paper vs e-book
I buy a lot of books. I'm always checking what's available on E-Bay. I try to be sure not to pick any e-books, (I can't use ebooks. I need paper for my students.) but sometimes I buy it before I find out.
So, my question is: How do I build into my search a "no e-book", so they don't pop up in the first place?
Thanks in advance,
Phil
1 comment
1786davycrockett
·1 year ago@plindber
It does not appear that eBay's search function is sufficiently specialized to weed out any e-books.
I just ran a search for a common book title on eBay, in order to see what current book formats eBay offers, and the pickin's are predictably slim: hardcover, paperback, trade paperback and "Not specified," which one would expect to include e-books and compact disc formats.
But I suspect that some sellers are mixing e-books and cd formats in with the other three standard formats; so the only way to make sure is to check the "item listing title," "item specifics" and "item descriptions," as well as any photos supplied by the seller (hopefully not stock photos!); and, as a last resort, emailing the seller to be certain that what you wish to order is a book with pages and a cover, and not a digital alternative.
I'm with you on this one, 100% -- a few years back, I was attempting to order a specific edition of a book for my son, and I nearly wound up ordering an e-book edition, which had not been specified by the seller, but was distinctive by the code number used to identify the item as an e-book. Had I not been familiar with that code, I might have ordered something totally unusable for my family.
More pot-holes on the road for book-lovers, it seems.