My cute family!

My name is Joe and I am the Utah Book Man! Here's my story...

I was raised in the East, traveled to the North, South & West, lived in Guatemala for two years and now I reside in the inter-mountain West. I have a love for life and for family! My greatest joys in life are: the knowledge I have of the meaning of life; the atoning sacrifice of my Savior, Jesus Christ; the fact that He lives and has re-established His Church once again upon the Earth; the love of my wife and two beautiful children! I truly am blessed and love life! On another note, I love sports and have always been very athletic. I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox and have been for over 25 years. I am also a big fan of the University of Maryland sports teams! Go Terrapins!

I love to read and am now down to just under 7 thousand books in my collection (no kidding). I also love studying history. I am a US Civil War buff and have visited several historic battlefields. I do not enjoy war, but I do have a fascination with the traditions, ceremonies, uniforms, the struggles, differences of opinions, the reactions of the main players involved, and most of all the lives of the fighter on the front-lines. It is hard to view any conflict throughout the history of the world and not feel a sense of longing support for those soldiers that could have cared less either way, but they went about doing their duty. It is to these men and women that we should always offer our support, respect and above all our gratitude. Whenever you see a soldier, sailor, airmen, Coast Guardsman or Marine, do not disrespect them because of your political point of view or whatever your feelings on war are; but rather, shake their hand and say thank you! Remember, it is because of them that you sleep in peace at night.

I have always had a profound interest in US military history, past and present, ever since I was a young child when I would dress up in fatigues and wear my dad's service ribbons. Growing up thousands of miles away from family (cousins, grandparents, etc..), that on holidays such as Memorial Day or Veteran's Day, or any other holiday for that matter, my family would drive or take the Metro into Washington DC and visit the memorials and monuments dedicated to those servicemen & women that gave the last full measure. The Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Veteran's Day are more than just another day off work for me; they actually mean something special and I have done my best to convey that feeling of gratitude I have to my children. I believe it is important to teach our children about the past, and especially about their own family history. My own ancestors have participated in every war where the U.S. has been involved. From my 17th great grandpa, William Marriott, who was the High Sheriff of Jamestowne, VA, on down to those that served in the French and Indian wars, to the Revolutionary War (where my 4th great grandpa Patrick Cragun was one of the few dozen people that dressed up as Indians and participated in the Boston Tea Party), to the War of 1812 where several of my ancestors from Tennessee distinguished themselves in battle, to the Civil War where I had ancestors on both sides of that divisive conflict; WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and most recently in Iraq I & II. We have historically been a family involved in war.

My siblings and I are the first generation of our family that I am aware of to have not served in the military. I enlisted in the Marines at age 17, but my dad wouldn't sign the release papers. When I turned 18 a year later I had other things that took priority in my life and I focused my attention on preparing to serve the Lord on an LDS Christian mission. Once I returned from my mission, I went in for testing with the Utah Army National Guard when I was 21 to be a Spanish translator, and passed with flying colors; ironically I also happened to meet my wife around that exact same time. We talked about my decision to join and ultimatey I decided not to join the military and leave her for such a long period of time; since right after basic training I would have been sent to a specialized training school for 18 months. The last time I made a serious attempt to join the military was at the age of 28. My next door neighbor and good friend, Jim Cawley, was killed in Iraq. The first few weeks after he died, I prepared myself mentally, emotionally and got myself back into shape physically. I was preparing for Basic training. I had studied Hebrew in college and now I wanted to become an Arabic linguist/translator so that I would be sent to Iraq. Revenge was in no way a factor in this decision. I truly wanted to learn about the people who lived in the Arab world (who were so religious and devoted to their God, and yet so persecuted). I also wanted to go to the place where my friend was forever in this life silenced. Another view I had of the war was as an opening of the doors by the Lord. I knew that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed to all the world and now this might be the opportunity wherein eventually missionaries would be allowed in. I thought that if I learned Arabic now and went over there, that when I was older, I would be able to serve another full time mission for the Lord. Yet my plans changed. While I was in the middle of discussing my options with the recruiters and straightening out our financial situation, always planning what was the best option for my family, my wife came to me and told me she was pregnant with our second child. This was exciting news! But I knew that I would have to give up the thought of serving in the military after that. I couldn't imagine leaving her to raise both of our children alone.
Well, whatever my reasons or excuses have been over the years, I never joined the military and I still view that to a certain degree as a void in my life. Perhaps this is why I feel so strongly when it comes to supporting our troops. I feel a kinship to those that have served and wish that I were a part of their group. Besides military history, I learned several insights about myself from researching my family history. One thing I believe is that if you don't know where you come from, you won't have a clue where you are going. I recommend everyone search out their own family history. You never know what you will find. I am proud of my ancestors who sacrificed so much that I might live in freedom!

Our Savior

Now, on a lighter note, why do I eBay? Why not? (Except for the fact that their fees keep get getting higher and higher). It is a fun place to meet all sorts of people. I was introduced to eBay in college back in 1996 or '97, but personally I have been a registered member since 1999. I mostly bought various items for the first few years, however the last several years I have really enjoyed selling. It started off as a way to get rid of my huge sports card collection but has turned into a quest to sell off my Ginormous book collection! As I moved from a couple of books each month to several dozen I decided in January 2007 to register my business and try to do this full time. At this point, I don't think at the rate I am going I will ever be able to sell enough to earn a decent living but as long as I pay the bills that's good for now.
I worked for eBay at their Draper, Utah location for a couple of years. I did support for the eBay.uk site for a few months and then moved into UK & US investigations. Eventually becoming a member of the proactive fraud team. I dealt with account take-overs, email scams, and many other fraudelent auctions that helped keep the eBay.com site safe. I have much more experience with eBay than most of the biggest power sellers on here, as I know all of the ins and outs in a way they never could. (By the way, never give out your personal information in an email or over the phone and don't fall for scams where you are going to get a lot of money but first you have to send them some money or account information- these are lies!). It still amazes me at how dishonest some people are and how hard they make it for the rest of society to live in peace. Well, I did that for a few years, but then eBay decided that it would be better to outsource most of the jobs in the US to cheaper labor pools. While I was there they opened a center in India as well as a new facility in Vancouver, Canada. It's always about the bottom line in business - it is interesting how their customer service seemed to drop as soon as they went with cheaper labor. They didn't care about their employees, all they cared about was the share holders. Oh well. After leaving eBay I realized that I had such an in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of the world of eBay, what people were searching for and most importantly how to be safe, it made it a natural fit for me to go all out, start my business & increase my sales.
I'll say it again, working there made me see firsthand how all of the terrible people in the world try to steal anything they can and get gain from innocent or just naive people. They usually do it by invoking the name of God as if they were somehow religious. Oh what a gullible society we are. It really is a sad world we live in- even worse than Sodom & Gomorrah. So, I used that knowledge, along with years of buying and selling on eBay & research techniques such as follow patterns & trends. Timing really is everythign when it comes to online sales. I saw first hand how the law of supply and demand is still alive and well. I find it fascinating watching the value people place on certain items (in my case mostly books). It is interesting watching each particular item jump in price when a lot of people are searching for the same thing, and then drop dramatically in price just as fast, depending on the time of year or number of people bidding. Since we are such a demanding, needy, must have everything now type of society, prices for everything seem to inflate and deflate overnight. My desire is that all people that use eBay enjoy it as much as I do and I try to provide a smooth experience for everyone who buys from me. I try to be as descriptive as possible to avoid any confusion when an item arrives. I have on occasion made mistakes, as do we all. But this is not something I have ever done on purpose. Over the years I have been made aware of only a handful of problems in my listings out of several thousand. If you happen to be one of these people, then I would say that I am truly sorry for any inconvenience. But for the rest of you potential or current buyers, you can trust I always do the right thing. Likewise, I hope that all buyers as well as other sellers  are honest about themselves & what they represent.

I have had some really good success on eBay over the years and a lot of repeat customers. Thanks everyone! I hope that is because of the customer service I provide. If there are any questions or concerns about a transaction you have with me, please don't hesitate to contact me."...for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly" - Hebrews 13:18

5 Star Feedback Rating System! With the inception of the new feedback platform, sellers are graded on a 5 star ranking in 4 categories. Please be aware that I do my best to merit 5 star rankings in every category. 1. Communication is important and I try to leave everyone at least a little note in the PayPal confirmation email of when I ship out your package. If you do not pay within the first 48 hours I also try to send an email thanking you for your purchase and letting you know the total in an invoice. 2. Also, I always ship out items the same day they are paid for, or if it is after 4-5PM, I send it out the next day, but always within the first 24 hours. Since most of what I sell is books or videos and they are sent media mail, they sometimes may take up to 10 business days to arrive. I know this can be frustrating, but please, when leaving feedback, check the postage stamp date and you will see I did everything possible to get it to you as quickly as I could. 3. As for shipping charges, I too get frustrated when a seller charges $5 or even upwards of $6.99 for a book when it only costs $3.65 for postage to mail it. I usually charge between $1.95 - $4.00 depending on the weight of the book. Usually I take a loss or brake even but occassionally I do make a quarter or so on shipping. From time to time I have sales where I give away free shipping! In these cases I am simply giving back to the customers, but they don't always recognize that and even still sometimes they leave low ratings in this area. Shipping charges included postage as well as other assorted costs such as packaging tape, boxes or padding, packaging peanuts, etc. I try to charge as little over the actual postage amount as possible. I know you want the lowest price possible and I don't want to lose money, so we do what we can and move forward. There are several other costs that go into a shipping charge; however I barely break even when it comes to shipping. I do not charge outrageous fees and hope that you will also recognize that when leaving your feedback. 4. The items I describe are as accurate as possible. I also do my best to take multiple pictures for every auction to show details that many sellers just don't care to add. Yes, once in a while I do mess up and I do whatever I can to make things right, but that is a very rare occassion. For 99.9+% of the time I always picture and describe everything exactly as you will receive it. Thanks again for your business! If there is any reason why you believe I do not deserve 5 stars across the board, please email me with any concern you might have and as always I appreciate your business!

 

 

I am also a Registered Trading Assistant and if you have something to sell but don't have the time to list it, I can do it for you for much less than practically every other registered trading assistant. But please make sure it is worth my time, I don't want to sell a thousand items that are worth two dollars each. Click here for more details! Click here to find out how I can sell your stuff on eBay!

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