A Warning

What exactly did I say that made you think that Jbf?

You were very protective of them.

I'm not trying to be difficult Jbf and I will explain exactly how I feel but what did you read a being "protective"?

I am lost for words

You poor thing. I love words and would be very sad if I couldn't find the ones I need. I am sure all the GNetters, being as obviously kind as they are, will help if you try to explain.

Perhaps once Jbf explains why she has leapt to the conclusion she has and I have answered her we can leave this little thread and you can have a rest. I'm sure it would help.

You certainly have a nice line in sarcasm, Gracesgran

This is so funny!

This bit gg

"Wordery is massive and this keeps the price down. You are just as responsible on-line as you are off to find the business that suits your need. If you look you will see they currently have a 97% positive feedback over 3,637,733 sales in the last year. I would not expect the average book buyer to understand that this is a company that processes books rather like widgets but the information regarding their business model is there for all to see"

Your turn.

"widgets"?. What sort of widget?

I do believe sarcasm to be the lowest form of wit, and something People fall back on when they have nothing constructive to say:

Discuss

Sarcasm, yes, but there's a milder form of sarcasm which is more like gentle teasing and can be funny.
The difference is in not aiming at 'putting down' the person you're aiming at, just making them smile.

Nothing in this particular discussion has made me smile, rather made me despair of Humanity in general

It's not that bad!

I think this is a marathon worthy of an entry on the Gransnet Olympics thread! ? ⛹ ? ??

Good grief! Such nastiness and vitriol gg, why?

Humanity in general is pretty good, Ilrina Don't despair. At least 99.9% of Gransnet is more than pretty good, it is excellent.

It seems that Wordery has 97% good feedback. I wonder how many books they sell per year? I've no idea how many, but apparently they had 148,234 ratings. Then 3% of those were not happy. That is 4,447 buyers. The 97% may not care too much about the 3%, but those 4,447 are not negligible. I think that is what Anya was getting at when she said that she "hates" when the positive comments are used to excuse the negative ones.

This clash has nothing to do with Wordery, in any case. It is about personalities,

It just MAY be about nothing more important than enjoying stirring it. Very stimulating, for them what likes that kind of thing. All pepper and chillies and no meat.

Any sort of widget Jbf, they just "process" books on a production line rather than being like the old fashion book-seller. It is not my idea of book selling and I was just trying to give you an insight into how they work – and how that keeps the prices down. Obviously no reason why you should know that was far from a compliment but I can't really see why you think I was protecting them either.

Many small booksellers who had been selling for years went out of business when these people came in. I was lucky because I worked in a particular genre not in 1p books but they are not popular among smaller sellers as a general rule. Having said that competition will always exist and what I was saying is if you feed the business model you will reap the rewards - or otherwise.

You may (or may not) be interested to know that many of these businesses were set up by people who were originally (and some still are) rag traders. They used to buy the rags from charity shops and in the early days of Amazon Market place started to take unsold books too. The unsold charity shop books are now sold in large auctions so they get them for very little each but, of course (just to be even-handed) they are running a business to make a profit.

I didn't really either want to protect them or the opposite but the extremism on threads such as this where someone states they don’t even want to hear anything other than their own point of view often makes people putting the other side seem as if they are leaning one way.

I know if someone had published my company’s name on a large forum like GN I would, if I was at 97% positive, hope the other side would be mentioned. I stayed at 100% and dealt with my customers more directly. As I said, Amazon will sort it out.

It might also be worth remembering that, although Amazon will bend over backwards for a "customer" their actual customer is the book-seller.

No! I can't see how they are different from any other online bookseller. Surely they just source a book and then supply it? (I've had a good look at their website) Are they like Abe Books? Are they second hand or new? Or both? ( genuinely interested now)

gg, that all makes sense but there was still no need to be nasty.

I suppose Abe is a good comparison Jfb. It really is a marketplace. Amazon rent the space and provide the basics - in this case the online space, the systems and the marketing - and they go round like market managers, keeping it up to date and working and applying the market rules to sellers (think market stall holders - but in the warm). Just as a Market Manager would reprimand someone for abusing a customer or selling shoddy goods so do Amazon - for the same reasons. They want their market place to be attractive so they keep renting out marketplace stands (or whatever they are called) but, just in the same way, they will still not want to upset the big stalls that pay the biggest rents.

Quite a few market-place sellers also sell in other ways - they may even have a bricks and mortar shop. Most of the people I actually had contact with either worked from home or had a storage unit. I started at home and then rented a unit. I also sold directly when I had books I knew people wanted or I acted as a book-finder for them if it was worth-while doing so - often not. If you are smaller it is actually nice to be in touch with your customers and some of the back stories are lovely, interesting and/or exciting. With a smaller bookseller you should be able to tell them it is a birthday present.

Many of the sellers - more of the bigger ones I would suspect, now process their books (and they are theirs not Amazons) barcode them and send the to Amazon for warehousing. Amazon then do the picking and packing - for a charge of course so Amazon make more money out of the bookseller not his/her customer; the bookseller is doing that.

Both second hand and new Jbf some do both; I only had older books. It depends on your business model really. New books are often sourced direct and are, I imagine, over production.

I found it a fascinating world but was also my business as it is with many others although some are hobby sellers.

I should have said that of course, Amazon sell books too.

Gracegran Despite your history lesson, you were very rude and sarcastic. Why did a complaint about a seller turn into "let me tell you about Amazon"?

You should apologise to Iirena, it was uncalled for.

It's very odd. If I buy a book, say Nutshell by Ian Mcewen, I would pay £10.99 from Wodery with free delivery, and £7.99 from Amazon lus £2.99 delivery. So works out there he same.

Are they simply Amazon under another name? Is it some kind of conglomerate?

Sorry for typos

(I do find your market stalls comparison slightly patronising. We will stop now)

Thank you for your input.