wigix
although ebay is the target, wigix is relying on what it' s built: members must be members of its paypal online payment system to join wigix. wigix plans to add other mechanisms later .
dear clickmyname212, you recently registered for wigix. to complete your wigix registration, follow this link: urltoken wigix brings a social networking aspect to the online marketplace. now you can buy with the strength of your friends and sell with ease and with less fees. thanks the wigix team
wigix grab bag blu - edition - blu - ray dvd player & ...
wigix grab bag - video games, movies, toys & more! ...
the ultimate goal for wigix is to operate globally. to that end, chong plans to launch a china wigix site in the fourth quarter this year along with the ga launch .
we are over 500k listings on wigix. what tremendous growth. thanks to all our sellers !
first is scale. even with some incentives to join wigix, the scale of ebay is formidable .
wigix is headquartered in oakland, california, and is funded by venture capital firm draper fisher jurvetson .
it' s actually over 500k items for sale on wigix. now that' s great growth .
add your possessions to your wigix portfolio and find other like - minded collectors. wigix is a place to discuss new and old products, share your prized possessions and discover products you never knew about .
wigix grab bag - video games, movies, toys & more! only $ 10 + free shipping .
wigix could find success in using a model similar to that of a stock exchange, according to enderle .
along with wigix. com, the company also owns chinese - based online marketplace, urltoken, as a wholly - owned subsidiary .
wigix
is an acronym which stands for
want it got it exchange
.
lee comes to cypher media from wigix, a community - driven internet marketplace he co - founded in 2007 .
sell for free on wigix. no listing fees... no transaction fees... no hidden fees !
another major distinction between ebay and wigix: while ebay recently revoked feedback privileges for sellers (the company said too many sellers abused the rating system for retaliatory purposes), wigix lets buyers and sellers rate each other after a transaction .
wigix appointed tim draper, managing director and founder of draper fisher jurvetson, and bill burnham of inductive capital to its board of directors. wigix' s board is led by company ceo and co - founder james chong. the appointments follow the recent announcement that wigix has raised $ 5. 35 million in series a funding, led by draper fisher jurvetson .
the next step for wigix is the official general availability launch. the founders are readying their startup operation to that goal .
for example, anyone can contribute comments and help. wigix users can look at metadata on all products and transactions they make .
user dissatisfaction elsewhere could work to wigix' s advantage. lots of users are upset with ebay, noted enderle, and this could give wigix an opportunity to establish itself if it is marketed properly. that marketing, however, has not yet started .
we have developed great applications that allow you to share your wigix activity with your facebook & twitter friends. with our facebook applications, you can share your labeled photos, poll your friends about what you should buy and let them know about your wigix portfolio .
when an item is listed on wigix, the seller won’t need to go through the task of describing it and posting pictures. instead, they find the item in wigix’s database, select it, and choose a price, with an eye to the average price .
since the launch, many of the behind - the - scenes activities at wigix have focused on preparing for that public beta launch .
wigix has about 25 employees and a dozen or so contractors; seventeen of the employees are in china, chong said. the company recently raised $ 5. 34 million from draper fisher jurvetson and other angel investors, including bill burnham of inductive capital, wigix said .
wigix only launched its public beta tuesday, so it has quite a bit of time and room to grow. if more online buyers begin seeking out a one - stop shop for both research and exchanging goods, wigix could eventually gain a spot among the smart shopper' s bookmarks .
wigix chief executive james chong is nothing if not ambitious: he thinks he' s got the recipe for an internet marketplace that will rival ebay .
wigix also supports its operations by running targeted advertisements on sku pages, such as ones for items on amazon. since wigix is a place only for identifiable goods (no collectibles here, at least yet), it’s easy to serve up ads for the same products found elsewhere on the net .
we respect your privacy. view our privacy policy for more information. wigix, inc. | 1330 broadway, ste 428 | oakland, ca 94612
we' re delighted to announce such high - profile board members with such deep understanding of the ecommerce market. the senior management and advisory team at wigix can draw on experience of working with innovative companies such as hotmail, schwab, skype, and baidu ,
said james chong, wigix' s co - founder and ceo .
this will be invaluable in helping wigix achieve its goal of transforming the way consumer products are valued and traded online .
when a member adds a product description into wigix' s inventory of skus - - stock - keeping units - - the member gets 5 percent of the transaction fees and advertising revenue derived from that site. in the camera example above, in which wigix gets $ 5 in fees, that would be 25 cents .
wigix executives leverage former ceo, cto, cfo and vp experience from cyanea systems, ibm, planetrx, charles schwab, and epoch partners / goldman sachs .
wigix announced it has reached an excess of two million unique catalog items since its inception. the wigix marketplace has also launched a photo - tagging feature that helps members easily identify products within their photos and display their portfolio of items in their wigix photo albums and on their facebook accounts .
label your stuff
allows users to tag and caption photos of their possessions easily for insurance purposes, visual selling or for fun. members can keep an inventory of household items in the case of insurance claims and quickly access wigix' product information such as product manuals, reviews and videos just by uploading and tagging a picture of the product .
wigix believes its nasdaq - style, community - boosted trading system is better than ebay' s auctions for selling most things. but the company faces formidable challenges .
the result is an innovative online marketplace: wigix. it' s designed to help people on both sides of the buy / sell deal find the right price .
sellers do not owe anything to wigix if the item sells for under us $ 25. sales from $ 25 to $ 100 pay $ 1. 50. for sales from $ 100 to $ 999, sellers pay wigix a 2 percent share. for items that sell over $ 1, 000 the seller owes one percent of the selling price .
despite the innovative attractions wigix offers, only time will tell if consumers buy into the financial trading site approach. it could be difficult to wean hardcore users from traditional auction sites .
wigix can also track how prices for goods change over time, which in addition to the bid / ask aspect of the site, makes it operate very much like a stock exchange .
wigix operates somewhat like a stock market, which is no surprise since ceo james chong and cto bob lee were heavily involved in architecting the online trading platform at investment firm charles schwab .
wigix plans to launch the public beta of its online trading system on tuesday and fully launch by the fall. it uses a nasdaq - style price - matching mechanism: sellers and buyers can list their desired prices for a particular item, and the system will notify people when they have matching orders. wigix also sells ads that can be targeted for the various categories and products on display .
how wigix works in contrast to ebay' s system, wigix charges no listing fee, and any transaction less than $ 25 is free. when the fees kick in, wigix always charges the buyer $ 1. 50, but the seller pays a variable amount: $ 1. 50 for a sale between $ 25 and $ 100; $ 1. 50 plus 2 percent of the amount above $ 100 for a sale between $ 100 and $ 1, 000; and $ 21 plus 1 percent of the amount above $ 1, 000 for a sale of more than $ 1, 000 .
wigix aims to be everything that ebay is not. although it' s also a commerce site, the fee structure and rating system stray from ebay conventions. for one thing: wigix doesn' t charge a fee for anything sold for less than $ 25; and it charges a flat fee of $ 1. 50 to both the buyer and seller for anything valued between $ 25 and $ 100 .
ultimately, there are a number of pros and cons with the approach of wigix. the inability to hock any old antiques or hodgepodge of collectibles will undoubtedly be a deal - stopper for some ebay users. but wigix' s focus on social shopping and motivating the community to help make the marketplace a better, more informative place to shop is a breath of fresh air in an arguably stale online marketplace industry .
wigix is community - driven online marketplace. there are no listing or transaction fees. and there are no final value fees for items below $ 25. sellers can open store for free until april 2010 .
for example, if somebody buys a digital camera for $ 200, wigix charges the buyer $ 1. 50 and the seller $ 3. 50 - - $ 1. 50 plus 2 percent of $ 100 .
submit products to the wigix catalog and become the page owner where you' ll earn 5% of all the transactional and advertising revenue from that product page. you can also sell the page to any interested buyers .
one standout feature one might notice while navigating around wigix is its highly structured design. searching for a product produces a list of all products meeting the description, regardless of where the item is anchored in the catalogs .
wigix ceo and founder james chong said ,
we' re constantly driving innovation, persistently looking for new ways as well as listening to the needs of our members to add richness to their overall wigix experience. with label your stuff, we are providing our sellers the ability to use a solutions - oriented sales approach. our buyers, in turn, receive the added benefit of knowing which products work and look best together .
either way, wigix, the “want it, got it xchange, ” hopes you’re annoyed enough to switch. the company, which launches today, offers an online marketplace modeled on stock exchanges, aimed at reducing inefficiences .
index constantly checks hot and trending companies for their latest activity. we haven' t gotten to this company yet, but if you follow it you' ll be the the first to know when wigix makes some noise .
wigix relies on users to not only add new products to its catalog, but also to flesh out their details. as motivation for helping with this heavy lifting, the company offers a revenue - sharing system for users who lend a hand. if you add an item to wigix' s catalog and a category expert approves it, you then become the
homesteader
of that item and earn five percent of both its ad revenue and transaction fees .
wigix i’m not as familiar with, yet, but it’s getting great press and that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. so, even as ebay blunders about screwing things up, people like me just don’t care anymore because we have moved on. my concerns now are in watching a historic train wreck, the like of which the net has never seen. the demise of ebay will be taught in business schools for decades to come. bonanzle and wigix are coming on strong
by giving members a piece of the pie when lending a hand to make wigix a better marketplace community, the company is pioneering an interesting new recipe that' s one part wikipedia and two parts amazon marketplace—with some ad revenue sprinkled on to keep families fed. with a strong selection of tools for buyers and sellers to communicate easily, wigix has created what could easily become a successful platform for
social shopping ,
with both sides of the counter sharing an equal part .
help build or complete the wigix catalog and you can win cash rewards by earning the most points. plus upon approval, you can become the page owner and earn 5% of all the transactional and advertising revenue from that product page .
we view wigix as a place for product research as well. people can post and read reviews of items. potential buyers can ask the owner questions about his product. the community experience is integrated throughout the site ,
said lee .
such a member is called a
homesteader ,
to indicate wigix' s hope for a land grab that will flesh out product categories, make it easier for other users to add inventory, and keep categories up to date with new products .
according to the company' s press release ,
wigix transforms online auctions by employing the bid / ask model utilized by nasdaq and most other modern markets around the world allowing for informed, low - risk transactions. the company' s minimal fees, combined with a community - driven marketplace in which its members can profit directly from the success of the site, boosts wigix to the forefront of online marketplaces, where people can find the consumer products they need and sellers can make more substantial profits .
wigix' s approach to buying and selling goods is to maintain a central catalog of items which users can sign up to buy and sell. instead of allowing users to list any item with any title like ebay does, items are added to wigix' s catalog by staff or by promoted users who are called
homesteaders
( more on those in a minute). this system makes for a much more organized shopping and selling experience, though sellers obviously aren' t able to create storefronts with custom designs and flashing banners .
the online marketplace for selling products is dominated by the old guard in the form of ebay, and the free guard with craigslist. while there are plenty of other venues at which you can buy and sell goods from other individuals, newcomer wigix mixes a little bit of amazon, ebay, and crowdsourcing web 2. 0 tools to present a new kind of marketplace. ars technica browses through wigix' s aisles to see if it' s a new chance for users to get rich off all those old baseball cards in the attic .
for one thing, ebay operates on a massive scale, and a marketplace' s utility is tied to its quantity of buyers, sellers, and items for sale. for another, used goods may not always be the commodity - like products for which wigix is adapted at the outset .
another way to make money is to become a category expert, a person whom the company appoints to oversee a category such as
rolex watches ,
for example, by accepting or rejecting homesteaders' sku submissions. category experts get 1 percent of wigix' s fee and ad revenue for that category, chong said .
also, wigix isn' t an auction - based system, which chong hopes will reduce the risk of fraud. users can use the site to keep track of all their
non - financial assets
and just like a stock market, the valuations of those goods adjust in real - time according to recent transactions .
* * * for all of you bonanzlers out there (you know who you are) the linked article will come as no surprise. to all of you wigixers out there, it might. i knew the benefits of bonanzle, being as bbg has a booth there, but wigix is my next site to explore and learn .
viewing an item displays an overview of relevant information, including how many users have an item to sell and how many are looking to buy. an item' s market value is displayed, along with its most recent fluctuation in price, and a count of how many transactions that have happened for that item. other easy - access areas for each item include
ask owners
where potential buyers can communicate with other wigix users that have indicated they own (but aren' t necessarily selling) an item, as well as blogs and a more agnostic discussions area. these features are only a prelude, however, to the larger social focus wigix has on the shopping experience .
to lure users, the oakland, calif. - based start - up also has a community - building twist: the company offers revenue - sharing perks to users who, in effect, help run wigix. in addition, there are no listing fees, and people' s buy and sell orders don' t expire unless explicitly set to .
but what if you' re buying a car, one of the areas for which wigix has a category? there' s a lot a buyer might want to know about repair history, windshield condition, or other details that don' t easily fit into the handy taxonomies. and how often are sellers going to update their listings with the latest mileage ?
chong, who was the architect of charles schwab' s online trading platform, believes ebay' s design is best suited to auctions of collectible, one - off items. but for those buying sony playstations, digital cameras, or other mass - manufactured items, he thinks wigix - -
want it got it exchange
- - has the better approach .
when i was perusing the hottest area so far on the pre - beta wigix, nintendo wiis, i didn' t notice any easy way to distinguish why i should buy user birdie' s for $ 500 rather than user kevinchung' s for $ 700. or, for that matter, why i should buy either over a $ 250 new one from a store ?
i don' t have to worry about many of ebay' s hassles or about my craigslist posting rapidly scrolling off into oblivion. as long as i' m not in a hurry and the site can attract some members, wigix seems a good low - risk, low - cost way to handle buying or selling something like a book or cd, and wait until the right price comes along .
before co - founding wigix, mr. lee served as vice president of product management for cyanea systems, an enterprise software company that was purchased by ibm in 2004. lee also served as vice president of engineering for epoch partners, an investment bank that used sophisticated technology to connect to one of the largest groups of individual investors in the united states. epoch partners was acquired in 2001 by goldman sachs .
buyers, likewise, need only find the item they’re looking for through a single search on wigix. once they’re on the page for that item, they can see last prices it sold at, how many buyers and sellers there are, descriptions, reviews and more. if they want to buy it, they put in a bid price; when a seller meets the price, the transaction will be made .
ultimately, chong hopes to encourage people to list all kinds of things they own, making a liquid market out of just about anything, complete with a ticker that shows recent transactions and charts to show historical prices. maybe you don' t have any particular plan to sell your first - generation ipod, but perhaps you' d reconsider if wigix told you somebody would pay $ 50 for it, he said .
for sales from $ 100 to $ 999, sellers pay wigix a 2 percent share. for items that sell over $ 1, 000 the seller owes one percent of the selling price .
that means that the fee on a $ 999 item would be $ 19. 98, but the fee on either a $ 500 or a $ 1000 item would be $ 10. 00. this barely makes sense .
another issue for wigix is just how
skuable ,
as chong says, everything is. when it comes to goods for sale, there are plenty that are easily described with a product name and a check mark next to
good ,
new ,
or
poor .
a 4gb 133x sandisk compactflash card seems pretty straightforward, for example, and there aren' t that many ipod models to pick from .
when i tried for myself to think of ebay competitors the only that immediately came to mind was etsy, which has created a successful market for unique, hand - made items, many of which would have otherwise ended up on ebay. in a sense, what wigix wants to do — become the marketplace for standard, mass - produced items — covers the other half of that equation. and yes, ebay irritates me enough to switch .
wigix launches in public beta today with the intent to standardize online marketplace listings, and consequently make it easier for consumers to find the products they desire. its sku - based system (sku, as in the fact sheets used to describe inventoried items) forces sellers to group their goods with others who are selling essentially the same product. this allows buyers to get a more complete overview of their options, and it allows for many other opportunities as well .
becoming a category expert involves a little more effort, as users apply for the position and recommend new categories or shoot for an existing one. category experts earn one percent of the entire category' s ad revenue and transaction fees, and maintain their position for a year. after that time you can campaign to remain the category expert for another two years (no details are provided as to what this actually entails), and all wigix members are allowed to vote .
james chong, bob lee and albert loh saw a market opportunity and they pounced on it. close to a year ago, when ebay' s core auction business was showing signs of weakness, chong, lee and loh (all former charles schwab execs) were plotting a new commerce site that would rival ebay. they talked to hoards of ebay users, and today they' ve launched their baby: wigix (the
want it, got it exchange
) .
for example, with the sku system, buyers and sellers can search for item listings using more intelligent search. type “ipod” into wigix’s search, and it will automatically suggest all the possible ipod models that one can sell and buy through the site. the search results don’t show actual items for sale, but types of items (“apple ipod photo 160gb” or “apple ipod mini 4gb”). it’s only once you click on one of these results that you can see who’s selling it .
going beyond mere sku numbers and basic statistics, however, wigix allows users to add all sorts of other relevant info and metadata like images, videos, and even user manuals, to an item' s listing. if you see a green dollar icon listed for an item, that means it still requires some of this information to fill out its listing. again, you can become the homesteader for the item (if no one else is) if you add this information, with its attendant revenue benefits .
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the product pages are to be vetted by “category experts” who will take a tiny percentage of sales for their efforts, while sales fees have a set rate: zero fees for items under $ 25, a fee of $ 1. 50 each for the buyer and seller for items up to $ 100, a 2 percent fee to the seller for $ 100 – $ 1, 000, and a one percent fee for every dollar over $ 1, 000. those prices are calculatedly much lower than ebay’s seller fees, and there is no listing fee at all, nor do listings expire .
as you buy items they’ll be automatically listed on your “portfolio”, or you can manually add those you already own. you’ll be able to see your portfolio change in price over time, just like a stock portfolio, and can choose to sell items anytime, or receive notifications of sudden price shifts (in case your dingy old pair of converse suddenly acquire cult appeal) .
the two founders that i met, former charles schwab traders james chong and bob lee, have plenty of additional ideas for how to monetize and run the site — more than i can fit here. what’s perhaps more interesting is an anecdote they had to pass on about tim draper of draper fisher jurvetson, which has $ 5. 34 million invested in the company .
while i’d assumed a million ebay competitors must have been launched over the years, lee said their initial pitch to dfj for funding immediately got the attention of draper, who said that out of the many thousands of pitches he’d received over the years, only three had been for competitors to ebay. along with the investment, he joined the board of the company .
update 9: 45 a. m. pdt: added details about the company' s venture capital funding .
why is ebay bad? it uses an auction model (good for) collectible, unique items ,
chong said .
for selling items like cell phones or ipods, it' s not a good platform .
some of the community - building and revenue - sharing ideas are smart. but the company faces significant obstacles when it comes to dethroning ebay .
the ask / bid method is only one difference from ebay. another is that the company provides community members ways to make money by helping to run the site .
homesteaders must be
active members
who, at least once a week, blog about products, write in forums, buy or sell something, refer friends, or take a variety of other actions. and category experts shouldn' t expect much in the way of vacation: they
must review, approve, or reject item submissions made for their category at least every three days. they must respond to user queries, update their blogs and discussion boards, as well as manage the category taxonomy and item - level characteristics, one to three times per week .
one other community - building incentive: members who refer others also get a 4 percent cut of those members' homesteading revenue .
chong also said ebay sellers can import their ebay catalogs. and the company plans to have customer storefronts for power sellers starting in july .
sounds good, right? everything is for sale, and those who help out get a piece of the action .
here are some of its statistics from the last quarter of 2007, the last for which statistics were available: ebay has 82. 3 million active members, processed sales of $ 2, 039 in goods every second, and had about 115 million items listed for sale at any given moment .
those numbers reflect not just the size of the marketplace, but also the scale of the computing infrastructure the company has constructed, along with corresponding infrastructure for fraud detection, dispute resolution, and international sales. and ebay benefits from transaction histories that let buyers and sellers judge each other by reputation .
there' s a field for
additional info ,
but neither had filled it out. even if they had - - perhaps adding various games or controllers to the list to explain the price tag - - it appears that a single sku isn' t necessarily the best way to represent a wii for sale. bundling accessories for sale doesn' t match well with a single - sku view of commerce .
be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. we delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion .
shopping on ebay is more like navigating a street marketplace than visiting a department store. disparate vendors sell their wares without any real coordination. as a result, buyers must visit each and everyone of them to ensure that they’re getting the best deal. and with each visit, they must cope and make sense of new advertising spins and types of service .
each sku page shows not only the current sellers but general overview information for the product as well. this includes the current market value, the recent changes in that value, reviews, specs, and more. users who own the product but haven’t officially put it on sale can list themselves as owners just in case someone wants to come along and make them an offer they can’t refuse. this zillow - make - me - move - like feature should change the way many people view their possessions (not just dead items but stores of exchangeable value) .
. it’s hoping its pricing structure will produce the right incentives to do that. there is no cost to list items under $ 25. between $ 25 - 100, the site takes one dollar from the buyer and one from the seller. and for more expensive items, it claims an additional 2% of the sale price .
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free online money
is one of the web' s most popular search terms, and it' s trending upward. how do i know? check out the really cool google insights for search beta. you can really crunch some data on that beta... .
angels & demons (audio cd), by dan brown - from the acclaimed author of digital fortress comes an explosive international thriller that careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war .
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popular: trivia, history, america, television, tv, usa, geography, cities, ... more
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the ghost of voodoo village plus bonus chapters for standing the final watch – the last brigade book 1. 5
one week until christmas. are you ready? i haven’t even had a tree up the last two years, don’t ask why, but this year i am going to do my best to put one up. i hope your season is terrific !
with ebay in crash and burn mode it was inevitable that dozens of alternate sites would try to gash out a chunk of market share for themselves. older sites such as onlineauction, ioffer or even the miserably failed urltoken auctions have been around and nibbled away at ebay, without ever really taking root in the public consciousness. but the new breed is here and if i were ebay, i would be concerned .
sure, at the moment bonanzle only has 14, 000 + members and a little more than 500, 000 listings. but the site was only officially launched on sept. 1, 2008. good grief people, it’s barely out of beta and is the fastest growing alternate site in history. and there are books there, too. at least one other bookseller of note (besides me, natch) is there and more are signing up .
* * * children’s book collectors in new england are in for a treat. it seems a gathering of authors and illustrators are putting together their own tours of independent book stores, and that now more than 40 have signed on. your friendly neighborhood bookseller thinks this is great, because, while he has nothing against chain stores per se, indies are much more responsive to the marketplace and generally add to the cultural health of a community .
the first joe pickett novel is quite typical of a putnam edition of this period. green cloth backstrap, green paper boards, quarto. box’s signature is very plain, as you can see. in person he’s a fine guy, really top of the heap. if you get a chance, attend one of his signings .
by dean koontz, writing as k. r. dwyer. random house, 1975 .
as i blog this, koontz is listed as having written 106 books, in case you’re counting. that’s a lot. and in the early years he really cranked them out under a variety of pseudonyms. the dwyer name he used twice, as both deanna and k. r .
is typical of random house in the mid 70’s, octavo, black cloth backstrap and yellow paper boards. the standard random house first edition indicators are present, a number line ending in ‘2’ with the first edition slug. the jacket is also pretty typical, not particularly fragile. the front illustration is so 70’s it’s almost a cliche .
when hosseini’s novel was first published, no one thought it would ever be the runaway best - seller that it became. indeed, some first editions were actually remaindered. the book’s construction is better than average, though, with black cloth backstrap and dark green paper boards that seem a bit more solid than is normal. hosseini is well known for signing his books in both english and farsi and the photo here is a great example of that. standard first edition nomenclature .
* * * indications of ebay’s continuing slide are becoming common - place, but even the casual observer cannot fail to see the irony in this latest bit of news. one of john donahoe’s excuses for wiping out the best ecommerce site on the net was to make it an amazon clone. there are rumors that he wants to be jeff bezos’ love child, or at least his adopted son, but those are still rumors at this point. anyway, for the first time in a long time amazon beat ebay in unique visitors during november and, if you’re ebay, this is a very bad thing .
this means that ebay has given up its place as the premier site for odd and unusual things on the web to beat amazon at its own game, except amazon is increasing its lead while ebay is alienating its market. how, exactly, this benefits anyone except amazon is unknown at this point. but bbg is beginning to smell a rat. could ebay be committing suicide on purpose, to directly aid amazon in taking over the world? granted, that seems a bit extreme on the surface of it, but what else explains the stupidity of telling all of your customers to get lost? except, of course, stupidity itself .
* * * from my editor at ilam and the lady who created the site, sally powers, comes this snippet about popular crime fictioneer j. a. jance: “j. a. jance has a book coming out next summer combining two of her series characters, j. p. beaumont and joanna brady. she’s on tour with the current ali reynolds book and another is coming out next december. if you get a chance to hear her speak don’t miss it. her anecdotes, especially about book tours, are priceless. as is her opinion of new york publicists and their grasp of geography! ”
so there you have it, jance - o - philes. catch her on her current tour and save your pennies for next summer’s big event .
* * * okay, your friendly neighborhood bookseller admits that he is a junkie for biographies about our founding fathers, an interest sparked by david mccullough’s utterly brilliant biography of john adams. so it’s with surprise and excitement that he sees lynne cheney will be writing a new biography of james madison. i have no idea whether mrs. cheney can write or not, but while madison is a crucial figure in the early history of the usa, even today his wife remains better known that her husband, (which makes me crave a dolly madison cake about now) his place in american history has not really been solidified in the public mind. i’m glad of this and wish her the best .
* * * i include the next story for several reasons. one, i love
, both the book and most of the various movie versions. indeed, the patrick stewart production is on tonight and i may choose it for my viewing pleasure. two, i don’t really know much about dickens so something biographical would be a pleasure. three, and most importantly, the linked review of the new book by les standiford ,
gives me the chance to say that standiford is one fine fellow, a better writer (his john deal mysteries were terrific and deserved far more attention than they received) and to post the picture that i have of him with some unknown but dashing chap in a bookstore .
standiford is not to be blamed for the crappy quality of the photo. he’s the distinguished looking man on the right .
* * * it is with great reluctance that bbg includes this story concerning two books about the 1958 nfl championship game. the game was great, perhaps the greatest ever played, but the reluctance comes in that your resident blogger actually remembers the game. or, at least, bits of it. i was a tyke at the time, running around and being obnoxious, and have only dream - images of the game being on at my uncle’s house while my relatives crowded around the flickering screen of the tv. i have no idea why it made such an impression on me. none. i wasn’t old enough to know what football was, yet there was something so profound about that game that i remember the event. strange thing, memory, storing away stuff for no apparent purpose and forgetting things you really should remember .
anyway, there are two new books about that game, either or which would probably be a great gift idea for dad or granddad .
* * * never let it be said that your friendly neighborhood bookseller isn’t an equal opportunity basher. i think by now you know my opinion of the new ebay, so let’s look today at the river, amazon. specifically, amazon. uk. it seems that even in this enlightened age workers wind up working for those who consider them chattel. holy dickens, batman !
of course, in the years before bbg came on the scene to save the world from the scourge of merely ordinary booksellers, he was employed selling electronics on commission for a company that makes amazon look downright progressive, so he does understand why a brutal work schedule is better than no work schedule at all .
* * * in all the world what are the three best cities for people who love books? ask 10 people and you would probably get 12 opinions, but msnbc weighs in with theirs .
i would very much love to visit berlin and i’ve been to dublin. wow, i don’t know if it’s the best city for book lovers, hay - on - wye might take that honor, but it’s certainly a wonderful place. what’s more, the book of kells lives on at trinity college and it’s hard to imagine a more beautiful book. so yeah, i can live with this choice .
boston? not for me. my german is passable and the irish are easily understood, but bostonians? i might as well be in tibet. (just kidding! i could probably understand every other word in boston )
* * * worldnetdaily wants to know what you think are the top 10 all time more important non - fiction books, excluding the bible. i find this type of survey fascinating, as it gives people a chance to list their choices and others a chance to be exposed to great books they may not have been aware of. just a quick glance shows me i still have plenty of stuff left to discover .
michael chabon’s magnum opus is a bit better constructed than most random house offering of the period. white cloth backstrap and paper boards, the wonderful cover is of a heavy stock that should wear well, but is a bit prone to nicks and wear spots. still, it’s much better than most offerings. the double - sided copyright page is almost luxurious in this day and age .
first edition is indicated like any other random offering of the day, with a number line ending in ‘2’ and the first edition slug present. page ends are deckled. i have put this under sff but in reality it’s hard to categorize this one .
really taps into the manic weirdness that became his hallmark. how many books have a 28 pound largemouth bass that is trained to surface on command? and skink, former governor of florida now living in the wilds, i mean, come on, that’s classic stuff .
sold before i could get photos, so i’m putting these up now because i doubt these copies will last long. the book is typical putnam of the period, cloth backstrap and paper boards, fairly high acid paper, number line down to ‘1’. there are no points of issue that i’m aware of and i don’t know of a second printing, although that’s not definitive .
i read this back in 1991, before the days when i kept a reading journal. but i remember how much i enjoyed the manic weirdness and how much i looked forward to more from hiaasen. my boss at the time, phil g. , recommended it to me and boy was he right .
the construction of the book is pretty typical putnam, of the mid 80’s, paper boards over cloth backstrap, quarto, a fairly high acid paper that can tone quite easily. the jacket is pretty durable, though. first edition typified by first edition slug with a number line down to ‘1. ’ i don’t know of any subsequent pr intings as these were remaindered in decent quantities.
wigix , also known as wigix.com , wigix.cn , and wigix , inc. , is an online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer ( b2c ) online marketplace whose model mimics financial trading platforms . the company name is an acronym for " want it got it exchange " . along with wigix.com , the company also owns china-based urltoken as a wholly owned subsidiary . 
wigix, also known as wigix.com, wigix.cn, and wigix, inc., is an online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer (b2c) online marketplace whose model mimics financial trading platforms. the company name is an acronym for " want it got it exchange ". along with wigix.com, the company also owns china-based urltoken as a wholly owned subsidiary.
wigix, also known as wigix.com, wigix.cn, and wigix, inc., is an online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer (b2c) online marketplace whose model mimics financial trading platforms. the company name is an acronym for " want it got it exchange ". along with wigix.com, the company also owns china-based urltoken as a wholly owned subsidiary.