Sorry for the Extended Boiler-Plate

"eBay adds their own blurbs to book conditions (the pop-up balloons with
Acceptable, Good, Very Good, Like New, and Brand New). The balloon with
Very Good erringly states, 'This book has been read but is in excellent
condition'. This is eBay's mistake, not the Seller's. The balloon should
state, 'This book has been read and is in very good condition'. As this
is eBay's mistake, we will not be held responsible any longer for their
mistake. Everybody is raising their fees: eBay; USPS; UPS; etc. With
that said, we can no longer offer Free Domestic Shipping. We are now
dividing half the cost of Postage between ourselves, and our Buyer(s).
Every item that we sell is in our inventory and ready to ship. We are
not a ‘Brokerage House’, which takes an order, then scampers around
looking for the item to fill that order. This helps us to ship our items
in a timely manner, which our buyers appreciate (just look at our
Feedback!). With some books, we receive so many messages asking for a
book’s particulars—which have been pre-answered in the book’s
listing—that we can’t answer the messages. With that said, if a listing
doesn’t say 1st Edition, then it isn’t a 1st Edition. Not every
publisher puts the term ‘First Edition’ on the copyright page of a First
Edition. First Editions are also known by the price on the dust jacket,
and/or the number line found on the copyright page. This info can easily
be corroborated by logging into Amazon.com and viewing a book’s
copyright page (if Amazon.com doesn’t have said info, that is not our
fault). The (supposed) delivery times that eBay is placing with
purchases are only approximations. Delivery times will vary due to where
the item is shipping from and, where the item is headed. Please
understand, the estimations for delivery time(s) are eBay’s doing, not
ours. When we scan a book, we begin at the front, and progress through
the book, until we have scanned the rear cover. We try to show all the
'issues' a book has (tears/price-clipping on a DJ, etc.). If there are
issues on the top/bottom/front of pages, we scan those too. If a
Hardcover is scanned showing the spine/front board, this means said
Hardcover HAS NO DJ. Some of the books we sell are LIBRARY EDITION
HARDCOVERS (also called REBOUND, KATER-BOUND, ECONO-CLAD,
COVER-CRAFT or  PERMA-BOUND). These are paperback books which have been
bound in a hardcover. We try to be very careful and thorough when we list our
books. We list our books using eBay’s catalog (which contains about 65%
of what we sell). EBay’s catalog listings don’t allow entering info such
as: if a book is a Book Club Edition [BCE] or, an ex-library book
[XLB]—which can contain stamps (in the book, on the top/bottom of the
pages), stickers, a pocket, glue spots, tape on the boards, writing
within, etc.; If a book is a First Edition, is signed, has
illustrations, etc., that will be listed; if a DJ is price-clipped, that
will be listed; if the book is not a first printing, that will be listed
or shown through a scan of the Copyright Page. If there are issue(s)
with the cover/DJ, we will show scans of said issue(s). On some
books—with dust jackets—‘invisible’ tape repairs have been needed to the
inside of the dust jacket. Sometimes—luckily, not often—the eBay catalog
isn’t the most helpful when putting items on for sale. In those
instances, what is in said catalog isn’t an exact fit for the book being
sold (i.e., the ISBN comes up as a Hardcover when in actuality it’s for
a Trade Paperback, or, vice versa; the cover which appears with the ISBN
isn’t the actual cover of the book; etc.). When that happens, we will
note the disparity (usually as an ad-in description). Book Conditions
are my estimation, as a twenty–year buyer/seller. Yours might differ. If
you are unhappy with a book you have received, please send us a message,
and we’ll work together to remedy the situation. We have had many people
ask why we require purchase(s) to be paid for immediately. This is
solely because, if we allow people to not pay immediately, we wind up
with several unpaid items every week. This consequently removes said
item from circulation, for ten days (five days to wait for payment, then
five days for eBay to try and get the fraudulent buyer to pay). After
ten days, we can then re-list said unpaid-for item. We’re just a small,
sole-proprietor-ship, and can’t let our inventory sit unsold for that
long. Returns are an aspect of doing retail business. We realize this,
and further state that we are simple human beings, who are prone to make
mistakes. If we make a mistake, we have a 100% return policy. If this
happens, and it is our fault, we will refund your money to you once we
receive the item back. We will refund your postal expense to ship the
item back to us, once we receive the item back (if the cause for a
return is our fault). What we will not do is send a pre-paid envelope to
you to cover the return postage or, issue a refund before we receive the
problem item back. The reasons for this are simple: 1), our items are
priced such that we make a fraction of what the buyer’s expense is and
to send an envelope with a pre-paid envelope inside means that we have
now expended more than the item is worth; and, 2), most times we never
receive the item, which should be returned. This is an unwavering policy
for us. If this is not something you—the buyer—are comfortable with,
please feel free to shop elsewhere. Sorry for the extended boiler-plate.
A handful of problem buyers has made the above a necessity."
- posted by cjb @ 4:50 PM