The Half Price Kiada

I love books and so once upon a time when I lived in Dallas and Austin it was inevitable that I shop at Half Price Books. I used to haunt the Half Price bookstores on Northwest Highway and on Guadalupe and Lamar at least once a week and sometimes more. I became, in other words, a big fan of Half Price Books.

Recently, my devotion to and appreciation of Half Price Books has declined thanks to four strikes they whiffed at in short order over the last couple of weeks. Strike One was Half Price sending me an ex-library hardback book that was not noted as ex-lib in the description (which, I assume was the product of mechanical copy and paste). Strike Two was Half Price sending me a book with critical pages missing. Strike Three was Half Price sending me another ex-lib hardback book that was not described as ex-lib. Strike Four was Half Price sending me a paperback instead of the hardback I ordered. Incidentally, the paperback Half Price sent me in this instance had a ThriftBooks sticker on it. Apparently, Half Price Books has devolved into Thriftbooks these days and that seems, given these strikes, sadly fitting. 

Because of these four strikes I do not feel that I can purchase hardback books online from Half Price anymore. I  cannot trust the descriptions of the books they sell. I cannot trust that Half Price will send me the books I ordered. I can't even trust that Half Price will contact me about any problems regarding a book or simply cancel an order I made because they don't have the specific item I ordered. So, au revoir Half Price online, I doubt I will miss you.

Postscript, 16 July 2021:
I have had problems with two other orders (strikes five and six) I made with Half Price Books online service since the earlier post above. I purchased  a hardbook book on the American Revoloution which was listed as very good, something that would presumably rule out it being an ex-library book, emphasis on presumably. I did not receive an ex-library book (miracle of miracles) what I received, however, was a paperback with underlining, notations, including the names (presumably) of a university study group who had assigned different members to different chapters, underlining, and highlighting, all of which should have been noted if ABE guidelines were followed. At the same time I ordered a paperback copy of the plays of Soviet writer Mikhail Bulkakov which was likewise listed as very good. Like its cousin it arrived with names, notes, highlights, dogeared pages, and underling. Again, all of this internal damage within the book should have been if ABE guidelines had actually been followed. I can only conclude that the Half Price online store is staffed by a cabal of incompetents and morons who apparently can't one, accurately describe the quality of a book, and two, can't accurately describe what a book looks like on the outside or the inside. Why I should buy a hardback book or a work of fiction--notations in a literary work are, to me, an act of moronic desecration--is beyond me at this point. What isn't beyond me is filing yet another complaint about this putative bookseller with the Attorney General of New York State.