Restricting sales on eBay was AMC books on ebay..

[John McEwen <moparrr@xxxxxxx>]

I'm going to stick my oar in here regarding one aspect of this 
discussion with which I have a serious problem and it isn't the 
quality of the books.

I understand from another email that the author allegedly doesn't 
ship to Canada and in fact handed out a Negative on eBay to a 
Canadian who used a US address to purchase his book.   People who use 
eBay Negatives to punish their sellers for some imagined insult need 
to be visited by some of the agents of a company of which I know. 
It's called "Two Guys in Suits".

I strongly object to such a provincial attitude by a seller 
particularly in view of the fact that AMC cars are Canadian as much 
as American.  They were built in Canada for many years.   Many 
Canadians appreciate that and consider them to be Canadian 
automobiles.  Perhaps more people should check to see where their 
'American Iron' was built.  It might come as a great surprise that 
today more American cars are built out of the US than in it - and 
Ontario now builds more US cars than all of Michigan.

I appreciate the attitude of this forum which lets us debate the 
quality of goods offered for sale - and the conditions of their sale. 
It also reinforces an opinion I have about a certain class of seller 
which persists in sticking to "US Only" sales.

If our author isn't prepared to sell to a world market he should take 
his books off eBay and peddle them in a more bucolic fashion - 
possibly from the trunk of his car at flea markets.  Sending a book 
to Alabama, Alberta or Albania doesn't require a different effort. 
Books leaving the US simply have to have a small green sticker 
attached to the package with a line of description and a price. 
Surely this isn't too much to ask when someone is ready with money in 
hand.  It's especially puzzling as there are about as many people in 
Canada as in California.  Would anyone sell something with a proviso 
that Californians are excluded?

Possibly he typifies a type of seller I've found more than once, who 
is afraid to expose himself in any way to his own government for fear 
that the 'revenoors' are going to come knocking.  Rest assured, that 
filling out a stick-on form at the post office is not likely to send 
a tax inspector to pay a surprise visit.  Maybe he's afraid that some 
dumb Canuck is going to try to send him funny money instead of the 
old long green.

I recently advised a "US Only" seller that an item he was selling 
(related to another of my hobbies) was hugely underpriced and 
inaccurately described.  I told him, that as he was selling an item 
of great appeal to sellers in Europe, he should consider dropping his 
'US Only' preference.  He stopped the auction (which had a day to go) 
and re-listed as I suggested.

His final price was about 10 times what he expected and about 8 times 
what his bid price was prior to closing the auction.  He was very 
grateful.  His explanation for restricting serious money in his sales 
was that he 'knew' that it was 'too much trouble' dealing with 
foreigners.   He has changed his tune now and his sales have never 
looked better.  How many sellers realize that Europe is now larger in 
population and buying power than the US?

Moral:  We live in a global village - not on isolated islands.  Get 
with the program or get out of the way.

John

PS:  Apologies to those who may feel maligned by my remarks.  I try 
to 'tell it like it is'.

> I'm all for knowledge and content.  Especially if you don't have to pay
> $50->100 for it.
> I think he is smart enough to teach me a few things and I don't begrudge him
> his ideas or conclusions even if I may have some differences with them.
>
> You might yet have to use your own sticky notes for tabs to find the thing
> you want but I do that even for those well published indexed books.  He is
> doing his thing the way he wants to do it and that's OK with me...  I'm glad
> he has his friends and helpers in doing this.  Many are AMC List members or
> have been over the years.  His way is good enough for me.
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Ralph Ausmann  -  Hillsboro, OR - Ol' Retro >
> http://mysite.verizon.net/res79g4m/

>