In an internet world dominated by the greed and restrictive practices of the "big-boys", Auctioneer is pleased to offer an extension of its free-trial. A previous offer was well-received, so I've decided to repeat it until the end of 2010 (or until we have 1000 sellers if sooner). Here's how you qualify to pay no commissions on any sale made through the site: (there are no listing or relisting and no shopfront fees).
It is possible to upload in bulk or to send your Homebase or other TAB files for conversion and uploading - though a little work is needed to match categories. And we hope to have a new version of the uploader that requires no work by the end of the summer. But it is quick and easy to upload individual items. There are a few other enhancements planned.
Any questions? Send an email to the address above.
Too good to be true? Not this time - just a way to build the site and reward the early listers - but if you achieve good sales, you are free to make a small voluntary contribution towards expenses.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you join.
Mike Bloxsome
TheSpecialistAuctioneer
This short note concerns Amazon UK's (possibly illegal, and certainly anti-competitive) attempt to fix the price of second hand and antiquarian books. Despite charging higher commissions and allowing smaller postage charges than many sites, they now seek to ensure that YOU THE SELLER cannot reflect these higher prices, and that they (Amazon) will enforce price parity, or preferential pricing.
What does this mean for YOU THE BUYER? At first glance it appears okay, but in reality it means that an independent seller cannot sell directly to you from any other site - including his own cheaper - than through Amazon, so no student or other customer discounts. Prices will go up from all booksellers afraid to lose income from Amazon.
Those of you in the UK, or indeed elsewhere in Europe will be most affected, but this price-fixing will spread unless challenged. So take up the challenge and contact your local MP, MEP or one of the following:
European Commission Directorate-General for Competition comp-market-information@ec.europa.eu
EU Antitrust and General Registry comp-greffe-antitrust@ec.europa.eu
UK Office of Fair Trading enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk
Germany Fair Trading: Bundeskartellamt info@bundeskartellamt.bund.de
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and President of the Board of Trade – The Rt Hon Dr Vincent Cable MP cablev@parliament.uk
Graham Watson MEP <info@grahamwatsonmep.org >
Nick Eaton advisor to Stephen Williams UK MP EATONN@parliament.uk
John Thurso MP john@johnthurso.org.uk
Rob Gibson MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament): Rob.Gibson.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Jim Mather MSP - Scottish Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism Jim.Mather.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Mark Prisk MP - UK Minister of State for Business and Enterprise bagulayl@parliament.uk
Please pass this message along to your colleagues, fellow booksellers, customers and blog-readers and ask them to add their protest:
Draft letter below is based on one sent by the excellent Guy Weller of World Book Market
DRAFT Begins
Dear Sir
I write on a grave matter of commercial anti-competitive pricing practices affecting thousands of independent sellers throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.
I write to express my concern at what appearsto be a fairly crude and possibly illegal attempt to "rig" or "fix" the UK and European second-hand bookselling market by the huge US near-monopoly corporation Amazon.com (aka Amazon.uk in the United Kingdon, aka Amazon.de in Germany, and aka Amazon.fr in France).
Amazon is an “aggregator marketplace” in that it invites many thousands of independent sellers to open an account and list their books and other items at competing prices set by the independent listers (or such has been the case until now).
Amazon has recently advised all its UK and European sellers that they must lift their prices on ALL their offered books at ALL their online selling venues (including their private websites) until what they call "price parity" with the same books listed at the Amazon.uk and other European clones of Amazon is reached.
If UK and European booksellers do not obey this command to universally lift their prices to Amazon's level, it is clearly stipulated by Amazon that they will be forced off the Amazon selling site.
Since Amazon has clear market dominance to the point of semi-monopoly, this is a dire threat indeed to these United Kingdom and European independent sellers listing at Amazon, and one which most small-medium independent booksellers in the UK and Europe simply cannot contemplate.
In order to make clear that I am not making wild exaggerations in the above claims, here is a copy of the exact text of an email sent by Amazon.com very recently to ALL of its UK and European listers:
CRUCIAL EXTRACTS FROM EMAIL FROM AMAZON.COM TO ITS UK & EUROPEAN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS:
Price Parity
Price is one of the most important factors customers use when making buying decisions. In order to offer buyers the best possible experience on Amazon.co.uk, beginning 31st March, Amazon will require price parity for all sellers selling under the Amazon.co.uk marketplace Participation Agreement. Price parity for these sellers means that the item price and total price (total amount payable, excluding taxes) of each product a seller offers on Amazon.co.uk must generally be the same or lower than on the seller's other non-physical sales channels. We believe this practice increases customer trust, which can result in more customers and sales, and increased value of the Amazon.co.uk marketplace to sellers. Although the Participation Agreement will reflect this change on 31st March, sellers will have until 1st May to make the necessary price parity changes.
What do you mean by price parity?
Price parity generally means that your offer for each product you list on Amazon.co.uk is at least as good as your best offer for that product on any of your non-physical sales channels. More specifically, it means that the total price and corresponding item price of each product you list on Amazon.co.uk are at or below the lowest total price and corresponding item price at which you offer the product via any of your other non-physical sales channels. Price parity also applies to offers by your affiliates. Specific terms will apply to products fulfilled using FBA and other products subject to Amazon.co.uk delivery rates. These terms will be explained in additional FAQs below.
What do you mean by "total price" and "item price"?
"Total price" means the total amount payable by a customer inclusive of delivery charges and other things like rebates and promotional discounts, but excluding taxes. "Item price" means the price of the product itself.
What does this mean for me?
It means that if you choose to sell on Amazon.co.uk, you need to ensure that the total price and corresponding item of each product you offer on Amazon.co.uk are at least as low as the lowest total price and corresponding item price of that product on any of your or your affiliates' non-physical sales channels ....
This policy will apply to all sellers selling under the Amazon.co.uk marketplace Participation Agreement and will be reflected in the standard terms and conditions of the Amazon.co.uk Participation Agreement effective 31 March 2010, but you will have 30 days from this date to make the changes necessary to ensure that your offers on Amazon.co.uk meet price and other parity requirements. You do not have to sign a new contract. You agree to the terms of the Participation Agreement, including price and other parity requirements, by your continued participation in the Amazon.co.uk marketplace programme.
Will these requirements apply for other international Amazon Marketplaces?
These requirements apply to the Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and Amazon.fr marketplaces. We are not rolling-out these requirements to other Amazon marketplaces outside of the EU at this time.
What happens if I am not willing to offer parity with respect to price or other applicable terms?
Sellers who are not willing to offer parity should remove their listings, as Sellers that do not comply with our terms and conditions will lose their selling privileges.
What do you consider to be non-physical sales channels?
Non-physical sales channels include all sales channels and other means through which products are offered or sold by you or your affiliates, other than physical stores. Non-physical sales channels specifically include any online channels, mobile device applications, catalogues, third party platforms or marketplaces (e.g., ebay.co.uk), and other electronically-enabled channels or other means through which products are offered or sold by you or your affiliates, other than physical stores.
I would like to close my Amazon Seller Account; how do I do this?
You can close your Seller Account by contacting Seller Support and asking them to close your Seller Account.
Surely this is out-and-out illegal activity from Amazon in the UK, and throughout the EU?
Is this not price-fixing at its crudest and worst, and from a market player so dominant that no one much would be able to resist such a stricture, and survive at his or her trade?
I would respectfully ask you why should a US corporation like Amazon be entitled to simply re-structure book prices throughout Europe so that "price parity" is achieved to its own colossal commercial advantage (i.e. nobody allowed to sell anywhere else online at a cheaper price)?
And why should independent booksellers in the UK and throughout Europe not be permitted to set their own price levels on their private websites and on small sites as they see fit, whether more or less expensive than the prices they list at the corporate bookselling giant Amazon?
Does Amazon simply have some sort of licence to set online prices at whatever levels they please throughout the UK and Europe?
Do the Fair Trading bodies in both jurisdictions have any powers to intervene in this blatant piece of price-fixing and market bullying by a US corporate giant, or is the Internet retail environment considered off-limits and entirely piratical insofar as Fair Trading laws are concerned?
I would appreciate an answer from you re the above.
Yours faithfully
Your name
DRAFT Ends
I would like to offer a warm welcome to members of World Bookmarket (www.worldbookmarket.com) some of whom already list here, and some of whom are visiting for the first time.
World Book Market (WBM) is an international co-operative of booksellers who believe quality of books and quality of service far outweigh quantity of listings. Collectively, they offer one of the world's best and safest book-buying sites.
As well as administering this auction site, I list my own books on a number of others - indeed I started The Specialist Auctioneer because of the frustrations of listing on the big sites. WBM offers a refreshing alternative to these, as well as excellent support and listing tools.
Of course, I would like to welcome any other visitors to this site. I have tried to make it as user friendly as possible, and to offer good value for money (the only fee is a 4% commission when an item sells, so the amount of money is small). Please don't hesitate to send me any feedback or wishes for the site.
Mike
An upload program that takes information from eBay Turbolister listings, or Homebase 2.3 listings is now available. Turbolister items can be sent via the uploader for immediate listing at the specialist engineer (though if the items have been downloaded from eBay onto Turbolister these often include some extra scripting that needs to be removed - an easy process). The fonts are format of the auction are unchanged.
Homebase items need conversion - since the raw data is unformatted. If users have Microsoft Excel and now how to use it, this is quite a swift process and a spreadsheet is available. For those unsure if they can do this themselves, The Specialist Auctioneer is pleased to offer free conversion and formatting of Homebase data so that it can be quickly edited in the uploader for easy listing. An email offering these to all registered members was sent Thursday, May 21.
This site is optimized for google and other search engines. But there can be a delay between search engines receiving and displaying info.
In this period, the book or collectible might have sold. BUT before you go, put the name in to the SEARCH box at the top left - it might have been relisted.
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