Special Announcements by Craig Stark 22 July 2026

Same old eBay story. You see a book online that's priced low and, if purchased, potentially may deliver a profit. As deeply as you might research it based on the information the seller provides, as much as you attempt to assess its condition based on a photo or two or a text description, things can still misfire. I return about 12% to 15% of the books I buy, and nearly always it's because the seller failed to show or mention something that would have been a deal breaker. Believe it or not, these return requests used to be lot a higher, somewhere around 25%.

What changed? Certainly not an upsurge in sellers getting better at presenting books for sale. If anything, they've gotten worse. Descriptions are shorter, for one thing, sometimes as pitifully short as "see my photos for condition." Also, overall book knowledge among booksellers has declined with the ever-increasing surge in competition. Seemingly, few sellers have the time to be thorough, the knowledge to speak the language of bookselling or in any way learn much about books at all, least of all digging into what makes a few books valuable and what the rest hardly worth bothering with. What they do have time for is using time-saving templates with off-putting terms of sale, disclaimers about not being booksellers and urgent pleas that plead, if you have a question, ask it before you bid. If you're like me, however, you set up automatic proxy bids which don't kick in until a few seconds before an auction ends. Not much time to get a question answered, as if I'd be sitting there watching with my finger on the trigger in the last few seconds anyway.

But speaking from much experience now, I've improved my success at buying books at low prices and selling them at much higher prices. How? By taking advantage of eBay's evolution to a buyer-friendly bias several years ago, which has resulted in never, ever having a return request declined in the seller's favor. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I'm also careful to give a valid explanation why and include photos, whenever possible to offer visible proof, also to double check to see that the issue I have isn't disclosed in the original listing. But here's the thing most buyers don't talk much about: If you confine your purchases to lower-dollar items, somewhere in the $5 to $25 range, many times the seller will not only accept the request but also tell you to keep the book. It makes economic sense for them because the return postage they're required to pay often ends up to be near what I paid for the book. More often than not, then, I can repair the book and resell it for a significant profit.

This brings me to the repair topic. To win auctions at basement level outcomes, I also inspect the description as carefully as possible for the likelihood I'll be able to correct what is obviously an issue (or might be) with the book, whether or not I end up paying for it or getting a refund. And this brings me to the topic of today's feature article, "How to Remove Odors From Books." This constitutes a much-needed second visit to a 2008 BookThinker article on ozone generators because it's much cheaper to do this now and I've had years to refine a protocol for successfully accomplishing it. And keeping it safe.

Also, a reminder to readers. If you haven't already done so, please consider joining us at a recently launched BookThink Facebook page. You'll not only have an opportunity to interact with other booksellers, many of whom have years of experience, but will also gain access to bookselling how-to that doesn't appear in the newsletter. Participation of booksellers at any level is welcome, and it's easy and free to register.

You can join here.