Afton House Books

All of the domestic US packages are shipped. You probably received an e-mail with the delivery confirmation number. One or two bounced, but the books are on the way. Somewhere.

Foreign shipments are just starting to ship, but will all be in the mail by Thursday AM. In many places, these books are duty free. VAT is, of course, your responsibility. The international harmonization code for these books is 4901.99.0070, or 4901.99.0093. Both refer to hardbound, printed books. You can use the first 6 digits to try to figure out what your customs people will want from you, if anything.

Some people have asked for an invoice. If so, I’ll send one. However, it will have to reflect the true value of the books. I don’t care to read my copy in jail. I suggest that you don’t worry about an invoice unless you know you will need it. If so, drop me a note.

When you receive your books and decide to keep them, please send $600.00  if you have not already done so. Your last payment will be $295, plus shipping and handling. I will bill you, but shipping and handling are very close to this:

US domestic: $25 per box (2 volumes).

Non-US: Varies. Australia seems to be the most, at $55 per box (2 volumes).

One last fee applies, and that is the cost of PayPal (their ordinary fees, and exchange rate stuff) if you paid that way.

If you paid in full, up front, domestic, I’ll pick up the shipping. If you paid in full outside the US, I’ll apply the US shipping as a discount on your international shipping.

I will read my own terms and conditions to make sure that no one is overcharged. All of the shipping fees above will be reduced by something like $10, which I believe I was going to allow on domestic & international shipping. Trust me: I’m not trying to nickel and dime you, but some of these numbers are becoming clear only as I bring boxes to the post office.

Again, these books are USPS Priority Mail. Domestic boxes should all be in your hands this week. International, by end of next week, I think. They claim 6-10 days, so take that with a grain of salt.

Any questions, drop a note.

Bob

Ah, well: shipping has begun… after some teething pains, about 25 to 40 pairs of books are going out per day. Everything will be shipped over the next 5 business days, or my wife will shoot me: the books are sitting in the living room, but not all nice and pretty; every pair is in a USPS Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box. This is a thing about 12″ by 12″ by 5.5″. It weighs 12 pounds. If I bring too many to the post office at once, the very nice lady there may reconsider her opinion of this new Yankee in the neighborhood…

A few of you are even more trusting than I am: I got two checks with no cover note. That means when I deposited them, I had nothing left of who gave me the check. Luckily, my bank copies both sides.

I have asked a few of you for clarification on address: I hope no one’s e-mail has gone belly up since I started this “ready in about a month” about 7 months ago.

You will have your books very soon now: domestic shipments will take 2-3 days, foreign somewhat longer, but days, not weeks. Domestic buyers will also get an e-mail address with a delivery confirmation number.

If you have any questions or concerns, let me know.

You won’t believe this… but Friday I had taken off for packing. I headed out to my office to move the second half of the books to my home and packing area. When I got there, about 1/2 of the city of Charlottesville had no electricity due to a storm. Guess whose office was out-of-power. I couldn’t even get in.

Well, real soon now…

I have been very concerned with the shipping issues, but they are being resolved fast. I had always wanted to ship “box-in-box” for the better protection of your books. The books as shipped from the printer are in a box that is quite adequate on the ends, and good enough “for government work” on the sides. However, I wasn’t satisfied.

However, it turns out that by making 4 judicious cuts in the ends of the printer’s boxes, the boxes fit in the “Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box”. That means that I ship for a flat rate (independent of weight, dependent on distance). Better still, I get box-in-box at no additional cost. The nearest book surfaces are underneath three layers of corrugated cardboard… I think it will be fine.

The books are also wrapped in paper.

Just letting you know that you will be receiving a box of about 12 by 12 by 5 3/4 (inches) with a weight of 11 pounds.

One inch is 2.54 cm, and one kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.

This isn’t a change, but intended to make my life easier. I have created

aftonhousebooks@earthlink.net

Would you please use this for e-mail related to your books? My other e-mail addresses will not change, so don’t worry about loss of a message.

Thanks.

Last Friday, June 11, I went to a business lunch with associates. When I returned, 1400 pounds of books were sitting on my loading dock. I didn’t run to tell any of you because Customs included a note: I was not to sell or ship them until they were properly marked. (!!!???)

Apparently, the fellow who inspected one of the books missed the legend “Printed and Bound in Milan”. My printer offered to send me a letter stating that Milan was in Italy, but that wasn’t needed: they knew where it was, they just didn’t see the notice. They wanted me to send a copy of the book with a label stuck in to indicate country of origin. Yea. Right. Open each box, put in a sticker, close each box. Oh, and lose the volume I send them for proof. Sure. Right. Ah ha….

I realized that if I simply hung myself that you’d never get the books, so I called Customs, and got a pleasant surprise. They were perfectly happy to hear the books were marked, they just wanted to see a photo of the imprint, and they took care of the paperwork instantly. Hmm…

So, I am ready to start shipping books.

For those of you in the States, they will come via the USPS. You will get an e-mail message giving you a tracking number of some sort. Don’t start going out to your mailbox until you get the notice. As an estimate of the shipping cost, each pair of books within the States will cost about $25. This will be a box-in-box packaging, USPS Priority Mail.

For the rest of the work, the folks at the USPS have shown me how to get two volumes into an International Priority Flat Rate Box. The cost isn’t so bad. Each pair of books will cost you about $65 US. This is an improvement on my first estimate of $40 each. Those rates are to Perth, Australia, and I think they are the maximum anyone will pay. Others will pay less.

For everyone, I have absorbed the cost of shipping to the US. This was cheaper than sending the books from Italy, since the printer will not send books via the Italian Post Office, only the commercial guys like DHL.

So,when will you get your books? I will start shipping Thursday. US shipments need very little processing. Outside the US, I must re-pack your books, which at least gives me a chance to add packaging material.

But I have to tell you, that I can’t spend all day shipping: I have a day job. It’s killing me, but I cannot take time off from work this week. Next week, yes, I will take days off and ship like mad. This week, no time off. But I will make a start this week, and I hope every one receives their books before July 1. The international folks are getting theirs priority, so they will get there at about the same rate as the domestic crew.

Trust me, I wish I could ship them all today. Why? I have to pay for the next pair of books this week…

When you receive the books, page through each volume to make sure there are no obvious problems with binding and so on. I have some books kept aside for the inevitable loss in shipping or mis-binding, but luckily, my experience says that this is rare. In 22,000 volumes, I think I had a total of 25 problems related to binding. Maybe less.

Also when you receive your books, if you are not satisfied, then please contact me to return them. I will refund your money for any reason you see fit, as long as I get the books back in new condition, and you pay for return postage and insurance. I’ll eat the cost of sending the books to anyone who decides they don’t want them.

Lastly, when you accept your books, a payment of $600 is due.

Now, last but not least, about shipping addresses.

If you suspect that I may not have your correct address, please send it to me again, along with a phone number. And please send this to “aftonhousebooks@earthlink.net”. Include any special requests or issues that you think I should know about.

This is what they look like…click on an image for a larger size.