Had a good meeting, had a grilled cheese with bacon, and then Sandy and Lanny went on their merry way and I picked up a couple of packages, though none of the overdue ones. I also got very tough with an eBay seller who sent me a notice that my package had just shipped yesterday. The content - The Cuckoo's Calling, which I did Buy It Now for on July 14, the day the story hit but before everything was going crazy. Things went crazy so fast that most buyers who had the smarts to get on eBay and buy at reasonable or even cover price had their orders canceled, while some dealers began to add to the listing that the auction was a pre-order, because the publisher made public it was reprinting and books would be ready in five or six days. So, I wrote the dealer and told him I was so tired of these games, that I'd purchased the book, which was NOT identified as a pre-order and therefore should have been in hand, and that IF it had been in hand it had to be a true first edition. But the fact that the dealer had waited a week to ship it was the tip-off.
The seller wrote me back right away saying the reason for the shipping delay had to do with problems with their paypal account, and they assured me they DID have the books in hand when I ordered and that I was getting one of them - a first edition. We'll see when it arrives, but if it's what it should be (it couldn't be anything BUT a first edition if they ship what they had in hand on July 14 because that's all there was at that point) then I shall be VERY happy.
