POLICIES & PROCEDURES : MAIL ORDER PACKAGING

It is very important to us that our mail order customers get their books in a timely fashion and in excellent condition. We accomplish this by packing and shipping every book as though it were a rare, mint, first edition destined for a collector's library. We feel that our packaging standards are some of the highest in the industry. This care does make our shipping cost a bit higher than average but we feel that our customers and our books are worth the extra trouble and cost.

All our books are wrapped in virgin (i.e. clean and blank, not recycled newspaper) paper before packing.

Mass market (i.e. small size) paperbacks are shipped in bubble-wrap lined envelopes if shipped via media mail and in United States Postal Service (USPS) priority mail envelopes if shipped via Priority Mail or Global Priority Mail.

Trade (i.e. large) paperbacks and hardcovers are wrapped in bubble wrap and shipped in cardboard boxes within the US. We almost always use new boxes but we will occasionally though infrequently re-use cardboard boxes for shipping, typically when an item is of unusual size.

Overseas trade paperback and hardcover orders are wrapped in bubble wrap and then sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard before being shipped via Global Priority Mail (GPM) in standard USPS envelopes. Larger international orders are shipped in boxes via GPM, Air Parcel Post, Air Letter Post or, in the case of very large orders, via Air M-Bag service. If we are shipping to a country that does not have GPM service we ship via Air Parcel or Air Letter Post.

A Note on International Surface Shipping - We strongly suggest to our customers that they not choose this method of shipping. Our experience has been that surface shipping is very slow (30 to 150 days is the range) and unreliable. We will ship surface if a customer insists but we take no responsibility for the safe arrival of the package. In very direct terms our position is this -- we promise that we will pack the books carefully and get them to the post office. After that point we take NO responsibility for the order. If it does not arrive, we are very sorry but we will not offer any type of refund or correction. Further, please do not contact us regarding the status or whereabouts of such an order, because surface orders are not traceable and there is nothing we can tell you or do about missing orders.