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Good bye. (originally About buying books, etc., especially at amazon's)
peter.s:
I
mouser, thank you so much for the link, seems very interesting in theory, must look if it works with amazon.de/.fr, too.
For textbooks, there's a difficulty, since you've got some project, then you'll need some books around it, and it's not realistic then to wait many months for those books to gather. Second problem, and that's where you seem to be much better off than are Curt and myself, you seem to be located in the U.S., where all the "real important stuff" is so much cheaper than around here, and for me, it's exactly as Curt says:
Even if the book is cheap, shipping is incredibly expensive, and most of the time, you don't even find a second item to buy with it, in order to bring shipping costs in some more reasonable relation to "the price of the item itself".
As for used textbook prices in Europe, a typical example is, new 49€, used 47,50 plus 3 postage = 50,50€ - that's totally nuts, but I insist it's a typical example.
On the other hand, your sw seems to be of the highest interest for getting photographic monographies and such books which are simply too expensive (original price 120€ (but "you" were too short-sighted to buy it, now 800€, but sometimes 180€...), so your sw is of the highest interest, as said, thank you so much!
Btw, it would be of interest to know if in the U.S., it's possible to get to out-of-print books in such an inter-libraries lending system, as in Germany. I am asking because often, some out-of-print books text books (which originally were perhaps 30, 60 or 80€) on amazon.de are at 400, 600 or 800€, but invariably from U.S. sellers; whilst Europeans would get such a book from the inter-library lending system and then (legally) photocopy it in full, instead of paying several hundred euro for it. (Of course, this doesn't apply to art and photo books and to literary first editions and such.) Thus my question being, is it impossible to get to such out-of-print books in the U.S., hence those exaggerated prices, or are such sellers simply out for "dumb", i.e. uninformed readers who don't know better? Also, university library access might not be as easily possible for "post-graduates", but here in Germany, that inter-library lending system does include almost any public library, i.e. from any public library of your town, you'll get ANY such book, from any university library in Germany (but it's 2,50€ instead of 1,50€ then), and even Europe-wide (but that would be 35€ after all).
II
In general, there must be some other amazon sw's, for adjusting your OWN prices there whenever some other offering there enters the market with a lower price than yours. If somebody knows about such sw, please let us know.
On the other hand, it's NOT a good idea to reset the price from 35$ to 29,87 whenever there is a new offer for 29,88, but that's what people do with such sw.
Rather, the item should be withheld, for a while, waiting the 29,88 item is off the market, and then you enter your item anew, again for 35$ - that's what smart realtors do with houses when the seller has got the time to wait.
But for 35$ items such a strategy should indeed be automated...
III
The black bear cubs story of the week, in 21 pics (number 4 is very cute, 5 is overcute, don't miss 7 to 9 and 13/14 either, but number 3 is uber cute!):
http://www.adn.com/2014/06/14/3514527/bear-trio-in-east-anchorage.html
peter.s:
I
From the original subject, "buying from amazon", this thread stretched a little bit to "selling on amazon", too, which is not a bad thing, I think.
In fact, I own lots of books I never ever look into anymore, and I see that many amazon sellers sell books for 1 cent or 1€, plus 3€ package and postage, including amazon fees and real postage around 1 to 2€, and I think you better give them to your municipal library instead, in bulk, than waste your time with individual selling efforts in these cases.
For a buyer, almost every other book selling platform is of far more interest, since prices there are significantly lower than on amazon (cf. amazon's fees, and especially conditions); for a seller, in light of the prices you can get, amazon is far more interesting than any alternative selling platform, and probably in spite of the difference in conditions:
That difference being, regular (but "minor", by comparison) selling platforms treat profs. like profs. and individuals like individuals, meaning, they don't interfere with the separate LEGAL conditions applying to both groups of sellers: In Germany / the European Union, e.g., buying from a prof. means the buyer has a right to 14 days of reflection, and can return the goods/book to the prof. seller, AND (which is the real risk here), it's up to the seller to prove in which state the goods had been when he sent them, AND there is an additional prof./commercial sellers' risk: It's him to bear the risk of any vanishing of the goods-in-its-travel: TO the buyer, and even BACK FROM the buyer (thus you see the immense risks any prof. seller bears under such legislation).
Now, all this is different, under the law, for sales emanating from an individual seller to an individual buyer, in which that individual seller just resells his stuff he doesn't need anymore, to some other individual: Here, both the transportation risks and the question "in what state was the good when the seller sent it out" remains at the "biz between individuals" level, and there is no automatic "buyer's claims are deemed to be true" assumption: Whoever wants something from some other guy, has to prove the conditions for his claim, which means the buyer both cannot damage the goods, then pretend that was their original condition, nor is loss of the goods automatically imputed to the seller.
Now what makes the difference between any other such platform, and amazon, is the fact that amazon's conditions state that ANY seller on their platform is considered a prof. seller, not an individual one, with the above conclusions applying.
In other words, selling your unwanted books on amazon means, you'll get the very highest possible price in your situation, but you incur risks that you would not elsewhere.
II
Well, at the end of the day, it's NOT necessary to take off your regularly-priced book from amazon whenever there is some real cheap alternative offer; yours will simply not be taken into consideration while that alternative offer remains on offer there.
There are some sw products for amazon available, you'll find them by googling "amazon (selling,seller) (software,tool)". Some seller use sw that indeed follows other sellers' prices, mechanically, which is ridiculous, but here and there, could make a real benefit to the potential buyer: 29,99, 29,98, 29,97...1,34...
It's evident that for somebody like myself, who simply wants to sell let's say, 3,000 of his 10,000 or so books, some OTHER kind of sw would be most helpful: Getting the ISBN into the sw, then have the sw set up some reasonable offering price for any such book, which means if there are 10 offerings between 1 cent and 2€, FORGET IT, but if there are some 3 offerings between 25$ and 38$, LIST THEM, in order for yourself making a decision at which price you should offer the book in question... and then, of course, automatically entering your books, at the price you will have decided upon, into the amazon system (and hoping for the best, re the above legal/contractual considerations). ( The same would apply to "long-playing records"; I've got some 1,300 of them in mint condition which I would like to get rid of... ;-) )
THAT would be some real useful amazon sw for many of us I suppose... ( I'm searching... ;-) )
III
And don't miss pic 3 referred-to above: Despite fatal underexposure of mommy's face, it's a masterpiece since it's the apotheosis of the idea of motherhood, cubs implicitly trusting mommy to get for them what's needed; it's the perfect "mirror view" (have a better term for it? let us know!) to this short vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzgpeLFf4z4
mouser:
A gentle suggestion that it's better to split up posts (especially longish posts) into logical pieces. The shorter and more concise and focused a post is, the easier it is to read, digest, and respond to.
For example there are some nice animal threads on the forum that would be a better place for your #3s.
peter.s:
mouser, you didn't get my point.
I think sw/computering is a lesser science, an auxiliary science: It's always been about HOW to do things, and not about WHAT things should we do?
So, in the light of being aware of the relative value of my contributions, I've taken the liberty to do "something additional", too, and in a form that could not have harmed anybody, and which was easy to span if really somebody abhorred that part of what I had to say.
You know, over there in that outlinersw forum (and I'm certainly one expert on outliners questions, world wide), some 2 people who had been there from day 1 I turned up there, had been a little bit jealous, since up to then, their descriptive-only "expert" style had assured them "expert status" over there, which they weren't eager to give up, notwithstanding the fact that constructive collaboration is NOT about who's the commander-in-chief in some place.
From that unnecessary original clash, some adversities emerged, and whilst my original contributions over there were not affected, my comments on third parties' interests clearly were, rather often, i.e. I became somewhat aggressive against said "third parties" because I had been aggressed, without the slightest reason, re my original thinkings re outliners and which are, as to their published character, unparalleded world-wide, which means that it is perfectly possibly that without sharing their respective thinkings, there may be quite some superior outliner thinkers than I am out there but who don't share their ideas; this being said, I've never been censored over there, nor here in this forum, with those thinkings: I've just been ignored, so I don't have the slightest reason to complain.
Also, some fellow posters over there, and here, have made me rethink my communication "skills", and my postings, for some time, clearly showed that I don't see no further reason to aggress "third parties" for sheer absence of their being perfect, or, worse even, for sheer frustration that my own original efforts do not encounter the attention I would originally hoped for, and from my purely subjective pov, I had thought that the constructive value of my contributions had been enhanced accordingly.
This being said, ANY constructive effort in the IM, or more broadly, in the pc matter, lack of the above-mentioned prob, which is that ANY IT "answer" could never overcome the fact that IT is "organizational matters", without any additional value to humanity (and the day AI will take over, that'll be a whole other thing: we'll speak of additional probs there, not of some "solution" to humankind's current probs); some fellow poster over in the Ultra Recall forum once said, "We're discussing first-world probs here", and except for the fact that there is no such dichotomy "third vs. first world" to begin with, he was so right: There's a definive world between organisational sciences, and those which really could hopefully some day lessen this tiny world's probs, and we should acknowledge the philosophical difference between the two. You know, some German politician some day, some years ago, reproached to some fellow politician, that the alleged qualities that other had had, were qualities that "would enable you to run a concentration camp" - of course, this was more than inappropriate style-wise, but it was not wrong for that, since, indeed, the qualities the public saw in that man, were in that second line of reliability, determination, and so on, but NOT in the line of helping Germany (for instance, and for a start) to become better in any way: there a conceptual difference between some Montesquieu, e.g., and some German (or any other) politician who even tries to be helpful, and any "organizational science", btw., is eager to help anybody, any which way it can, and the treatment the Snowden-Obaba affair got within this forum, says a lot about this aspect of what I'm trying to express.
This being said, I'm perfectly aware that from a technical pov, auxiliary sciences are far from "inferior", intellectually: I'm perfectly aware that for real good coding, a superior IQ is more than helpful.
But then, wholeheartedly accepting that within the framework of such a "technical" forum like this one, some "speech standards" should be upheld, I had thought to be able to "counterweight" some (very limited and very easy to ignore for not-interested parties) "personal touch" paragraphs by some thinking which, as stated above, is perhaps really original, but then, which is original in its being shared; I'm very sorry my assumption was erroneous, and of course, I accept the owner of this forum not sharing my illusions.
This being said, mouser, don't be mistaken: Your manners are polite, as have been mine, these last times, but when somebody asks for thoughts about stardard parts within standard file formats, and muses about the safety of standard encryption sw being weakened by those, and then you recommend a standard book on encryption (which does not treat that specific prob): Prepare yourself to get off with such a polite way of saying of, "don't bother us here with this specific prob", but don't assume we don't see what's going on.
I respect IQ; I respect not having been censored; I thank you very warmly for being treated well, and it's with no hard feeling whatsoever I'm leaving this forum, after having left that other one, also without no hard feelings.
And I will NOT repeat those harsh words with which Prof. Manfred Kühn once left that other one for good, "I don't need this.": The point is different:
In order to think freely, you need to be felt entirely accepted within the frame of expression you will have set for yourself, and this frame, for me, here and lately, had been decidedly constructive to the max, with suppression of any possible, and totally unnecessary, aggression, and with just a NOTE of (pleasant, I had hoped) "individual OT plus" -
the owner of this forum having decided that this is not an acceptable deal for him, I humbly accept his pov. Goodbye, no hard feeling on my side: Obviously, what I had to offer, under my little bunch of different "noms de plume", simply was not good enough to counterweight my idiosyncrasies: Wholeheartedly accepted.
40hz:
Am I the only reader here who is utterly confused by this entire thread? :huh:
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