From matt.mattarn@gmail.com Fri Oct 19 09:10:31 2007 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list llg-members); Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:10:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rv-out-0910.google.com ([209.85.198.190]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1IiuQd-0002Pu-QQ for llg-members@lojban.org; Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:10:30 -0700 Received: by rv-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id b22so442563rvf for ; Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:10:26 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=ruhUpBrpuS5DloJiSfS292P4CjN2JVnunJdis+hTXE8=; b=h3OYikmIX7ct0C5sqZowJecPOEb2SJHLGE7dSv38UfCZXWPpEkMU6Sl2zlFiYBU2NbAbnbrm9hqrzo/bYd1LPsWfXNV2csN36y22Q93OHNcu12ylJnwTJL5+EsC3WzLyVrLu2/AxpoLksjpGGu/O7gfMRYGiXIdL2xwyC4Hd714= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=WdcraxDwGQh38zfRNF1gCCPX7TcU/GTQ+Ny8MC5J8pdgotFpK7StX+O/Zg9/HuKiSgfHxIq50qkF/pMAR98LP3t9QvnXPYwmtG5fx52Z23XG+VX5As1RgaqiQMXPPZNCy5gxJIv0itthnxyq+LvAG+brBq6oPqKHylaVBQOciww= Received: by 10.141.89.13 with SMTP id r13mr1056910rvl.1192810226482; Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:10:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.140.158.21 with HTTP; Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:10:26 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:10:26 -0400 From: "Matt Arnold" To: llg-members@lojban.org Subject: [llg-members] Re: New Business - used CLL book sales In-Reply-To: <4718D542.4070103@lojban.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <4718D542.4070103@lojban.org> X-Spam-Score: 0.0 X-Spam-Score-Int: 0 X-Spam-Bar: / X-archive-position: 456 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: llg-members-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: llg-members-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: matt.mattarn@gmail.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: llg-members@lojban.org X-list: llg-members On 10/19/07, Robert LeChevalier wrote: > Since the member meeting is in progress, I will take this to the members > rather than the Board. I just got a phone call from someone wishing to > order the book. For some reason he had gone to amazon.com rather than > the LLG website. Here is what he found: > > http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0966028309/ref=pd_bbs_sr_olp_1/104-3475652-9005546?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192808070&sr=8-1 > http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Lojban-Language-John-Cowan/dp/0966028309/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3475652-9005546?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192808274&sr=8-1 > > Someone is clearly taking advantage of our non-presence on the > amazon.com marketplace, and potential Lojbanists are being ripped off if > anyone actually buys these. These aren't even autographed, as far as I > can tell. > > I am not sure what we should do about it. We could advertise ourselves > on this same marketplace, with orders coming to me, but we know that my > record in prompt shipping has not been something to brag about, and > amazon does keep track of seller reputation. Someone who is a bit more > efficient (two of the sellers explicitly offer to ship within a day or > two) could take a box of books and offer them for sale on amazon (at a > premium to cover the cost of sending a box of books to an intermediary - > we used to sell books on amazon for $48) - we can do this officially as > an LLG policy, or someone who wants to be Lojbanically entrepreneurial > can but a box of books and do it themselves, at the risk of competition > from others if they set the price too high. (In case anyone cares, a > box of books is usually either 16 or 20 copies). > > One person in the past did buy a box of books for resale, Colin Fine in > England, and for a while we passed to him any orders in the UK as an > authorized distributor, but I don't know whether he ever sold all his > copies. Nowadays, about half of our copies go to non-US customers. > > In any event, resuming a presence on amazon would probably increase our > book sales - we were probably getting 10-15 orders per year from amazon > when we were listed there, which was probably more than half of our > total sales. > > lojbab > What steps would be required to resume a presence on Amazon.com? -Eppcott