Hi guys, this is Shanna Mann at Central Virginia Prep. I just wanted to give you my annual reminder about global editions and Indian editions and why we recommend that you don’t use them.
[00:00:17] So there are. A few things you need to know about the global editions. So Amazon does allow you to sell Global editions on their platform.
[00:00:33] You can usually tell which ones those are because the ASIN starts with a 9 now. This will be different then this is because the ISBN 10 is usually the ASINS. And keep this in mind because this is going to be important later when you’re starting to track down problematic listings, so. For almost all books, you know the ones that are the listings that are created by the publisher at the behest of the publisher or whatever.
[00:01:05] The ASIN is the same as the ISBN 10. Except when it’s not but for the most part it is. We refer to this typically as the canonical listing, so the other thing you want to pay attention to is sometimes listing start with a B0 and those are product listings and anywhere else on Amazon the listings for furniture and housewares and toys and all that other stuff.
[00:01:41] If you look at them, you’ll notice that their ASINs are almost always B0 this is the product designation on Amazon. So when Amazon started cracking down and gating a lot of textbooks what people did– not like you specifically, but enterprising sellers would just go ahead and create a new listing for the book that they wanted to sell that they were gated out of on the canonical listing.
[00:02:08] So, They’re allowed sell that book now because they’re not gated on it. But what you need to understand is what happens behind the scenes. So the reason that all the gatings occurred was that the Publishers started to lean on Amazon and try to shut down listings where they had reason to believe that there was counterfeit action going on or just generally lean on Amazon.
[00:02:36] It is up in the air about how much proof that they were required to provide. Additionally Amazon periodically goes through and merges the listings of books that seem to be duplicates. They do this for all of their products. So this is where you’ll see for older books that have been in print for a long time
[00:02:58] Particularly Classics children’s books the sorts of things that you might sell for literature classes like old man in the sea if the particular edition of Old Man and the Sea that you’re selling has been in print since 1958, then probably at some point Amazon was like, you know, what these are all the same ISBN, let’s roll them all together and that’s when you start to see a lot of listings that say something like different cover then listening technically not kosher, but Amazon kind of lets that one slide.
[00:03:34] The used book part of Amazon gets away with a lot of crap and I suspect Amazon’s not thrilled with the fact that they get away with a lot of crap. But at the same time used books are kind of this gray market area where. There’s just so much– too much of variation to really effectively crackdown on all this stuff
[00:04:00] So I want you to know that these merged listings happen. When they happen you can wind up being at odds with what the description says and then you can get a complaint from the customer. So that is why in general. It is better to be on the canonical listing if at all possible. Because then you know that that canonical listing matches your book in every regard and the fact that you’re not gated from it means that when the next time that they rake in all of the multiple listings, it’s not going to get gated and it basically just solves a lot of problems for you
[00:04:42] Leading me back to the global edition. So we have two problems with the global editions. The first is that they’re often sold under the canonical listing where they don’t belong so you’ll have the global edition for I don’t know Horngren’s Accounting. You’ll have the global edition for Horngren’s Accounting sold under the American student Edition for Horngren’s Accounting and that’s wrong
[00:05:08] That’s bad. Don’t do it. And if you see that you thought you were buying the American Edition and you got the global or the Indian Edition then make sure you get a refund on that book.
[00:05:23] Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of global edition listings pop up and some of the checkers are more on top of that than others where they’ll be like, hey, okay, I noticed that this ASIN that is listed in the spreadsheet starts with a 9 , so this is a global edition, but it’s supposed to be a global edition and that’s okay .And sometimes they’ll flag them anyway. The reason we do this is because. If you do a lot of volume, it seems like you’re an experienced seller. We’re going to be like, okay, he meant to do that. He bought that book knowing it was a global edition totally fine with selling to Global editions
[00:06:03] If you’re new and green and not selling a lot we infer from that that you probably didn’t intend to sell a global edition don’t really know what the deal is with global editions and so will flag that in red for you. So here’s the deal with global issues. You are allowed to sell Global editions
[00:06:23] However, the Publishers don’t like it when you sell the global additions on the u.s. Amazon site. So periodically, they’ll go through and they’ll strong-arm Amazon into shutting down those listings. When those listings could shut down your inventory gets stranded. You can’t sell it. You have to have it shipped back to you or to us.
[00:06:44] This causes time and expense and you’re not going to get that inventory back selling. Some enterprising seller goes along creates a new listing for the same global edition book. And then that listing goes live for a while. It’s not gated everybody sells on it. It’s all copacetic until the next time that it gets shut down
[00:07:03] So in general, I like to tell new sellers that while you can sell Global editions, the main attraction to flipping text books on Amazon is that it’s a relatively simple and headache free system that selling Global editions does not really incorporate well into. If all you want to do is flip textbooks bang bang bang bang bang, not cause yourself any problems, not have stranded inventory then probably stay away from global edition
[00:07:38] If you’re like no, I’m totally on top of this maintenance. I got a VA. They’re very good. I don’t mind if I have to pull the odd inventory because I know my numbers and I know that I can sell that book in a reasonable time period, this is all a-okay with me then Global editions are totally fine. We don’t have a problem with it .As long as you’re selling it on the global editional scenes, which as I stated before typically start with a 9 in their a ASIN.
[00:08:07] So I get a lot of questions about what are Global editions what’s the problem here? Why can’t I sell them? What’s the big deal? I thought it wasn’t supposed to be a global edition and it is a global edition.
[00:08:20] So the thing is do your own due diligence on these listings and sometimes it is not listed on the listing that it is a global edition. You’ll be able to flag it in two ways. As I said the the ASIN will start with a 9 or you’ll be able to see in the image on the listing the Amazon listing that in the top corner next to the spine There will be a little red triangle and that little red triangle is where it says mmm. You know Indian Edition or whatever not authorized for sale in the United States. So if you see that in the image, then you know, you’re dealing with a global edition want to sell the global edition again, totally fine. Just as long as it’s on the right listing and you’re prepared potentially for a headache down the road as Amazon seems to purge these listings every year or six months depending on how how big the proliferation of these listings is.
[00:09:19] So I realize that there’s a lot of ins and outs here. That’s why I decided to make a video about all of the potential variations on the global editions problem. And if you have any questions, you know hit reply to this email. I’ll do my best to sort it out and hopefully there won’t be as many emails about this issue if I’m getting put to bed and and explain things in video format. So hope this is helpful.
