Condition of books shipped through Amazon.com

I want to buy the hardcover "Making Of" books for both Star Wars and Indiana Jones but I want them to arrive in *MINT* condition. Would amazon be a good place to order them?

Should be fine. They generally shrinkwrap books to a piece of cardboard and then put that in a box.

Khev said:

I want to buy the hardcover "Making Of" books for both Star Wars and Indiana Jones but I want them to arrive in *MINT* condition. Would amazon be a good place to order them?

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If they don't arrive mint keep shipping them back until they do sent you mint copies. They're return/exchange policy is excellent

Thanks guys!

Khev said:

I want to buy the hardcover "Making Of" books for both Star Wars and Indiana Jones but I want them to arrive in *MINT* condition. Would amazon be a good place to order them?

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No. I always get cds with cracked cases. they don't care much for things as long as you get them in reasonable condition.

i've ordered several and they all arrived mint except one but I bought that one from a 3rd party so I believe it was shipped like that. Plus they do have a great return policy....they are Walmart of the internet in that sense.

Sometimes I get items shrinkwrapped to a carboard insert and they arrive absolutely mint. Sometimes books get tossed in a big box with one plastic bag of air inside to take up space and after sliding all around every edge of the book is crushed. One book that I returned because of excess damage was replaced with another shipped the exact same way and with the same damage. You never know...

tomandshell said:

Sometimes I get items shrinkwrapped to a carboard insert and they arrive absolutely mint. Sometimes books get tossed in a big box with one plastic bag of air inside to take up space and after sliding all around every edge of the book is crushed. One book that I returned because of excess damage was replaced with another shipped the exact same way and with the same damage. You never know...

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This is my experience as well. Their shipping method seems random.

I received a loose book that arrived scratched up and looked used with fingerprints on the pages. The exchanged it and the next one they sent me was still in shrinkwrap AND shrinkwrapped to a piece of cardboard. So I assume they were ensuring I would get a mint copy the second time.

You would assume that if I return a book because it arrived damaged, that they would be sure to send out the replacement packaged very carefully, but unfortunately that hasn't been the case in my experience. But it probably depends on which fulfillment center and employee combo you happen to wind up with.

I ordered a couple Marvel Omnibus's from Amazon (Amzng Spidey Vol 1 and Brubaker's first 25 issues of Cap) and both came with some form of shipping damage. I sent the Spidey one back and they sent me another one... the new one still had damage but not as much.

If you can snag that stuff at a store MINT and it doesn't run you too much, I'd do that. Just for reassurance.

tomandshell said:

it probably depends on which fulfillment center and employee combo you happen to wind up with.

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I think that's the case. I ordered a ceramic dish for my mother that arrived with the handles broken off, so I asked for a replacement, explaining that it didn't seem to have been packed very well. And of course the replacement arrived packed the same way, and also with the handles broken. However, their service was very good. In fact, they said that since it might be dangerous to send back pieces of broken ceramics, that I should just dispose of them myself and they refunded my money. I was able to glue the handles on pretty well, so we got two free dishes out of the deal.

That said, my experience with their shipping of books and DVDs has been pretty much exemplary. I order a lot from them and I think they've always used the "shrinkwrapped to a piece of cardboard" method. However, it's possible that different parts of the country use different warehouses or something.

I seriously don't know how I ever managed to shop without Amazon before. I have Amazon prime and it's simply awesome. Fast delivery, great packing and an awesome customer service, not to mention great prices. What could you want?

I like it when they shrinkwrap the books to a piece of cardboard. If they just put them in the box with paper, though, you never know what you'll get. One of my Walking Dead TPBs showed up with the front cover open so it was bent a little.

I got the Making of Indy HC from the UK site. It was just thrown in the box with some crumpled paper. The back cover of the dust jacket was dinged up a bit at the bottom, near the center of the book. Not sure if it actually happened during shipping or not though.

i bought 2 hardcover books from amazon for a xmas gift and they were shrink wrapped to cardbord and in excellent condition. and yes they were for a friend. please dont start thinking i read and stuff.

I've had a couple problems with them, but nothing big. Generally the tiny nitpicks like bumped spines look just about the same in the store. But it is being shipped so there is always a risk with that.

I have order dozens of books from amazon, all have arrived in excellent condition.

The books i've ordered from Amazon have all arrived in exelent condition and in some cases arrived in better condition then some i've ordered from a bookstore.

I dig amazon and I've had similar experiences with Amazon as everyone else. I order a good bit of stuff from them from DVD's to books. Usually my items are shrink-wrapped to a piece of cardboard - usually. Which is good. But sometimes the items are just chucked in a box with the inflated plastic cushions and nothing else, which is bad. On the up side they have never had issues about replacing any damaged items and 99% of the time the replacement is undamaged.

That being said, if I'm ordering something that I'm more concerned about arriving in top condition, like the Hellboy library editions or a Marvel Masterworks book - I hit TalesofWonder.com - Everything I've ever ordered from them arrives very well packed. It's mainly just for comic related items/books. They usually cost a few bucks more than amazon, but there are no QC issues that I've experienced. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

The shrink-wrapping of items to a piece of cardboard kind of depends on the size of the item (or order) and the way the shipping lanes are running on a given day. The packers (as well as anyone else along the line before it gets THAT far) are supposed to do a quick inspection for any damage but with the rates imposed on workers it might not always happen. As mentioned, the return policy is pretty good.

Meh.. hopefully I havent gone into too much detail... stupid NDAs.