Price and availability are generally established via Collection Manager GOBI searching, Amazon.com searching, and Barnes & Noble.com searching. Price/availability inquiries are generally only done when information isn't found in those sources.Before doing Price/Availability inquires, you should consider the following:* Would a VISA inquiry be more appropriate than a Price/Availability inquiry? The Price/Availability inquiry is suited to orders going to a vendor that we have a blanket order with, such as BNA. In most other cases, a VISA inquiry to decide a method of payment and to get the information we need to establish business with that vendor is more appropriate.
- Will we be ordering from a foreign vendor that is in a better position to verify price and availability than we are? If so, we can do the order without verifying price and availability. If we don't have any price information, we can use an estimated price of $50, with a price note stating "Estimated price." We usually send these estimated price orders to the designated vendors without verifying price and availability:
- German order going to Harrassowitz.
- French orders going to Aux Amateur.
- Spanish orders going to PuvillLiteral Books.
- Russian orders going to Russian Press ServiceMIPP or Kubon & Sagnor.
Identify the publisher and locate publisher information
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- Locate publisher information using one of the following methods:
- Do a web search (with a search engine such as Google).
- Use Gale's Ready Reference Shelf.
- If you know the location of the publisher, try a online phone directory.
- Try other publisher and vendor websites given on the Acquisitions website.
Establish Price/
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Availability
- Find out whether the item is available from that publisher or not, using any of the following methods to get the information we need (given in order of preference):
- A search of the publisher web site (fast, free, and we get the information instantly).
- E-mail.(we prefer to use phone over e-mail for rush orders, and we prefer to use phone when there's an 800 number making the call free.) This is fast and free but we don't get the response instantly.
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- Phone. (avoid calling if we have to ask about an excessive number of items, or the items are in a language making it difficult to communicate orally.) Calling a publisher costs money unless there's an 800 number but is fast and we get a response instantly. Price/Availability is a is a standard terminology that most publishers will be familiar with, so when you call, you can simply say that you want to find out the price and availablity availability of a title, and they'll either find the information for you or direct you to the right person.
- Fax. This costs money unless there's an 800 number and we don't get the information instantly. You should use letterhead for your fax correspondences. All written correspondences should be professional in the style of a business letter. Full block format works best and is easiest to format on the letterhead:
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