Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2007 Issue

Red Stars Over Abe: AbeBooks Goes Live with its Ratings

Abe rates its booksellers by number of red stars.

Abe rates its booksellers by number of red stars.


By Michael Stillman

Abebooks finally went live with its Bookseller Rating system last month, and we have heard two reactions from the dealers: so what, and this represents a knife in the heart. There was, theoretically, one other response -- we love it. We say "theoretically" as that response was not a realistic possibility. Booksellers are a tough audience, and besides which, we all tend to express our displeasure vociferously when we are wronged, but say little when we are righted. It's a shortcoming of human nature, but we are almost all guilty.

Most booksellers, as best we can tell, have taken a ho-hum attitude, and this must be to Abe's relief. When the plan for a rating system was originally mentioned a year ago, there was much trepidation among the sellers. Rating systems in use by sites like eBay and Amazon allow customers to post comments, which means a seller can be saddled with ratings that reflect some problem on the part of the customer, shipping service, or site, rather than the seller himself. The customer may have it out for the dealer for some totally unrelated reason, but his negative, maybe even slanderous comments, still stand posted for the world to see. Who wants to take a chance with a seller when some customer claims he's a cheat? It's safer to go elsewhere rather than take a chance.

The result was that when Abe decided to base it's rating strictly on fulfillment rates, much of the booksellers' fear disappeared. Instead of a subjective, possibly grossly unfair rating, the sellers' ratings would be based strictly on a mathematical formula. And, with the percentages used for the stars, most sellers achieve either a four or five (the best) star rating. That is probably reasonable, since most dealers do their job fairly well.

The shortcoming of this system is it really doesn't tell customers very much. Fulfillment percentage probably isn't the major concern on people's minds when they buy from a new vendor. Ethical considerations are more likely the concern. Is this seller honest, will he overcharge my credit card, is the book as described, will shipment be timely, will a refund be made if I return the book -- these are the types of issues that are most likely on buyers' minds, though fulfillment rates aren't unimportant. The major issues really aren't addressed by this rating system.

This leads to the problem that sellers who do not like the ratings have expressed. The ratings seem to say more than they do. All that is shown is "Bookseller Rating" and the number of stars. Sure, if you click on "Bookseller Rating" you will get a complete explanation of the system, that it refers only to "completion rate," or orders minus returns and cancellations. Five stars means 95%+ completion, four 85%-94%, three 70%-84%, two 60%-69%, and one 0%-59%. But, how many people click on this link to read the explanation? People are rushed and generally don't like reading lots of explanations. Many people will undoubtedly look at the ratings, assume they somehow measure a bookseller's integrity, and draw conclusions from them that don't necessarily follow.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.
  • RareBookBuyer.comWe Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide RareBookBuyer.comWe Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions