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18 Benefits of Joining TomFolio
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1. Owned by Dealers.
TF is not owned by some grubby-handed corporation that interferes in your business
and never answers your questions. It is owned by a co-operative of online book dealers.
2. High Professional Standards.
Dealers must have professional business standards to join. For example, dealers who refuse
to be responsible for lost packages, or otherwise do not have a reasonable return policy
with no hidden fees or tricks, are disqualified. (See our Code of Ethics).
3. Stable Platform.
TomFolio.com runs more smoothly than any other bookselling site, with less down time, fewer bugs and a
fast search engine.
4. Your Own Terms.
TomFolio.com is set up to keep you independent. You set your own shipping fees, your own
currency conversion rates, your local tax rates, your preferred types of payment, and any
other terms and conditions. TomFolio.com does not interfere with your transactions.
5. Front Page Placement for Special Items.
One of our best improvements: The homepage shows three current items for sale, with a thumbnail
picture linked to its description. Any item with an image is eligible; there is no extra fee
to have your item(s) featured. Featured items are rotated at random.
6. No "Content Police."
Unlike the corporate websites where your items are suppressed if you use "wrong" words in
the descriptions, there are no filters on TomFolio. We also do not cut off long descriptions,
so you can feel confident that your painstaking and thorough cataloging efforts will not go
to waste.
7. Category System: Niches
TomFolio.com has a brilliant two-tiered drill-down category system (easily browsable) that
is second to none among the major sites. Customers love the ease with which they can find,
for example, cat mysteries, juvenile series for girls, and other specific types of books.
8. Check-out Features.
TomFolio.com's secure shopping cart will calculate shipping and sales tax according to your
settings. Members can process their own credit cards, or use our merchant account to process payments,
regardless of the location of dealer or customer.
9. Your Own Website.
TomFolio.com provides a free webhosting service to each member who makes a commitment to list
for a minimum of three months. The web hosting feature includes search and browse capability
of your items using your own domain name or a TomFolio.com extended URL, shopping cart
services and multiple other features including 20 additional web pages that can include
any content that you choose.
10. Antiques and Collectibles Categories.
While our focus is on used books, many of our members also deal in antiques and collectibles,
and we have a section where these can be listed for sale in the same manner as used books.
This is a fairly new section and only has about 600 items so far, but there is plenty of
room to expand.
11. Innovative Leader.
TomFolio.com has never tried to "copy" the Big As. As a matter of fact, on several occasions
we innovated a feature and soon saw it copied by another site. (Examples: Our category system
was soon copied by Biblio and Abe. Our original tagline, "books, ephemera and periodicals" was
copied almost immediately by Bibliofind. Our credit card processing system gives the bookdealer direct
access to the customer's info, which we were the first to do.)
12. Democracy and Co-operation.
TomFolio.com is the first multi-dealer site to have been organized around the democratic
principle. TF is run with the goal of mutual co-operation and mutual benefit. Rather than
engaging in ruthless competition with each other we share our skills and strengths to the
benefit of the site and its customers.
13. Always Responsive to Problems.
Our dedicated webmaster is always responsive to customers and dealers with problems. In most
cases technical issues are fixed within minutes of being reported.
14. Peace of Mind.
Unlike on the big corporate sites, where fees are raised and services are changed without
warning and without any concern about their negative effect on you, TomFolio.com will never
sock you with unannounced fees or commissions. You will never have to worry about secret
corporate shenanigans, unannounced ownership switcheroos, or sudden fee hikes that gouge
your bottom line.
15. No Debt.
TomFolio.com is a pay-as-you-go operation. There is no free ride here for anyone. Because we
have no debt, we are not beholden to anyone but ourselves.
16. Investment in the Future.
TomFolio.com is a not-for-profit venture. Every penny beyond operating costs gets reinvested
in improving the site and doing a modest amount of marketing. Apart from our paid technical
person, everything is handled by unpaid volunteers who happen to be professional book dealers.
17. Value for your Money.
TomFolio.com is good value for your money, starting at $25 per month for 500 titles listed.
We charge no other fees: there are no hidden costs, no commissions on sales. In fact, we have
not raised our fees since we launched in November 2000.
18. Future Savings.
TomFolio.com is the only online database designed to become cheaper as we get bigger. We expect
to lower our monthly fee when we reach four hundred owner-members.
For more information on how to join click here.
Gwen Foss, TomFolio.com Member
Alan's Used Books
www.gwenfoss.com
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