Last Friday, I was browsing Reddit (after work, of course) and came across a post titled, “So I bought this for $3.50 on Amazon. Was very surprised when I opened it up.”
Of course, I was very intrigued by the title, but that was nothing compared to what I saw next.
A buyer had ordered a used copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Strength to Love from a 3rd-party seller. When it arrived he opened the book and inside saw an inscription signed by Dr. King himself!
Wow! What an incredible find! And I thought I was lucky the time I found an autographed copy of Dick Vitale’s book in the 25¢ bin at my local bookstore (sadly, my mother threw it out when I moved away from home).
Estimates put the value of the book at around $2,000.
I hope all of you booksellers out there reading this remember this story and double check your inventory before you ship! You never know when you’ll find something special.
Of course, discovering a signature like this would be like winning the lottery, but carefully checking every piece of inventory is important for other reasons, too.
You might not find an autograph, but ripped pages, vulgar doodles, stains, scribbles, highlights and notes in the margins are all surprises that your buyers won’t be posting to Reddit!
Shipping uninspected merchandise can lead to negative feedbacks, A-to-z claims and increases in your ODR. And this goes for more than just books! Toys with missing pieces, incomplete electronics and anything else that isn’t perfect is a customer complaint waiting to happen.
So remember:
Check before you buy.
Double-check before you ship.
That’s key to being a successful Amazon seller. And a little luck doesn’t hurt either.