Just a follow-up for anyone interested:

  All The Worlds Monsters II arrived two days ago.  (Sigh   ) It was saddle stitched, and not perfect bound as the seller had said.

   Looking at the booklet, and comparing it with the photo in the auction, it is easy to see that the binding is stapled.  It was not easy (for me) to see without the item to compare to the photo.

    It says "Second Edition" on the cover...so apparently there was a third edition.

    I specifically asked if this copy was stapled or perfect bound.  Is it  possible that the seller did not know what "perfect bound" means?  That's hard to believe for someone who has been in publishing.  Both my question and his answer were crystal clear.

    (The seller also hasn't followed through on what he told Zhowar, or on another shipping issue that was supposedly corrected.)

    I  put the thing in a bag and stuck it on my shelf.   

Mark

MShipley88 wrote:That's hard to believe for someone who has been in publishing.

Impossible to believe, actually. I'm totally unimpressed, industry figure or no. Hey, maybe you and Frank could still work out a trade, though?

Man, is there anything with more highs and lows in the world of collecting than trying to complete a frickin' set of something?

I am looking for a glued binding...much like a large, trade paperback book.  Most Palladium books I have seen are "perfect bound," for instance.

The bound edge of a perfect bound book has square edges.  There can be widely varying levels of quality in such a binding, but the result is a "book" instead of what could more accurately be described as a "booklet" or "pamphlet" that results from saddle stitiching.

I believe the term "saddle stitched" refers to the way the stack of papers that are to be bound are fitted over a "saddle" for the staples to be driven in.

Mark  

Well....

   I waited a while to contact Greg Stafford.  I find that if I let an issue wait for a while, I can get past initial emotions and have time to get perspective.

   I decided that even with a few weeks of perspective I was still annoyed.

   Here is the Ebay message I sent to Greg Stafford:

I have tried to leave positive feedback for this item several times. Each time, I struggle to find something positive to say. This is a good copy and it is signed by Greg Stafford. Still, I have two beefs to air with this item:  

First, you tacked on a $4 handling charge after the auction, over and above, the total shipping and handling charges in the auction shipping calculator.

Second, this copy of All The Worlds Monsters II is not perfect bound...as I specifically inquired and as you specifically confirmed. It is saddle stitched. This means that it is an earlier print, but it also does not match the I and III books that I already have.

I have waited a few weeks to contact you because I was waiting to get perspective on the purchase. I let the issue rest.

I would only ever leave negative Ebay feedback in the event of deliberate fraud...which I don't think you intended at all.  I finally decided that I needed to contact you and tell you my frustrations.


    I am interested what the seller will reply.  I don't know what my goal is except to tell him how I feel.

Mark  

No reply yet.

Mark  

Still no reply.

Should someone send this seller a link to this thread?

Mark  

Of course...in the whole scheme of things...it is no biggie.  It's all just paper, right?

Maybe he just doesn't know what to say...and maybe I shouldn't expect an answer.

I guess he irritated me enough to make me keep bringing it up....I guess I've officially crossed over from legitimate beef to just bellyaching.

What I really really wanted him to say was, "Sorry about that.  I'll try to improve my service in the future."  Doesn't look like that's happening.

Mark  

I sent him a link to this thread.

MShipley88 wrote:Turns out the seller was out of the country over the past couple of weeks.  

In other words, he hadn't seen my Ebay message to him, and sending him the link was a needlessly petty thing to do.

It seems I have lost perspective.

You can always append the above explanation to your first post so anyone reading this thread in the future will not get the wrong impression of the seller.

You didn't have perfect information, so you acted on the information that you did have.  *shrug*  I personally would have been far less patient than you have been and would have posted negative feedback long ago.