sour grapes department

Sour grapes department. It looks like I might be parting ways with Amazon. Perhaps over a nitpicky issue, but I received negative feedback from a buyer whose only comment was "wrong item arrived." Now I'm pretty sure I sent the correct item, so I've tried to contact the buyer to find out about his problem. I've received no reply.
I've had a spotless selling record on Amazon, so having this blemish which is as far as I know unwarranted is bugging me.
If I messed up, then so be it. But if I didn't, I don't think my performance rating ought to be dropping from 100% to 92% based on one mistaken rating. The buyer is welcome to his opinion, but "wrong item received" is either true or untrue. Here's a photo of the actual book I sent (I'm pretty sure):

Here's a link to the item ordered: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881844160

Here's the rating (one star):

Here are my e-mails to the buyer:

Here is a copy of the e-mail that you sent to john norcross:
Order ID 110-7322154-8929053:
1 of Sphinx (The Supernatural Library) [ASIN: 0881844160]

------------- Begin message -------------

Wrong item arrived? What did you get?

------------- End message -------------

And then, later:

Here is a copy of the e-mail that you sent to john norcross.

Order ID 110-7322154-8929053:
1 of Sphinx (The Supernatural Library) [ASIN: 0881844160]

------------- Begin message -------------

Dear John:
I'm eager to learn what book you received instead of Sphinx. If you received the wrong book I must have also sent your book to someone else, and their book to you. That's the only thing I can think of that might have happened.
I'm curious why you didn't contact me before leaving negative feedback. I endeavor to fill orders correctly, and would like to rectify this.
If you've left erroneous feedback, you can:
Go to http://www.amazon.com/your-account
Under "Personalization," in the "Community" column, click "Seller Feedback Submitted By You."
A list of all of the feedback left by you will display. Click the "Remove" link next to the feedback would like to remove.

Attached is a picture of the book I believe I sent you. Is this not what you ordered?

------------- End message -------------

No replies from buyer. No communication at all, not even to complain directly about "wrong item received" or to request refund or to return item.


Perhaps a bit too snippy on my part but here's my correspondence with Amazon:

Message History

cdrummbks@gmail.com Jul 24, 2013 4:27 AM PDT	I'm sorry but I don't think falsehoods should be allowed in buyer feedback. From what I can tell "Wrong item arrived" is not correct, unless maybe the wrong item was ordered in the first place. I believe I sent the correct item. I've contacted the buyer to ask what item did arrive and have received no reply. Also, he never contacted me about the wrong item being sent prior to leaving the feedback. Have you asked the buyer for further details about this 'wrong item arrived'? Read Less
Amazon Jul 23, 2013 7:07 PM PDT	Greetings from Amazon Seller Support. We have reviewed your request for feedback removal on Order ID # 110-7322154-8929053. Unfortunately, we cannot remove the feedback as it does not meet the criteria for removal because it refers to buyer's dissatisfaction with item received. The buyer said "wrong item arrived ". We really do apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused you. For your reference, Amazon will remove feedback for these reasons: * The feedback includes obscene language. * The feedback includes seller-specific personally identifiable information. * The entire feedback comment is a product review. * The entire feedback comment is about fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon. You may, however, ask the buyer who left this feedback to remove it. We encourage you to contact the buyer to resolve any issues regarding the transaction. The buyer could then remove the feedback if they feel it is appropriate. Please keep in mind that buyer feedback is a direct reflection of their shopping experience on the Amazon marketplace. Do not pressure buyers to remove feedback. I've included instructions below for contacting the buyer to request they remove the rating, and information on how to respond to the feedback online if the buyer chooses not to remove the rating. You can contact the buyer from the Orders tab in your seller account. Select Manage Orders and find the buyer's order, using the options in the Search box at the upper left. For more options, click the Advanced Search link. Click the buyer's name in the "Contact Buyer" section of the order to reach the web-based e-mail form. Some buyers may not know how to remove their feedback. If you would like to provide the buyer with instructions for removing feedback, you can direct them to this Help page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=537774#remove If the buyer does not remove the feedback, you may want to consider posting a response with your own account of the transaction in your feedback profile. To post a response, log in to your Seller Account then under the Reports heading, click "Manage your Ratings and Feedback." This will display the most recent page of feedback ratings. Find the feedback in question and click the button to respond. If you have additional questions about your case, 105451961, please click http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/case-dashboard/view-case.html/ref=sc_cd_lobby_vc?caseID=105451961. If you have questions about a different issue, please review our Seller Help: http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/contact-us/contact-amazon.html. Please give us feedback to help Amazon improve your selling experience. Did we successfully answer your question? Click here for yes: http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/case-dashboard/hmd-yes.html?p=bffghhwe3501150206&c=105451961 Click here for no: http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/case-dashboard/hmd-no.html?p=bffghhwe3501150206&c=105451961 Thank you! Please note: This e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Thank you for selling with Amazon, Anil S Amazon.com Seller Support ======================================= MORE WAYS TO GET HELP: Visit our Seller Forums for help from other sellers: http://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums Learn best practices on our Seller Support Blog: http://www.amazonsellersupportblog.com Browse all Seller Help topics: http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help Read Less
cdrummbks@gmail.com Jul 23, 2013 3:44 AM PDT	Please fill in the following information: Date order placed: Order #: 110-7322154-8929053 ASIN: 0881844160 Please describe the issue: Customer gave me one star & said "wrong item received". If he actually did receive the correct item, as I believe, do I have any recourse? I've put my account on vacation because I won't do business with a 92% rating. I've tried to contact the customer but so far have received no reply, and I didn't hear from him about the "wrong item" prior to the feedback. Can you determine if this customer habitually gives bad feedback? Photo of book I sent is attached. (I always match ISBNs when listing books for sale.) Attachments: sphinx [lindsay].jpg Read Less

I also sent this still pending reply:

Message History

cdrummbks@gmail.com Jul 23, 2013 11:43 AM PDT

Please fill in the following information: Date order placed: June 27, 2013 12:08:10 AM PDT Order #: # 110-7322154-8929053 ASIN:0881844160 Please describe the issue: I'm getting a bit annoyed by this bogus "wrong item arrived" and one star rating. If there's truth to any of it, let me know what the item that arrived was. But meanwhile, the longer this continues, the more I am going to pull away. Right now I've put my account is on vacation. Next step, I suppose, is to remove the product photos that I've added to enhance your listings. Of course, my buying will be curtailed too. Now, if I'm mistaken and I did send the wrong item, please let me know what I did send instead. I know sellers make mistakes, and I'm not no exception. But so far I've had a 100% track record and this does not seem like where that record ought to end. Read Less

Now I've sent one more email to the buyer:

Here is a copy of the e-mail that you sent to john norcross.

Order ID 110-7322154-8929053:
1 of Sphinx (The Supernatural Library) [ASIN: 0881844160]

------------- Begin message -------------

Dear John: Sorry to bother you again but I'm still waiting for your reply concerning your dissatisfaction with your order of Sphinx. You left negative feedback saying "wrong item received". I'd very much like to know what item you did receive, because as far as I know the correct item was sent. It would have been nice if you'd contacted me before leaving feedback to give me a chance to take care of any problem. If the feedback was left in error I encourage you to remove it.

>>>Some buyers may not know how to remove their feedback. If you would like to provide the buyer with instructions for removing feedback, you can direct them to this Help page:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=537774#remove



------------- End message -------------

I hate to say sayonara to Amazon, but if this isn't rectified or at least explained more adequately, I'm out of there. As a buyer as well as a seller -- which might not be a bad idea anyway, for my pocketbook, considering how much I've been buying. Amazon is an amazing place, but I don't want to be there as a low-rated seller under these circumstances.

An old friend showed up on my doorstep today wanting to pay an old bill and catch up on his Paperback Parades. I hauled out my box and he picked out 21 issues, putting me out of stock of at least four. I went ahead and photo'd what I still have. Now I need to revisit my listings. 

Email sent:

Nice to hear from you and that you are safe and sound. I'm sure it [Japan earthquake] was miserable and worse for many. 

I'm retiring my old listings, although I will keep them available as a curiosity, and still transfer things sold out into a "sold" file. 

But I will still try to get these out to you. Starting literally yesterday I cataloged or re-catalogued a bunch of books, listing them with Amazon, Half.com and Biblio.com, but not in my own -- they get listed so much quicker, and with the Internet people can get more info about books and they usually know what they are looking for anyway. So now I'm spared the labor and expense of putting out catalogs, although I do miss the many faithful people who patronized them!
I'll let you know what becomes of your order. I think it should fit into a medium sized Priority flat rate box.

catalog updates

Okay, here are a few things I've managed to do catalog updates on since the last time I posted, way back when. I was holding off to try to get all the Doppelgängers finished up, but that pile swam away from me, while other things drifted in. I'm starting to work on some Scream Factory magazines now, so I thought I ought to publish these now:

ARGONAUT SCIENCE FICTION #18, fall/93, (strange journeys with Albert J. Manachino, Charles M. Saplak, Victor Gallis, Marge Simon; more), vg-f 3.00

---#20, sum/95, (Manachino, Jacob, Tiani, William John Watkins, etc.), 72-page stapled magazine, untrimmed, vg-f 4.00

DOPPELGANGER #1, 9/84, Richard Fawcett, (Cthulhu Mythos stories, poetry and art, including a new story by Weird Tales author Mary E. Counselman; Ronny P. Kaye [ed]), 60-page booklet, as new 10.00

---#2, 11/84, Richard Fawcett, (a second foray into the mystical, the deranged and the uncommon; Ronny P. Kaye [ed]), 60-page booklet, as new 6.00

---#3, 2/85, Richard Fawcett, (more of the different, including deadly damsels art by Mandana Parsazad and a music column; Ronny P. Kaye [ed]), 60-page booklet, as new 6.00

---#6, 2/86, Richard Fawcett, ('666' issue; stories of elemental forces, things Freudian and necrophilic, and people in a hole; John Benson [ed]), vg-f 6.00

Dell pb 14559 Drumm, D.B. (=John Shirley) TRAVELLER #2: Kingdom Come, 7/84, (PBO; In a postnuke wasteland, he's the only hero we've got!), g-vg $2; vg+ 3.50 (isbn: 0440145597)

Dell pb 14317 Finney, Jack INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, 3rd(1/79), (movie tie), vg-f $3 (isbn: 0440143179)

Bantam 25541 Innes, Evan (=Zach Hughes) AMERICA 2040, 4/86, (PBO; 1st in series; the spirit of the pioneers lives on), vg+ 3.00 (isbn: 055325541X)

Bantam 26204 Innes, Evan (=Zach Hughes) AMERICA 2040 #3: City In the Mist, 4/87, (PBO; The majestic epic of America's conquest of space), review slip, vg-f 3.50 (isbn: 0553262041)

Lerner, Fred A BOOKMAN'S FANTASY: How Science Fiction Became Respectable, NESFA, 2/95, 1st edn, (24 essays by one of SF's premier essayists... with four introductions), new 11.95 (isbn: 091536865X)

Lovecraft, H.P. HISTORY OF THE NECRONOMICON, (Strange Co.), nd, (Wikipædia: "a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1927, and published in 1938. It describes the fictional book the Necronomicon, a now-famous element used in several of his stories"), folded sheet (4 pages), vg 1.00

Lovecraft, H.P. LETTERS FROM NEW YORK, Night Shade ('05), 1st edn, (Lovecraft Letters #2; letters written by HPL between 1922-1926; Joshi & Schultz [eds]; Glossary of Names; Index; 332 pages), as new in dj 150.00 (isbn: 1892389371)

Lovecraft, H. P. POLARIS, (Strange Co.), nd, (Wikipedia: "a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1918 and first published in the December 1920 issue of the amateur journal The Philosopher. It is noteworthy as the story that introduces Lovecraft's fictional Pnakotic Manuscripts, the first of his arcane tomes."), folded sheet (4 pages), as new 1.00

Pocket pb 44952 Monteleone, Thomas F. NIGHT-TRAIN, 10/84, (PBO; A Novel of Horror; Under the subways' roar, out of the deep, wet caves, comes the fury from hell...), vg+ 4.00 (isbn: 0671449524)

Berkley 02380 Reed, Kit MISTER DA V. and Other Stories, 7/73, (The celebrated story of a brilliant man yanked out of his own time), fr-g (cover messed up by being stuck to another book, actual text and binding are vg++)  2.00 (isbn: 042502380X)

Tower 51556 Robinson, Eleanor THE SILVERLEAF SYNDROME, ('80), (The search for a lost boy becomes a bizarre encounter with biological horror!), g-vg (label residue on front cover) $2 (isbn: 0505515563)

Wandrei, Donald COLLECTED POEMS, Necronomicon, 3/88, 1st, (Howard Wandrei [illus]; Joshi [ed]), 91-page stapled booklet, vg+ 25.00

Ace pb 65125 Williamson, Jack THE PANDORA EFFECT, ('69), (PBO; stories; A box of wonders from lost eons and future worlds), vg (discrete price sticker on front cover) 3.00 (isbn: 0441651259)

Five more revisited listings:

Del Rey 29054 Leiber, Justin BEYOND REJECTION, 9/80, (PBO; someone had stolen his body - and thereby hangs the tale...), g-vg $1; vg $2; vg+ $3 (ISBN: 0345290542)

Stableford, Brian FABLES & FANTASIES, Necronomicon, 10/96, 1st, (fantasy collection; 30 pages), 7 x 8.5" stapled booklet, as new 10.00

VanderMeer, Jeff THE BOOK OF LOST PLACES: The Selected Works of..., Dark Regions, Selected Works #9 ('96), one of 250 copies SIGNED by author and artist, (strongly imagined and impeccably crafted stories; Mark Rich intro; illustrated by Rodger Gerberding; 118 pages), as new 70.00 (ISBN: 1888993065)

Wisman, Ken FOURTEEN FANTASIES FROM A SHOP CALLED IMAGINATION, Dark Regions ('02), 1st edn, (fantasy, horror, humor; 146 pages), as new 15.00 (ISBN: 188899326X)

Wilson, Richard THE KID FROM OZONE PARK & Other Stories, Drumm Booklet #27, 8/87, 1st, (original stories personally selected by the late author), new 3.50 (ISBN: 0936055324)

Some more revised listings I've finally managed to eke out. Not much cataloging going on, although there certainly should be. I'm working on a pile of some actual new arrivals (of like-new used books), but not making much headway there either. So just these for now, and hoping to get hopping anon:

Swanwick, Michael THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO: Two Essays on Science Fiction and Fantasy, Tachyon, 10/97, 1st edn, SIGNED, (a thoughtful and insightful look into the science fiction field of the early to mid-1980s; "A User's Guide to the Post Moderns" is published here for the first time since its initial magazine appearance in Asimov's, along with "In the Tradition...", Swanwick's elegant essay on the fantasy genre, as well as a brand new introduction written by Swanwick for this collection; 66-page booklet), new 7.50 [ISBN: 0964832062]

Sturgeon, Theodore THE PERFECT HOST: Vol. V: The Complete Stories of..., North Atlantic '00, 1st, (stories written between 1947 & 1949; Larry McCaffery foreword), new 18.95 [ISBN: 1556433603]

Rayner, Richard THE CLOUD SKETCHER, HarperCollins '01, 1st edn, (impossibly romantic skyscraper of a novel), new in dj 25.00 [30% discount]

Roberts, Keith PAVANE, Del Rey Impact, 3/01, (acknowledged classic of alternate history; "steampunk" precursor), vg-f $12; another, PR laid in, vg-f $16 [10%]

DAW 436 Selby, Curt (=Doris Piserchia) BLOOD COUNTY, 6/81, (PBO; Horror was their heritage, for they were the people that the census dared not count!), vg+ 4.00 [10%]

another batch

I'm wondering if I could possibly make it a goal to do five of these a day. That was a New Year's Resolution, but now is Official New Year's Resolution Revisiting time (according to Peter Stampfel).

Pratchett, Terry THE TRUTH, HarperCollins, 2nd('00), (A Novel of Discworld®), new in dj 24.00 Pratchett, Terry THE BROMELIAD TRILOGY, HarperCollins '03, 1st US edn,  (collects Truckers, Diggers & Wings; 502 pages), new in dj 17.99 
Ballantine 23712 Bass, T.J. THE GODWHALE, 1/74, (PBO; She was a cyborg - Part-organic whale, part-mechanized ship), vg+ 3.00 
Robinson, Kim Stanley THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS, Orb, 2/96, (a scientific romance; attempts to suggest analogues between Music theory and the structure of the Universe), new 13.95 
Robinson, Frank M. THE DARK BEYOND THE STARS, Orb, 1/98, (a generation-ship masterpiece; Lambda Literary Award winner; A New York Times Notable Book), new 14.95

a few more re-done listings

Moorcock, Michael THE LIVES AND TIMES OF JERRY CORNELIUS: Stories of the Comic Apocalypse, Four Walls Eight Windows, 1st, 9/03, (stories published between 1969 and 2002; adds new intro by author), new 15.00 
Rifbjerg, Klaus WITNESS TO THE FUTURE, Fjord '87, 1st edn in English (pb variant), (time thriller by famous Danish novelist; an allegory of the chaos and emptiness of modern times that conveys admiration for a simpler past; translated from the Danish by Steve Murray), new 8.95 
Tor 51878 Crockett, Linda SANDMAN, 10/90, (PBO; This Sandman brings nightmares...while his victims are awake!), mmpb, g-vg $1; vg+ $2; 2nd, vg-f 2.50 
O'Rourke, Monica J. (ed) DECADENCE ONE, Prime ('02), POD edn, (Sixteen erotic horror tales written by masters of the genre: Nancy Kilpatrick, Charlee Jacob, Jack Fisher, E.C.McMullen Jr., Brian Knight, Rain Graves, Adam Pepper, Sephera Giron, Nicholas Kaufmann, Gene O'Neill, Teri A. Jacobs, Thomas Deja, d.g.k. goldberg, John Urbancik, and Edo van Belkom), tpb, new 12.95 
Roberts, Adam SALT, Gollancz '00, 1st, (evocation of an alien world of remarkable power, intense beauty and profound insight; classic SF by a debut writer), tpb, vg-f 10.00

more cataloging

New arrival (not really new new -- took a long time to catalog):

Silverman, Hildy (editor) SPACE AND TIME #114, spr/11 issue, (The Magazine of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction; Larry Hodges, Scott H. Andrews, Josepha Sherman; more; 48 pages), 8.5x11", new 5.00

Re-catalogs and used new-arrivals: 

Thomson, Keith ONCE A SPY, Doubleday '10, 1st edn, (adrenalin-fueled concoction of sidesplitting humor and genuine suspense), "BOOK SALE" rubber-stamped on ffep, otherwise vg-f in dj 5.00 

Wellman, Manly Wade WHO FEARS THE DEVIL?, Paizo, 2/10, (in Planet Stories series, Presented by Mike Resnick; The Complete Tales of Silver John; Resnick & Karl Edward Wagner intros), vg+ 10.00 

Ace H- 15 Wollheim, Donald A. & Terry Carr (eds) WORLD'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: 1966, ('66), (The year's [1965's] finest tales of wonder, by Clarke, Leiber, Goulart, Schmitz and many more), g-vg $2; vg (small price sticker) 3.00 

Straub, Peter MYSTERY, Dutton '90, 1st edn, (second in "Blue Rose Trilogy"; Bram Stoker Award winner), "BOOK SALE" rubber stamped on ffep, otherwise, vg+ in dj $8

A few more revised listings (mostly added links):

BACK BRAIN RECLUSE #7, ('87), (original fiction and art; Sneyd, Moorcock; Moorcock interview; 40 pages) • ---#8, ('87), (Steve Sneyd, Wayne Rile Williams, Mark Iles, John Light, Geoff Stevens, Wayne Allen Sallee, etc.) • ---#10, ('88), (Lyle Hopwood, H.R. Feigenhauer, Tom Farbman, Benson Herbert, etc.) • --- #12, '89, (Sneyd, Webb, VanderMeer, winter-damon, etc.), 56-page stapled magazine, as new each, 10.00

THE BEST OF BACK BRAIN RECLUSE #1, ('87), (A selection of material from Back Brain Recluse issues #1 to #4, all of which have been out of print for many years), 60-page stapled A5-size magazine, as new    10.00

Dozois, Gardner (ed) THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: Twenty-First Annual Collection, St. Martin's Griffin, 7/04, 1st edn, (includes "Summation: 2003" & "Honorable Mentions"; 665 + xxxviii pages), new 19.95

Powers, Tim DINNER AT DEVIANT'S PALACE, Subterranean '01, one of 750 SIGNED copies, (reprint of 1985 PKD Award-winning novel; the perfect entertainment for those who think of pre-bomb Los Angeles as the Land of the Very Weird), as new in dj 40.00

Priest, Cherie FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS, Marietta ('03), 1st (POD edn), (novel plus bonus short story: "Horror at Snodgrass Hill"; author's first), new 13.99

Robinson, Roger (compiler) (RE)COMMENDED SCIENCE FICTION: A "Core Library" Listing of Over 1200 Titles Based on Nominations for the Major SF and Fantasy Awards Between 1949 & 1997, Beccon, 4/97, 44-page booklet, as new 7.00

more updated listings

It's been slower going than I hoped getting things cataloged, with all the distractions and my poor work habits. I think I will post these in increments of five, instead of one at a time (especially if all I have to show for whole day is one or two listings).

Here now the latest stab at revised and updated listings:

GAUNTLET: Exploring the Limits of Free Expression #2, '91, (Stephen King Special; Ray Bradbury, Piers Anthony, David Wojnarowicz, Andrew Vachss, Graham Masterton; "Top Ten Censors of 1990, MPAA Exposed, 2 Live Crew, Kiddie Porn; Recommended for mature adults; 402 pages), perfectbound, vg $8; as new 15.00

McAuley, Paul J. WHITE DEVILS, Simon & Schuster UK, 2nd, (hard-edged near-future biotech thriller; thought-provoking heart-stopping white-knuckle ride; 521 pages), vg-f in dj 12.00

Lobdell, Jared THE WORLD OF THE RINGS: Language, Religion, and Adventure in Tolkien, Open Court '04, 1st, (classics study, here revised and expanded; eccentric and compelling), f $15

Smith, Clark Ashton THE LAST OBLIVION: Best Fantastic Poems of..., Hippocampus ('02), 1st edn, (includes glossary of unusual words and names; S.T. Joshi & David E. Schultz [eds]; 194 pages), new 15.00 

NOVA EXPRESS #19, spr-sum/00 (Volume 5, Number 3), (Neil Gaiman interview Part 1; Russell Blackford on Greg Egan, Patrick O'Leary Fails to Analyze Gene Wolfe, Nick Gevers on Paul J. McAuley's Confluence; more) •---#21, spr-sum/01, (interview with Tim Powers; reviews; more), new 4.00 [listed at $2 on biblio because I have a hefty number of these on hand - I'll be happy to honor that price; also, I'm sure I have a similar number of #20 too, but there's only one copy right here beside me, so I won't re-list it in earnest now, but I could maybe be prevailed upon to mount an expedition for it]

updated listings

Updated listings (with links added):

Lupoff, Pat & Dick Lupoff THE BEST OF XERO, Tachyon, 7/04, 1st edn, (an array of highlights from Hugo-winning fanzine published between 1960 and 1962; Roger Ebert intro), new in dj 29.95

[30% discount]

LITTLE LULUª: Lulu Goes Shopping, Dark Horse, 11/04, 1st edn, (reprints issues six through twelve in Dark Horse's complete run of John Stanley and Irving Tripp's legendary Little Lulu comics), f 12.00

further re-cataloging

Catalog listing update:

Di Filippo, Paul THE STEAMPUNK TRILOGY, Four Walls Eight Windows, 4/95, 1st, (collects Victoria, Hottentots & Walt and Emily; invests history with a cockeyed verisimilitude; set in the very alternative 19th century; 352 pages), as new (but about vg-f) in dj 20.00

---now down to my last copy -- new but not perfect (unread - probably a bookstore return but not a remainder.

forward listings

Revised listings with links to covershots:

Forward, Robert L. DRAGON'S EGG, Del Rey, 5/80, 1st edn, (author's first novel; one of a handful of books that stretch the mind), vg-f in dj 20.00

Forward, Robert L. STARQUAKE, Del Rey, 10/85, 1st edn, SIGNED by author, (hard SF; sequel to Dragon's Egg), vg-f in dj 20.00

---I also still have a nice pair of the above, both SIGNED, vg-f in djs 50.00

book listing

New listing of used book (whoopie!):

St Martin's Minotaur 96864 Hess, Joan STRANGLED PROSE, 5th, (A Claire Malloy Mystery; Is killing a romance novelist considered a crime of passion?), vg-f 2.00

---Pretty sad this is all I could get done today. 

further revised listings

Revised listings:

O'Neill, Gene THE BURDEN OF INDIGO, Prime ('02), POD edn, (sf/fantasy/horror tale of the search for salvation; After an economic/ecologic collapse, the Shields along the coast of  Cal Wild cast out their criminals and malcontents to wander the dangerous wastelands), as new $20

O'Neill, Gene GHOSTS, SPIRITS, COMPUTERS AND WORLD MACHINES, Prime ('01), POD edn, (horror stories by the best kept secret in horror fiction; introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson; Scott Edelman afterword), new 15.00

O'Rourke, Monica J. SUFFER THE FLESH, Prime ('02), POD edn, (horror novel; Zoey Masterton didn't know what pain was before, but she's learning fast), new 15.00

Womack, Jack LET'S PUT THE FUTURE BEHIND US, Grove Press, 4/97, 1st pb edn, (one of the most cannily on-target accounts yet about the helter-skelter fast lane of life in the New Russia), vg 7.50 ---although I think I have this listed as a "new" copy elsewhere -- it sure looks new; came from someone who was a heavy smoker whose books stank, so that was the chief demerit; by now, quite a bit later, the book has lost the aroma.

recataloging Xgau's 90's Consumer Guide

I'm recataloging my Xgau's 90's Consumer Guide, which I have one new copy of left now after today. So I'm on its Amazon site, and am bemused (actually amused almost to the extent of spewing my wine all over the keyboard) by one reviewer:

• I'll never forget what he once said about Waylon Jennings ("Reminds us that he has balls by singing as though someone were squeezing them")
• I wish he weren't such a sucker for world music, much of which, in my opinion, would be dismissed as pablum if it weren't for the exotic veneer.
• It's supposed to be a consumer guide, not a flight manual.
• Deduct 2 stars for form, but credit 1 back because it's important to keep Christgau's brand of crankiness alive. Four stars.

This reviewer (same one?) seems to make the same confusion of the words obtuse with abstruse that Allmusic makes in their assessment of Xgau. "Dim, slow-witted" are not attributes I would apply to Xgau, probably not even into his twilight years -- still a ways away from current evidence.

The listing now:

Christgau, Robert CONSUMER GUIDE: Albums of the '90s, St. Martin's Griffin, 10/00, 1st edn, (ever-open-eared, mercilessly rigorous; essential; the dean of American rock critics tackles the decade when music exploded; over 3,800 reviews), as new 20.00