www.medievalbookshop.co.uk
Bargain books on the Middle Ages and all related subjects
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Information pages
Frequently Asked Questions
about the unused bargains page
remainders,
overstocks,
bargain reprints, etc.
Return
to the unused bargains page
Return
to the shop returns page
This page addresses
some of the questions
that get asked about unused bargains. You can use the email link at the
top of this page if you need any other information.
What are
remainders?
When publishers issue a
book, they
have to guess how many copies they can sell. Many titles will remain on
booksellers' shelves for only few months before they stop attracting
sales
at the full cover price. Once initial costs have been covered
publishers
often decide to cut their losses and sell off any remaining stocks at a
reduced price - often less than half the original cover price. This
process
is called "remaindering", and once these remaindered stocks have been
sold
off, the book is usually no longer available in print. Irate buyers who
only see the book reviewed a couple of years later may make enough
demand
to have the book reprinted, but that's another story.
What are overstocks?
A publisher may
over-estimate on
their original print order, but decide that a book is worth keeping in
print. In this case, they might decide to sell off a quantity of their
existing stock at a reduced price, which helps by lessening the demand
for expensive warehouse space. After this the title will still be
available
from them, though often at a higher price.
What are bargain
reprints?
These are titles
specifically published
to be sold by bargain-price booksellers. They will usually carry a
higher
cover price somewhere, but this is nominal, to make the "bargain" price
look more realistic. These are usually popular titles for which a high
demand is expected, often titles which have previously sold
successfully
at a higher price, and which the original publisher has decided not to
continue with.
What kind of
quantities are available?
This varies wildly. A
popular title
might have hundreds of copies spread between dozens of booksellers, so
that the reduced price will be correspondingly less. Many titles -
especially
academic books - will only be available in small quantities, and these
will be relatively more highly priced. In either case, they will only
continue
to be available until stocks are sold.
When a title is listed
on medievalbookshop's
unused bargains page, this usually indicates that there is more than
one
copy in stock: once these are sold, new stocks will only be bought in
if
the title is still available and if they it seems likely to attract
sufficient
demand. When there is only one copy left, this will usually be
transferred
to the attic.
What's the
difference between
"unused bargain" and "very good (unused)"?
The books on the unused
bargains
page have been specifically bought as new books at bargain prices, and
there is usually more than one copy of each title available.
In the main section of
the web site
the highest grading available is "very good condition", and an item
will
only be listed as unused if this is known for certain: it will usually
be a single copy such as a review book, so may have more minor flaws
than
would be found in most unused bargain items.
What is on the 'shop
returns' page?
These are usually single
items that
have been returned to the original seller for some reason, so they
mostly
have an inked stamp mark somewhere (for example, on the title page or
inside
the back cover) to indicate that they have been discarded.
Heavily damaged or
badly misprinted
books are usually thrown away, so that quite often the items which end
up on this page can look nearly as good as new, and they can therefore
be a good source of unused books at bargain prices. Any significant
damage
is noted in the individual book's description: usually it will be
unobtrusive,
such as minor soiling from extended shelf-storage, or some form of
minor
denting or crumpling from having been dropped. Often the "damage" is
non-existent
- when unwanted items are returned they are usually treated as
unsaleable
and returned to the publisher.