What's the best alternative to buy physical books for both customer and publisher?
Any other source?
The real reason for this is, Powell has it's own book store that competes with Amazon.
Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
61–70 of 212 posts
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#62Of the last 10 books I bought on Amazon 4 were faulty prints with miscut pages, misaligned pages, misprint pages. Two of them had misprint covers. All of them were sold as new by Amazon itself. I am done with buying books from them
To be fair, this might not be Amazon's fault, it could have happened with any online booksellers, because ultimately the publisher is at fault. For example, Oxford University Press used to be renowned for the quality of its printing and binding, but it has quietly moved many titles to very shoddy digital printing with misaligned pages and a glued binding that fails instantly, and online you just can't be sure whether you'll get a quality book from an earlier print run, or the new crap. Even the ISBN might be the same.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#63What's the best alternative to buy physical books for both customer and publisher?
We are fortunate to still have a Barnes and Noble nearby. Hope it stays open.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the same time I'm quite annoyed that there's plenty of things now that you can only buy on the Internet. I also find Amazon to be an horrible mess. It's hard to know if you're buying something legit or from a shaddy business. I personally always look for a local physical shop first, then a local Internet shop, Amazon being the very last resort. Concerning books, the experience on Amazon is nowhere near as nice as…
> It's hard to know if you're buying something legit or from a shaddy business. Is this a US problem? In the UK I've never heard anyone ever receive a fake or dodgy product, but I see these complaints on HN in almost every thread about Amazons retail business.
A good fake is borderline undetectable. So your friends could have received fakes and not known.
It's not like many people would buy several copies of a book or DVD to do a side-by-side comparison of textures and precise colour matching. Or have the equipment to tell apart a CRI 95 LED bulb from a CRI 80 bulb in the same housing. Or tell name-brand nail polish from generic in an identical bottle, or a genuine Apple charger from a good clone.
Of course, my experience with Amazon in the UK is it's nowhere near as bad as AliExpress.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#65The problem is not Amazon, the problem is local rents. If we encourage mixed-use zoning, ie. 3-5 storey apartment blocks with the ground and first level for commercial and office use, we'll lower rents and reduce commutes.
Many European countries have mixed-use zoning. That still hasn't stopped bookstores from hollowing out -- actual books getting fewer and fewer while most of the stock becomes hipster accoutrements like vinyl records and tea sets -- or closing entirely. The problem is that physical books are just not in-demand and high-margin enough to cover labour costs and rents in this day and age.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#66Of the last 10 books I bought on Amazon 4 were faulty prints with miscut pages, misaligned pages, misprint pages. Two of them had misprint covers. All of them were sold as new by Amazon itself. I am done with buying books from them
To be fair, this might not be Amazon's fault, it could have happened with any online booksellers, because ultimately the publisher is at fault. For example, Oxford University Press used to be renowned for the quality of its printing and binding, but it has quietly moved many titles to very shoddy digital printing with misaligned pages and a glued binding that fails instantly, and online you just can't be sure whether…
Weird however that it happens so often with Amazon (with books from different publishers) while it never happened to me when using more local online booksellers, where I was essentially buying the same kind of books.
I noticed the same thing with other stuff from Amazon. E.g. 3 of the Amazon basic HDMI cables I ordered didn't work. Ordered similarly priced ones at a local retailer and they worked like a charm - all of them.
I am not the only person who noticed that Amazon's quality has dropped in recent years.
Edit: one thing I forgot to mention: one of the faulty books was also clearly used, there was even a coffee (?) stain inside. This is not something that happens because the publisher has bad quality control.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do have a website. I would assume the problem is that nobody can compete with Amazons delivery network (and Prime) on price.
More than that, we also have the problem that many users look online on Amazon first. For example, for online searches (in the UK), I try Amazon, Wordery, and Waterstones.com -- but usually Amazon first. If they don't have something or for some reason I feel I need to look elsewhere, I try the others. Interestingly, for old or hard-to-find books, many people in the UK use BookDepository.com and AbeBooks -- guess what…
Abebooks is my primary source of buying books!
Its especially good for me, since I'm not originally from the US and its the cheapest way to get publications in my native language from "foreign" sellers. I'd like to support booksellers in my country, but I go back only once or twice a year and can't make all purchases then.
On the other hand, I've found sellers that are shipping from within my city or around (happened thrice in 4ish years of buying). In that case, I'll just track them down and try to contact them for a direct purchase cutting out the middleman. Its a lot of work sometimes, but in my mind worth it.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#68Many people go to physical stores, look for a product they like, then search it on Amazon.
Here in Germany we have fixed book prices (at least for German books). I think the publisher sets the price and it must not be sold for less with the exception if the book is damaged. So in this case you really have no reason to order the book from Amazon if it is available at the book store. For other products this is however true, probably because the price difference and the sometimes cumbersome return policies of…
If the price is identical everywhere, then people will compete on other factors like the percentage of profits the bookseller donates to charity, or the speed and ease of delivery.
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#69What's the best alternative to buy physical books for both customer and publisher?
Often you can buy direct from the author or publisher. If your goal is to avoid Amazon (although I admit I don't know how this will affect revenues to the author/publisher), you can get in touch with your local bookstores or places like https://www.indiebound.org/
Re: Powell’s says it won’t sell books on Amazon anymore
#70Of the last 10 books I bought on Amazon 4 were faulty prints with miscut pages, misaligned pages, misprint pages. Two of them had misprint covers. All of them were sold as new by Amazon itself. I am done with buying books from them
Why not buy from bookdepository.com ? They even have free shipping if I remember correctly.
Honest question - I don't buy books often.