Packaging, Shipping, Refunds and Replacements - Share your Experiences!

[kevin_sidharta]

Hey guys, as an Indonesian, its hard to get comics here due to high shipping cost so my best option is buying from Bookdepository, because of their free shipping.
I've bought quite a lot from them. The books are sent separately in envelope. So far they've sent those books in 5 different packaging. I would like to share about them.

IMG_20150414_232509.jpg

1. A thin cardboard envelope. Most of my order (paperbacks) came in this kind of envelope. They're quite sturdy but the corners of the books are minimally protected. Damages in corners are unevitable in this package.

2. Same as 1, but bigger. Usually reserved for thicker paperbacks.

3. Bubblewrap envelope. In my opinion, the worst package of them all. Books which came in this kind of envelope will be battered and damaged in corners and sometimes in the covers.

4. Folded thick cardboard. This is their best package. The book are put inside and then protected by one fold of cardboard, then folded again. Strong. Minimum to nothing damage.

5. Box. They use this to sent my Scott Pilgrim boxset. Inside the box, there are a few giant bubblewraps, but not enough of them to keep the boxset from moving inside the box. The box itself is not so strong. In the end, one corner of my boxset is damaged.

Hope this could help. Thanks

[kodave]

Hey guys, as an Indonesian, its hard to get comics here due to high shipping cost so my best option is buying from Bookdepository, because of their free shipping.
I've bought quite a lot from them. The books are sent separately in envelope. So far they've sent those books in 5 different packaging. I would like to share about them.

IMG_20150414_232509.jpg

1. A thin cardboard envelope. Most of my order (paperbacks) came in this kind of envelope. They're quite sturdy but the corners of the books are minimally protected. Damages in corners are unevitable in this package.

2. Same as 1, but bigger. Usually reserved for thicker paperbacks.

3. Bubblewrap envelope. In my opinion, the worst package of them all. Books which came in this kind of envelope will be battered and damaged in corners and sometimes in the covers.

4. Folded thick cardboard. This is their best package. The book are put inside and then protected by one fold of cardboard, then folded again. Strong. Minimum to nothing damage.

5. Box. They use this to sent my Scott Pilgrim boxset. Inside the box, there are a few giant bubblewraps, but not enough of them to keep the boxset from moving inside the box. The box itself is not so strong. In the end, one corner of my boxset is damaged.

Hope this could help. Thanks

There are a number of retailers including Amazon who use the same variety of packaging, and I agree with your assessment of them. The thin cardboard envelopes work sometimes, but other times you will get damage. Bubblewrap envelopes, without supporting material like a piece of cardboard inside, are the worst. The foldover cardboard packaging is often the best. Boxes are good, but only when the boxes have decent strength and suitable packing material surrounds the books on the inside.

[Katatonia]

I got a good one to share. I once had got all of Spawn in single comic form. I sold mine years ago and made a lot of money off of it. But then I saw a guy selling it. So I was like I want that and he had every single variant, all of the HC's, trades, everything from everything for $500! Can you honestly believe that ****? No offense to anyone who reads this but the guy selling it was obviously an idiot. He had a few variants that were worth a few hundred a piece plus they had sketches on them and sigs. It was like too good to be true. At the time, I was making pretty good money doing freelance manga/videogame translating.

Anyways, I told the guy to pack everything in a box in a certain way. Because I used to work for a comic shop so like I do know how to pack. I'm not an idiot when it comes to that stuff. Dude, this dipshit, man. No word of a lie, can you believe this dumb son of a bitch put everything inside of a cardboard long comic box? On top of that, it was just put in there with no protection that **** had to weigh at least 100 pounds. I'm not even joking it was EVERYTHING unprotected!

All he did was put scotchtape around the top part of the box so the lid wouldn't open! When that **** came in the mail right. I was so pissed off dude my comics were busted, not only that, but he put them in a weird way and all of them got bent and crunched the single comics were like newspaper. The trades were all broken. The box itself took heavy damage. The HC's were all crunched and busted. Even more so, the comic box he put them in was full of twigs and dead roaches and dirt on top of that.

Man I snapped pics showed PayPal and eBay the **** he sent me. They gave me a full refund plus more to say sorry for receiving something like that. On top of that, they said I could keep it. Which was back in the day they used to do that if you got cheated. You'd get a full refund plus kept it. Though, I didn't even bother to keep it I was so disgusted I sent it back in a better box, wrapped in bubble wrap properly with cardboard sandwiched between everything. To show a fucking idiot from the backwoods how to pack properly.

[Balakin]

DontPayMore through abebooks: I've ordered 2 hardcovers, one deluxe and one standard from them. They've put both in a slightly bigger box, no protection just two deflated airbags on top of them. It arrived in 13 days which is quite good considering they've sent it from the USA but the smaller hc's corners are pretty banged up, one of them is even broken a bit. I'm not sure if I can complain about it since it was listed as "very good" and the rest of the book looks fine, but that 1cm piece of the corner is almost broken off.
Still, cheapest price for the DW: girl who waited, boy who lived deluxe (and while it's not a perfect copy, it has some scrubmarks on the spine, it worth the price).

[Balakin]

Does anybody ordered anything from fatbrain books? I've placed an order 9 days ago but got no confirmation and nothing arrived.

[canadianaidan64]

ThriftBooksUSA, SuperBookDeals. Two Amazon sellers to avoid like the plague.

First let's look at Thriftbooks. The book is the OOP American vamp. Vol. 5 HC. I paid $35 for this book. It was listed as like new


First the (absence of) packaging.
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They packaged the book in what ammounts to some wrapping paper to sent it across the border.

It's hard for me to photograph the damage with my crappy camera, but basically, all four corners are heavily blunted and there are multiple chips on the boards, and tears in the dust jacket.

[canadianaidan64]

Now onto SuperBookDeals

The book is Loisel's Peter pan. $40 Canadian, listed under "new".


Shipped in a thin plastic envelope sparsely lined with bubble wrap. All four corners are torn and mangled


The book itself is in terrible shape. All four corners are not just blunted, but broken. And the front board is detaching at the hinge in two places.

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[kodave]

While I'm not excusing crappy packaging by any sellers on Amazon Marketplace or eBay, these giant re-sellers like ThriftBooks or SuperBookDeals or any kind of company/store front that has hundreds and thousands of books/listings (it's pretty easy to figure out who they are - they're likely also on Alibris and other book re-selling sites) - they're NEVER going to package anything properly, and the descriptions are never going to be accurate. That's just the way it is. These people deal in buying books by the penny in an insane inventory where they can only afford to stay in business because they ship so much they get bulk shipping rates based on volume. They're not in the business of making sure things are properly packaged, especially for international travel. You'll save yourself a lot of frustration and time by just not purchasing from them at all unless you're okay with the book coming in damaged or not as described.

I've found the only exception to this is Pondview Associates. They've sometimes sent me "Good" condition books that were actually Brand New and sealed. I know other people here have had good experiences with them too.

And the only other exception I would make is any Marketplace Seller that has the shipping fulfilled by Amazon. You run the risk of Amazon packaging someone else's book like ****, which they will do from time to time, but at least returns are easy to deal with if the item description is off and it will be little hassle in getting your money back.

[Iron Fist]

Does anybody ordered anything from fatbrain books? I've placed an order 9 days ago but got no confirmation and nothing arrived.

I got an order in from them a few days ago, all as described the standard TPB in a bubble wrap envelope. Have they confirmed posting?

[AJpyro]

My orders have come in at the right time from instock but from amazon, they got here really fast. Though I think the mail person hates me now since I tend to buy in bulk or like five at a time.

[Balakin]

I got an order in from them a few days ago, all as described the standard TPB in a bubble wrap envelope. Have they confirmed posting?

In my account it says confirmed and: "Your order is at step 4 of 4: Processed" but no dispatch email.
Also, I placed a Wordery order a week ago through rakuten and they just took the money from my bank account but the order status still says: Awaiting Shipment.

[Balakin]

^^^
And it just arrived. It would have been here days ago as it turns out but the postman couldn't fit it through my door (which is strange because it's not a big book, but who cares).
It's Gaiman's Black orchid deluxe and it came in a cardboard box-envelope thing (you know the one that is not a box but more than just an envelope and for thinner hardcovers it's actually a nice packaging), condition Like new, the only thing I don't like is the unremovable sticker on the back but at least it's not on the spine.

[sax]

Any feedback on M and N Media, please ?

[Kandor Rising]

Any mega-seller on Amazon is going to send you a **** book. Its how they work. I wouldn't even try it.

[Balakin]

I placed an order at wordery thorugh rakuten 10 days ago and today I got an email that my item is delayed but they are working on it.
There was 1 item left in stock when I ordered the book and it's still on the website. Strange. Hopefully they can dispatch it as I hesitated on this book for too long and now I finally pulled the triger, but if I miss this I don't know if I can get it from anywhere else under 20 pounds (DW-ST Assimilation deluxe).