Here's your sign...

Rarely do I get to bitch about my job, I don't have one. But I do have to deal with the general American public, and some of them are...believe it or not...really really stupid.

I could start a whole other website with the stupid questions we've gotten from customers. But sometimes, one shines above all the rest.

We have a 1st Edition Hardback of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, copyright 1949. Not the rarest book in the world, and certainly not the most expensive book we've ever sold, but we have it listed for $35. We are the only people on half.com that have the book for sale, and in fact it is extremely hard to find anywhere at any price. Of the 5 catagories available to describe the quality of each book, this one is in "Good." condition. Half.com's description of the quality rating 'good' is:

Good - Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), dust jacket not necessarily included, minimal wear to binding, majority of pages undamaged (minimal creases or tears), minimal pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins, no missing pages

The only thing wrong with this book is it looks like maybe it got splattered with water very briefly and the canvas cover has a couple of really really light spots. For it's age, it's in incredible shape.

So anyway, I get this email today:

"I am inquiring about your copy of Nineteen Eight-Four. "Is it in mint condition? Would you consider meeting your competitors price of 75 cents?"

Helloooo? Anybody home in your brain?

I can't imagine any 55 year old book being in mint condition. And my competitor he's referring to is folks selling a mass market paperback reprint, printed last year.


Indeed.