RARA-AVIS: Re: Where to buy old paperbacks on the internet

From: Greg Swan ( greg@swans.org)
Date: 30 Mar 2000


That's Ray Bowman's web site and most longtime collectors (like Bob Randisi who asked the question) will know him. In 25 years of buying paperbacks and pulps through the mail, Ray's the only one who ever really cheated me. He took over 6 months to get around to processing an order and shipped only a few of the items I ordered. Even then, many of the books weren't as advertised. I returned them, but never received a refund. I sent four letters asking what the deal was and never received a reply. He's hard of hearing and not reachable by telephone to straighten things out.

Others have reported similar interactions. I think it's unlikely his goal is to cheat people, but it's certainly the result of how he does business.

There is a trade-off. If you you keep in mind Ray's service (you must be willing to wait half a year or so to get a small proportion of what you ordered and then not mind keeping the stuff that didn't match the catalog description), he does have low prices.

Thought I should contribute this information before a bunch of you ran off and sent him large orders.

- Greg Swan

> There is a website at www.oldsfbooks.com in which there are many covers of
pulp
> horror and science fiction magazines. They also sell paperbacks from that
era.
> Haven't bought anything from there and I can't compare the prices.
>
> Juri
> jurnum@utu.fi
>
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