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Yesterday I made my most accidental sale of all time. Someone had emailed me earlier in the week asking for bank details so they could pay for a book, the eBay id didn’t ring a bell but sometimes people ask so they know ahead of bidding/buying whether you bank with some obscure building society that doesn’t have a branch in their town. Some people just won’t do any banking on line and I don’t blame them. On-line financial transactions have a certain degree of risk. From my perspective providing a bsb and acct no. is safe as people can only deposit not withdraw, so I blithely send her my details.
A couple of days later in my acct appeared a deposit for $9.32 with an eBay user Id. An odd amount indeed. $9.45 or $9.95 I would get but not $9.32. I checked my sales just in case, nothing. I emailed the sender asking if they were sure they meant to pay me. I duly got a message back saying no it was someone else and could I transfer it back? Of course I thought with a sinking feeling. Here is the rub. My bank has a security measure whereby I have to add the recipient’s account as an authorised transferee then I have to obtain an SMS code to approve the transfer. This works really well if you have a mobile phone, I don’t have a mobile phone. I was using my daughter’s old phone just for this purpose but had a strong suspicioun I needed to pay something to keep it active. Or at least charge the battery. It’s been months since I have done either. No problem. I would just call in at a branch and deposit it over the counter. I read the email again to check her account information. She banks with an obscure building society that doesn’t have a branch in my town. Okay, I thought, I’ll see if I can ring the bank and get them to change the mobile number to an active one belonging to an offspring. How about a Money Order the erstwhile buyer suggested. Hmm I thought $5 to purchase a money order and a 60c stamp to post back $9.32. How about I sell you a book instead? I suggested. Okay that worked. I had one she wanted and I have packed it and posted it off. The $9.32 gets to stay in my account. Read the full story »
The backcover splat basically sells Terminal Freeze as scientists in an abandoned sonar research lab in the arctic are eaten by frozen sabretooth tiger. Throw in a documentary crew who’s there to reveal the defrosted …
Brian W. Webster
bwwebster@gmail.com
I recently came into possession of a book – “Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev in 1867 – in not very good condition. I have been experimenting with a product called “Absorene”, originally used …
Shane Gottwals
www.gottwalsbooks.com
Gottwals Books, as of this coming Friday, is a 4-store operation. This would be adventuresome enough if all the stores were within a close proximity, but our newest location in North Carolina …
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour is out. The 6th and final book of a series that has been published one volume per year since 2004 is out. The story is finished. In the …
This is a crime novel. I don’t ordinarily go in for that type of book, but being that it was by one of my favorite authors, and also that I happened to have an autographed …
What we’ve been up to at Blarney Books…
Well, we do seem to be becoming a rather busy little bookshop these days, and some of it isn’t even about books! Our art side of the …
Directly around where I have my computer and cash register the books in the window are stacked head high to give me a little privacy from the people who liked to press their faces against the glass and stare at me from two feet away.
Shane Gottwals
www.gottwalsbooks.com
Want to open a bookstore? Don’t want it to fail?
I’ll assume both of these are affirmatives since you have come to The Bookshop Blog. In the business world, there are few …
Another blogger mentioned the bookshop being part of the community and I think that is an important part of why it is worth offering a book exchange service, despite the pain in the neck that …
I love John Saul. I have been a fan since I was about eight years old and my sister and I snuck a copy of Suffer the Children from a friend’s house. I haven’t …
