[pbnjeh]

I've had a few outright duds with them, but mostly their product has been as expected.

EXCEPT, they ship mostly in plastic envelopes. And the items not infrequently get damaged during transit.

I have a set of "very good" Magnum PI DVD's that I expect shipped that way. But the DVD's weren't secured in their box. The season 4 plastic case slid far enough out of the boxed set to get dinged and broken. The internal DVD holder's mount is destroyed and the DVD's are just floating around in there.

I was stocking up on some older, "classic" CS titles, and I ordered several together (free shipping on orders over X dollars...). They arrived all crammed into one plastic envelope that looked like it had been dragged along for a while behind the delivery truck. (In reality, this is what the distribution center belts can do to an object, and a heavy package in a thin plastic envelope does not fare well.)

With just a thin, flexible plastic layer for protection, a number of corners on these "very good" books were bent and beat up. I've had covers arrive abraded. One title had one end of the binding crushed.

I still appreciate getting several titles I've wanted for way off cover price. But I wish they'd take a bit more care when shipping.

And, you never know what you're going to get. With them, I've taken to trying to order such that DVD's and Blu rays won't ship together with books (you can imagine what happens). But, when an item may not effectively ship for up to a week, this takes some schedule juggling and follow up. Plus, that used item may sell out in the meantime. And it also means sometimes foregoing the free shipping you get by clustering items.

I guess these are all first world problems, but it's frustrating. Plus, good condition items get trashed for the sake of lack of care / expediency in one step. Wasteful.

[jarjar2_]

Hrm. I've never ordered anything from them beyond books. I'm at 58 books so far this year from them, and they've always arrived as I've ordered them. I've had a couple of books listed as new come in boxed packaging instead of the plastic envelope. Nothing ripped or crushed so far.

I wish they did ship a little faster. As it's usually 10-12 days from when I order it before I get it. Then again I'm usually getting free shipping and if I'm not I'm only paying $1.60 for media rate, which is a hell of a deal.

[pbnjeh]

I've placed a number of orders with them, and many come through ok. But the shipping damage is often enough to be frustrating. I had one hard-to-get DVD arrive with the typical DVD plastic case shattered in one area into many pieces floating around the the plastic envelope. Fortunately, the DVD itself stayed in it's splayed fingers holder thingy, and it itself was still ok, image side sheltered by the remains of the case.

They also seem to have become less accurate/consistent in the last year or so, with their quality grading. I've gotten a few "good" or "acceptable" titles that looked very good or almost new, but also some "very good" titles with extensive writing, highlighting, or damage.

Perhaps ironically, I've started looking for the same title used on Amazon, and if the options are comparable, picking a highly rated seller there, instead.

This year, I intend to try looking at eBay, more. Not just for books. For some things, but certainly not others.

Care is required, but there are good sellers and often better prices than Bezosland. This impression is partially formed by more recent comments from others that I've read. So, I'm going to experiment and check that out.

[pbnjeh]

P.S. Just the other day, I ordered a new book from Thriftbooks ( for reasons) and it arrived in that cut to size thin but stiff sticky on one side cardboard, when two pieces are slapped together around the book. That seems to work rather well, and the title, a paperback, arrived in perfect shape.

It shipped from a Texas location, and I seem to recall one or two other books from them that were also shipped that way. And that at least one of those also came from a Texas location of theirs.