In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:
I'm afraid all this sort of thing has gone to Ebay these days.
Something my brother won't accept either. ;-)

I can understand why professional second-hand book dealers use the net,
ebay, etc. But what seems strange is that they now neglect simply
enabling the *added* custom which they could still get simply by making
their contact info available for people who want to buy/sell by other
means.

As your comment confirms, I'm not the only person who'd buy that way if
they could be bothered to realise it.

Similarly, their attending fairs, jumbles, etc, make sense. But it seems
odd for them to then fail to allow potential customers to buy from them
via post, and advertising their contact details, etc, on their websites.
Again I can see why the organisers of *fairs* don't want the dealers to
bypass them, but why don't the dealers make their contact details
available by other means? Having your own website is cheap and easy
enough these days.

My brother's passion is models. Things like Dinky toys, etc. The model
club he belongs to has just held their last fair. Despite advertising it
in the local press etc, not enough attended it to cover the costs - a
trend which has been happening over the last few years.

Is it just lazyness, or a lack of thought, I wonder? Or do they find it
easier to dodge tax this way, maybe?

I dunno. You'd have to see some figures of Ebay sales versus the rest.
Ebay is simply such a convenient way to buy and sell these days.

--
*War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.