David Doyle Books

David Doyle Books News #62

What a Couple of Weeks!

Dear Friends,

Denise and I don't normally send out newsletters on Saturday, but when we did not send out a newsletter earlier in the week, some of you began writing, concerned something has gone wrong - so, we decided to send out this brief message.

One week ago at this time the IPMS national convention in Hampton, Virginia was winding down. We'd like to thank the guys from IPMS Tidewater for hosting a great show! They also went out of their way to help us out - especially unloading the several pallets of books that we displayed. We'd also like to thank our friend Randy Canova, who stuck around and helped us load up - with his help we were able to get packed up and loaded up in only five hours, Thanks Randy!

Of course we also would like to thank those of you who stopped by our booth, visited, made purchases and entered our daily drawings (and thus signed up for our newsletters). We had three winners - and each winner claimed their prizes while still in Hampton - congratulations y'all! For those new to our newsletters - thanks for signing up and reading. This one is a bit longer than usual.

Thank you as well to those of you who could not attend, and instead took part in our special - "We're away, so there's gonna be a shipping delay" sale! We are pleased to say that our shipping is now completely caught up. Thanks for your patience, and we hope the special pricing made it worthwhile.

While we were away, a number of new books - and restocks - arrived, and we've just scratched the surface of putting them on line (because we were focused on shipping orders).

Here are some of the items we've gotten in:

Just before we left, we got the Nagato-class battleships Legends of Warfareand my book about December 7, 1941 survivor Coast Guard Cutter Taney - I don't remember if I mentioned these in the last newsletter.

Our newsletter this coming week will add many, many more new titles.

We are also taking reservations for a new, revised, Panzer Tracts 5-1 covering the Panther D. To reserve your copy, please visit this page. Our reservations work, at least so far, on the honor system - you sign up and get an lower than usual price, the books come in, you pay us, we ship. Unfortunately, recently the number of folks choosing to not honor their commitment seems to be increasing - 25% of those who reserved the Israeli Armored Corps book did not respond to the notification. We understand illness, job loss, etc., but we sure do appreciate a note - especially when notified before the books come in - because we buy a book for each person who reserves one.

While we have maintained our policy of FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OVER $15 for several years, unfortunately the pressures of rising shipping costs, rising packaging costs, rising brokerage fees and incoming freight tariffs (many folks think that all publication are tariff free - unfortunately, that is simply not true) are forcing us to consider changes to our shipping policy. No change has been made yet, but Denise and I see this as inevitable.

Finally, it is never our intent to offend anyone - and it seems that we unintentionally offended someone at the show when we declined an offer on a book. Since actually there were a couple such offers declined, I thought an explanation worse worthwhile.

We always strive to give our customers a great value - and also sell products at rates that allow us to meet our obligations - and of course DavidDoyleBooks.com is an ongoing operation - not a liquidation.   Selling a book at a show for below cost does not meet the criteria just mentioned. Indeed, while at a show we do not have to bare the postage cost of our free shipping policy, there are a few other costs to consider which tend to offset that savings. Looking at the just concluded show in Hampton, here are some of those expenses:
          Table rental $1840
          Truck rental $1944
           Hotel $1155
           Fuel $615 (the rental truck seemingly could not pass a gas station without stopping!)

Of course, there is also the cost of the books themselves. Selling $5554 worth of books (the total of the above) does not make us break even - because it does not include the cost of the book (or food, or other incidentals).
And finally, selling at a reduced price in the final hours would not be fair to those who patronized us earlier in the show. All of these are the reasons why various offers were declined - most took that in stride, but one gent seemed genuinely offended - and thus the long explanation.

We pray that all of you are staying safe from the heat and various wildfires, and we remain grateful for the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,

David and Denise

https://daviddoylebooks.com