Kelly
Portland,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, February 05, 2004
I myself have found myself in need of extra funds and therefore collected all of my unwanted books to TRY to sell to Powell's. I think the largest amount I ever tried to sell at once was probably about 50 books in varying conditions and ages. Powell's took maybe five of them, and gave me a great deal on them too. If you look around a bit while standing in line you would notice the multiple boards posted in the selling area that state what their most and least wanted texts are as well as ones they simply are not accepting. I took that initial group of books back at least three times and each time they took more of the books as their need for them came up, I never added any new ones meaning that some books they passed on before they took at another time. I would agree that it sounded like the seller's behaviour was unnessisarily rude and they should have at least told you a bit more detailed of a reason why they wouldn't take the books, but I also have been in there multiple times when they had constant lines of 15+ people waiting to sell, some of which come in with hundreds of books, most that are unwanted or unusable, enough to make anyone a bit grumpy.
Paul Pickle
Raleigh,#3Consumer Comment
Tue, January 20, 2004
What makes you think that the bookstore was OBLIGATED to buy your books? What makes you think they will buy anything and everything that makes its way into its door? Obviously this bookstore, and any store for that matter, is only interested in buying merchandise that it knows it will be able to re-sell and make a profit on. That is just common knowledge in the business world. Is it also the bookstore's fault that the city charges a nominal fee for public parking? Your myriad of complaints makes me think that you were simply having a terrible attitude on that particular day and nothing could possibly make you happy. If money is so much of an issue for you, then why didn't you call the bookstore before driving all the way over there, spending money on gas and parking. Perhaps you could have given them the titles of your books and they could have told you on the phone whether or not they would buy any of them.