a selling point! Strange.
 
I'm sure that they are pulling these reviews from somewhere else. Maybe amazon? I cannot imagine someone taking the time to write a review for a rare book, given that once it sells, the listing is removed. It would take someone with a serious grudge to spend the time searching out all copies for sale to put in a negative review. They must be pulling these over by ISBN from somewhere.

Bill
 
As a private seller I'd not like this at all. This feature of ABE strikes me as odd. A review of me as a seller is fair enough. When I'm on ABE I'm looking to truly buy and am most concerned with the seller's ability to deliver what's promised. Bill, I just bought a few items from you and you've that unique quality of principle which I've experienced on ABE is lacking (trust me folks, you'll not be sorry buying from Bill). Sellers on ABE oft times have a tendency of 'overgrading' their product. Takes time to separate the grain from the straw. But to attach to your offerings a review that says the book your selling sucks seems counterproductive to these booksellers. Especially in the secondary market.
 
Stavrogen is right, it is a bizarre thing to do and can not really help their sales. I know that not all buyers on abe are buying rare books, but I have always felt that people go to abe knowing at least what author or book they want. When I am looking for a new book, I would rather buy it on abe for $10, than for $30 from Amazon. I hear about it elsewhere and then go there. Amazon has a "recommended if you like" function that helps find new authors, which is helpful.

One funny thing about abe is that there are a few sellers that try to sell books for SOOO much more than they are worth. I have seen common books that are worth $5 being offerd for $75 for no reason. There are even other copies on abe for $5. The funniest one is revaluation books, whose name almost seems like a joke given the circumstances.

This book can be had for $38 or nearly $53,000 for the same edition.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...&tn=altaic+uralic&x=34&y=13&yrh=1997&yrl=1996

Why would anyone do this unless it is a joke?

Bill
 
i actually learned about this recently, because i was so curious about places like revaluation books, myopic bookstore, etc. these bookstores use an algorithm that looks at other listings for similar books, and it usually doesn't take into account condition. they don't determine pricing by their own research - their volume necessitates that their computer system prices all of their inventory. some of the sellers on abe obviously have glitches in their algorithm that prices books way too high (maybe because they're geared toward selling textbooks or reference books, so their algorithms aren't finding other listings of books they're selling, because they're not looking where we're looking, which is how they end up with prices that are so insanely high).
 
Thanks for the info Jordan. I t makes sense, it just seems lazy to not check the highest prices. I can understand the need for a program with algorithm for massive collections, but I would think that they could take the 3 minutes to look up their store and sort by the highest price. That is where you find all of the $50,000 text books...

Any, the internet is a fad and will not last. No one will ever buy anything on the internet. People want to go to the mall and spend more money for the same thing. Every fad gota die someday...

Bill
 
I like the way thread titles change as we drift off into abe books and pomo tangents on such a nice day.

The Threads Drift Away like Crazed Pomos Through Bowling Alleys.
 
So Abe got the reviews from Amazon? I guess they must have some sorta collaboration with Amazon.
I've been looking for a place on Abe where you can write a review but I can't find any. So all the reviews are apparently old reviews from Amazon.
I think Abe risks losing some of the book dealers because who wants to try and sell a copy of a book on Abe if most of the reviews are negative.
 
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I believe Amazon bought Abe a couple of years ago.
 
doesn't amazon own bibliofind as well?
tried to buy a book through them and was told it couldn't be delivered to canada.
 
I stopped using Bibiofind when Amazon acquired them. I didn't know they acquired ABE as well, which I still use. The reviews are a lousy idea for what is essentially a used/rare/o.p. market where buyers generally know what they want and why.
 

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