Tom's ebay Page

The book business
I used to sell books at the flea market, but now sell exclusively on the internet. I pride myself on selling books in the best condition that I can find. I sell on eBay as well as ABEBOOKS, ALIBRIS and HALF.COM. I collect some books myself, mostly leather bound and 19th century history.

My eBay Policies
Feedback: I will give feedback to buyers, but not immediately upon payment. Please be patient and I will give you any deserved positive feedback. I oppose eBay's new feedback policy, that does not allow sellers to give any neutral or negative feedback, leaving the seller with no recourse if a buyer does not fulfill their part of the transaction.

Payment: I accept as payment; Paypal, Check, Money Order or well-concealed cash. For personal checks, I may hold the item for 7-10 days. With all other types of payment, I will mail within 5 days of receiving the payment. For international customers, any check or money order needs to have the name of a United States bank on it, otherwise, my bank will not cash it. One option is to use a post office money order, which the U.S. Post Office will cheerfully cash.

Shipping: I do not believe that shipping should make the Post Office rich. I try to balance cost and safety when shipping.

I ship CDs in a bubble mailer and use first class mail. Once in a while, the CD case get cracked during shipping, but that is all.

I usually ship books via media mail, also in a bubble mailer. If I feel a book is valuable or especially fragile, I will use a priority mail box and specify the priority mail price in the auction description.

I always ship 12" records in a flat box using meaid or priority mail. This keeps them pretty safe. I ship 45s either in a priority mail box or in a bubble mailer with cardboard on both sides of the record.

Normally, I do not insure packages with a value of under $50. In more than 3 years of shipping items through the post office, I have only lost a couple packages and only a handful have been damaged in transit. If a customer requests insurance and pays the extra cost, I will insure the package.

It is up to the buyer to let know if they would like other shipping arrangements than those I have stated here.