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[QUOTE=Brian;5236105]Hard to believe it's the one year anniversary of this sale. Is anyone else watching Amazon DE like a hawk to see if it's repeated this year? :)[/QUOTE]
Same here.
I have actually started watching Amazon.de several times a few days before,in case the promotion apeared earlier that last year,hopefully they have another one this year as well.
I was considerating buying some collected editions earlier this month,but with this promotion making a year i realized it would be better to save the money in case the heavily discounted prices of collected editions apear again in Amazon.De.
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[QUOTE=Brian;5236105]Hard to believe it's the one year anniversary of this sale. Is anyone else watching Amazon DE like a hawk to see if it's repeated this year? :)[/QUOTE]
I was also thinking about this :). and wondering whether we would see something similar. Let's hope we get some nice offers.
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[QUOTE=Captain Craig;5191120]Since that is even better than a DCBS pre-order or IST discount of late I uncharacteristically placed an order with Amazon for this. I fully expect to have to return the first copy because it'll come damaged. Still that nuisance will be the price I pay for the great price on the book.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]101485[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
Mine finally arrived yesterday. First omnibus ordered from Amazon in about 8-10 years.
Book was in a box larger than the omni, with ZERO packing whatsoever. Not even those worthless air pillows - it had nothing.
BUT, the book is 100% fine. So go figure. I'm just lucky I guess. But seriously, who puts a big@$$ book into a box and doesn't put ANYTHING in the box as far as packing??!! Amazon packers, that's who...
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[QUOTE=Rimmer;5237281]Mine finally arrived yesterday. First omnibus ordered from Amazon in about 8-10 years.
Book was in a box larger than the omni, with ZERO packing whatsoever. Not even those worthless air pillows - it had nothing.
BUT, the book is 100% fine. So go figure. I'm just lucky I guess. But seriously, who puts a big@$$ book into a box and doesn't put ANYTHING in the box as far as packing??!! Amazon packers, that's who...[/QUOTE]
The Amazon packers probably make minimum wage and are under insane pressure to pack X number of boxes or items per hour or whatever. My understanding is the computer tells them to use Y type of packaging to fit the order (so it could be too big), and packing material is probably optional. I can't blame the packers for the way stuff comes from Amazon's warehouses. That's a deliberate decision by Amazon at the corporate level.
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I bought Year Zero Volume 1 for $4. I got a discount on it lol. Pretty decent book even if you're paying the full price of $14.
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[QUOTE=kodave;5244546]The Amazon packers probably make minimum wage and are under insane pressure to pack X number of boxes or items per hour or whatever. My understanding is the computer tells them to use Y type of packaging to fit the order (so it could be too big), and packing material is probably optional. I can't blame the packers for the way stuff comes from Amazon's warehouses. That's a deliberate decision by Amazon at the corporate level.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but what are you basing that on? Media speculation?
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[QUOTE=hyped78;5245017]Sorry, but what are you basing that on? Media speculation?[/QUOTE]
It's more than media speculation. Journalists have been basing their stories on reports from actual Amazon workers on the working conditions in the warehouses in America. I doubt practices internationally vary too much, but I'll admit I don't follow any news about Amazon warehouse conditions outside of America. But it's clear that Amazon workers are under a time crunch to meet their quotas.
There is no personal incentive for them to package items with much real protection if the computer doesn't tell them to. Even if the computer tells them to, which I doubt based on the fact I've never received an extra protected Omnibus from Amazon, what makes more sense for them under their quota crunch? Spend 3 extra minutes wrapping up an Omnibus, or just tossing it into a box so they can pull/package a handful of other items to meet their quota for the day?
And its clear Amazon doesn't care. If returns due to damage start becoming a problem, Amazon would likely pull the product to investigate how to package it better to decrease the abnormally high number of returns. Clearly returns due to damage on books aren't moving the financial needle for it to matter to Amazon since absolutely nothing about their shipping practices for collector books has changed in a over a decade.
Besides, short of filling a box full of packing peanuts or foam or individually wrapping the book in bubble wrap, there's not much workers can do. Amazon doesn't package anything with those materials as far as I'm aware. And those airbag strips or a little bit of brown packing paper crumpled up aren't going to adequately protect a heavy omnibus sliding around in an oversized box. Everyone's best hope for an undamaged Omnibus is shipment in a box about the size of the omnibus (I'm blanking on the box designation - maybe A14 or something like that?) or shipment in the cardboard fold over envelope.
My ultimate point is its disingenuous to blame an Amazon warehouse employee who likely packed the book exactly as he or she has been told to pack thousands of other books and items, just as Amazon has been packing books and items for years and years and years. The qualm should be with Amazon at a corporate level. Or maybe we should be looking to the publishers themselves. If we think these are collector books that deserve special treatment, maybe they should all come in their own cardboard boxes from the bindery like DC's Absolute editions do.
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I'm not sure that there is that much prescription, I think it sometimes comes down to whatever is available. But at the end of the day, it should be the responsibility of the employer to make sure that people (a) have the right equipment, (b) are properly trained and (c) that there is some system in place to make sure that poor packaging is identified either before or afterwards so that this can be rectified. Did any copies of the Akira box set manage to get to customers in decent shape?
The last person I'm going to blame is a minimum wage worker who has an incredibly monotonous job. Especially when those workers have carried on turning up for work in questionable conditions during a global pandemic.
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[QUOTE=kodave;5244546]The Amazon packers probably make minimum wage and are under insane pressure to pack X number of boxes or items per hour or whatever. My understanding is the computer tells them to use Y type of packaging to fit the order (so it could be too big), and packing material is probably optional. I can't blame the packers for the way stuff comes from Amazon's warehouses. That's a deliberate decision by Amazon at the corporate level.[/QUOTE]
They don't make minimum wage, but it's usually around $10-12 at least here in the midwest. Which is much better then <$8 per hour, but, to put it differently, you can make that much working at Target or a grocery store, which is a LOT less stressful.
Kudos to the Amazon workers. I worked in a factory for 3 years when I was in and out of college, and it was the hardest job I ever had, hot, sweaty, back breaking - I now work on the computer all day. Those people definitely earn their money (not that I don't, but it's just different if you know what I mean).
And yeah, I will admit the packing is kinda ridiculous, but I don't really blame the workers, it's upper mgmt that puts the quotas and whatever on them. If they cared as a company, they'd pack better. but as it is, lots of packages (I'm assuming) do NOT get returned, so they're cool with it. Kinda like McDonald's only putting 1 pickle on vs. 2, etc...
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[QUOTE=kodave;5245251]It's more than media speculation. Journalists have been basing their stories on reports from actual Amazon workers on the working conditions in the warehouses in America. I doubt practices internationally vary too much, but I'll admit I don't follow any news about Amazon warehouse conditions outside of America. But it's clear that Amazon workers are under a time crunch to meet their quotas.
There is no personal incentive for them to package items with much real protection if the computer doesn't tell them to. Even if the computer tells them to, which I doubt based on the fact I've never received an extra protected Omnibus from Amazon, what makes more sense for them under their quota crunch? Spend 3 extra minutes wrapping up an Omnibus, or just tossing it into a box so they can pull/package a handful of other items to meet their quota for the day?
And its clear Amazon doesn't care. If returns due to damage start becoming a problem, Amazon would likely pull the product to investigate how to package it better to decrease the abnormally high number of returns. Clearly returns due to damage on books aren't moving the financial needle for it to matter to Amazon since absolutely nothing about their shipping practices for collector books has changed in a over a decade.
Besides, short of filling a box full of packing peanuts or foam or individually wrapping the book in bubble wrap, there's not much workers can do. Amazon doesn't package anything with those materials as far as I'm aware. And those airbag strips or a little bit of brown packing paper crumpled up aren't going to adequately protect a heavy omnibus sliding around in an oversized box. Everyone's best hope for an undamaged Omnibus is shipment in a box about the size of the omnibus (I'm blanking on the box designation - maybe A14 or something like that?) or shipment in the cardboard fold over envelope.
My ultimate point is its disingenuous to blame an Amazon warehouse employee who likely packed the book exactly as he or she has been told to pack thousands of other books and items, just as Amazon has been packing books and items for years and years and years. The qualm should be with Amazon at a corporate level. Or maybe we should be looking to the publishers themselves. If we think these are collector books that deserve special treatment, maybe they should all come in their own cardboard boxes from the bindery like DC's Absolute editions do.[/QUOTE]
And that's fine but to say "That's a deliberate decision by Amazon at the corporate level" is a stretch, was my point.
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[QUOTE=hyped78;5246675]And that's fine but to say "That's a deliberate decision by Amazon at the corporate level" is a stretch, was my point.[/QUOTE]
But it's not a stretch. The quote that kicked this off was: "But seriously, who puts a big@$$ book into a box and doesn't put ANYTHING in the box as far as packing??!! Amazon packers, that's who..."
So yes, technically the Amazon packers put it in with no packing/padding. But the Amazon packers are following what the computer is telling them to do, all while under an intense time crunch and quota. Amazon's system knows the dimensions of the item, the dimensions of anything else in the order that might be shipping from the same warehouse, and it tells the worker what box/mailer they should use. Amazon's goal is for the packers to be mindless packing drones until they can get literal robots to do all of the pulling and packing. The workers are not there to think about if throwing in some air bags will stop the book from slamming around and getting damaged. Corporate intentionally does not care if your item gets a little dinged up until the number of returns for damaged items cross a certain threshold. This whole packing system is a deliberate corporate decision to push out as many boxes at possible as fast as possible with under X amount or percentage returned because of poor packaging. Hence, the original poster should be mad at Amazon corporate for deliberately setting that kind of policy, not the warehouse workers.
The reality is, it doesn't make sense for Amazon to have any different of a policy, so collectors are more likely to lose out with damaged books. If you want to support good packing policies, buy from IST, etc. who deliberately go out of their way to provide excellent packaging.
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I don't think you're right but won't try to change your mind and I do understand where you're coming from.
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Forbidden Planet UK have some books on sale:
[url]https://forbiddenplanet.com/catalog/comics-and-graphic-novels/graphic-novels/?tag__promotion=black-friday-2020&sort=relevance&page=1&mc_cid=cf57ff4468&mc_eid=5b216ad41c[/url]
Nabbed a copy of Zero Hour Omnibus for £46.00!
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[QUOTE=JAG2045;5248811]Forbidden Planet UK have some books on sale:
[url]https://forbiddenplanet.com/catalog/comics-and-graphic-novels/graphic-novels/?tag__promotion=black-friday-2020&sort=relevance&page=1&mc_cid=cf57ff4468&mc_eid=5b216ad41c[/url]
Nabbed a copy of Zero Hour Omnibus for £46.00![/QUOTE]
Seen any other UK Black Friday deals?
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[QUOTE=hyped78;5249253]Seen any other UK Black Friday deals?[/QUOTE]
None as yet but will post here if I do :)