I regularly buy books of various sorts. I get a few off of eBay, out of print books I can't find anywhere else. Mostly I just cruise eBay to get titles of books I'd be interested in buying, then check my list of on-line sellers to see if I can find what I want.
Recently I found two books on eBay I was really interested in. I was tempted to bit on them, until I saw who the seller was. I've dealt with this seller before, with unhappy results. Long story.
Anyway, the first book was one I was very interested in, so started looking thru the on-line sellers. Finally found the book. Took awhile, because the eBay seller did not use the actual title of the book. I bought the book on-line, new, and paid about $15 less than the guy's starting bid, and the price I paid included postage. The guy was asking a substantial amount for postage over what media mail would cost. The kicker is, apparently the guy is drop-shipping.
The other book I wanted was offerred by the same seller, same tactics. Title he was using is totally not like the actual title. Took me awhile to run down that one. I ordered a copy of that one for about half what the guy's opening bid wa for, and my price was including postage. Little weasel apparently drop-shipping - again.
I think that particular seller, and probably more, are just drop-shipping. That's irritating as Hell. But, I did get put onto two books I wouldn't have kown about otherwise. I wound up paying close to $40 total, including postage, for these two books. Which is about half the price the weasel was wantingfor opening bids, not including shipping.
Both books are on marine steam. Haven't got the second one yet, but the first one does also cover several really neat wooden models too. There's the wood connection.
I also got a book on wooden boa building the other day - used, for around $7-8, including postage. Just gotta shop around. I love books, you can flip back a few pages and take another look at a paragraph, or a picture, maybe stick a bookmark in place. Don't have to have electric to read it either, just a decent light source. Try that with a 'puter during a power outage.
eBay is fine for a lot of things, but you've got to watch what you're buying, and got to watch what they're charging for shipping.
You've got to check the current selling prices of book too (or whatever) before y9u bid on eBay. Recently I just lost out on a two volume set of books on steam. If I'd have bid a few $ more I'd have gotten them for about $50 for the two, not including shipping. I checked a bit too late and found out the lowest price for the two with the on-line sellers was about $80 for the pair - and up. Ah well. But quite awhile back I got a book on-line about woodworking jigs for about $5 - including shipping.
JOAT Bugrit. Millennium hand AND shrimp.