We would like to think that being a member of Choice Books would give you a better experience not only in respect to usability but as a direct result of this,
increased sales. We believe that giving the customer what they want – and in customer I mean our relationship with you, and on from that your relationship with
your buyers – is paramount. What really seems to aggrieve people in today’s internet driven consumer market, is that more and more companies appear to be faceless.
Everything is bought and sold via email and no dialogue is taking place. With Choice Books – if you have a problem you can call for assistance – you can certainly
contact us via email – but you will find a personal approach to an issue rather than the all too common generic email reply – it means very little when all a
company has done is insert your name on a auto-generated letter. Very rarely is an issue or concern addressed as it should. We intend to keep this as one of
our aims – we hope you hold the same ideals.
2. How does Choice Books generate revenue?
Choice Books at the time of launch creates no revenue at all. Our overriding belief is that any website – however good it is, is dependant on the content within it.
We could have the best website available, but if people don’t become members and list on it then others won’t look – so it is wasted effort.
What we want to do is get bookstores and individual traders to support Choice Books in a bid to become a reputable company – and as this totally
relies on you guy’s to help us achieve that – we didn’t see it as good business sense to charge new members. So in answer to the question Choice Books
doesn’t generate revenue. This basically means that from launch until 1st November – ALL listings and Final Value Fees (FVF) will not be chargeable.
From 1st November onwards we will be introducing a FVF structure. We are confident that by this time you will be experiencing good sales and feel it is
worthwhile staying with us. That said, you will be more than welcome to remove yourself from the member list and we will have been happy to help you.
Please bear in mind though – you will from this date still not be paying for any services unless you sell your stock!
3. What is the driving force within Choice Books?
Choice Books originated from an unhealthy obsession in collecting signed 1st edition books. As we evolved over the years we needed to counter this buying by
selling to others the books we either didn’t feel we wanted any more, or that had realised an increase in their saleability. We had the means then to further
fund our interests. As this gathered pace we opened a shop on eBay. As time went on we found over and over again eBay increased the fees structure on the site
– which is fine, but this instilled in us a need to create a better selling environment for us to sell books. From June 2005 we introduced Choice Books as a
trading website – we have to say it looked far from grand in the early days, and we sold very little via the site still relying on eBay for selling. A year later
in June 2006 we updated the site to become more user friendly – but still only listed books available from Choice Books. Since September 2007 we have been working
tirelessly to update our site to allow others to benefit from the excellent features available. We hope you agree it is fantastic. We now want other sellers
to enjoy the benefits we have built into Choice Books.
4. Just how free is Free?
So – as the saying goes, you never get a free lunch – correct in the majority of cases, but it makes us proud to be able to announce that Free actually means
Free. We have been in very tight negotiations with web designers and hosting companies to be able to deliver in the first instance Free listing services to all.
You will need to be authorised to list on the site but after this – you simply need to log in and it’s as simple as that. You can list an unlimited number of books
on the site. You can sell an unlimited number of books with no value ceiling in place – and it won’t cost you a penny. As mentioned in the above answer – after
this Free period we will be introducing FVF which will be very competitive with other book listing sites – but listing fees will remain free into 2009. Come
1st November – if you don’t feel that it is worth staying with us then you close your account and we will bid you good luck.
5. Can I list whatever books I chose?
Choice Books is primarily a place to sell your signed, rare and 1st edition collectible books. We would like to think that people would visit Choice Books to
find that elusive missing volume or the highlight to a collection. We would like to stay away from listing thousands of books for 10p each –
it would simply go against the philosophy of the site. There are other places you can list such books (but we won’t mention them!) We will constantly
monitor the listings and contact sellers who blatantly go against this site goal.
6. How many pictures can I list per book?
Another exciting feature only available at Choice Books is the ability to upload any number of pictures with each listing. The maximum size per picture
is 3Mb and will be resized to best fit into the standard web browser. We think that for a very expensive book buyers would like to see high resolution
images before making a commitment to buy. Very seldom you will see a number of pictures with a book on any website. When we have sold expensive books
in the past we have always tried to answer any potential questions regarding condition of the book with pictures. We have seen books for sale for upwards of
£20,000 and the only picture available to view is a stock picture of the cover. This seems crazy to us – we certainly wouldn’t consider a purchase by
viewing a stock photo. This also reduces the need for emails asking or requesting further images – it gives buyers more information regards the book for
sale and therefore increases the chance of a sale.