Frequently Asked Questions General questions Who is the Montana Book Company? Can I come and visit you? Do you buy books? If I join your mailing list, will I be spammed? Questions about condition What is the difference between fair, good, very good, and fine? How do I know if a book has a dust jacket? Can you give me a more detailed description of a book? Questions about ordering Are your prices negotiable? Can I return a book? Do I have to pay tax? What forms of payment do you accept? Is it safe to send you my charge card number over the Internet? Can I keep my charge card information on file with you? How do you handle library orders? Can you order a new book for me? How do you handle book dealer orders? Questions about shipping How soon will my books be shipped? What is your standard method of shipping? How long will it take for my order to arrive? Do you ship overseas? How much does it cost? Can you send a book for me as a gift to someone else? Can you rush an order or provide other special handling? General questions Who is the Montana Book Company? Montana Book Company is an online used bookstore based in Brockton, Massachusetts. It's owned and operated by Blake Gulbrand. Can I come and visit you? At this time, Montana Book Company is an online and mail-order bookstore only. Because our books are warehoused, they aren't easily accessible for browsing. Do you buy books? We buy used, rare, and scholarly books in all fields and quantities. For more information, call us at 508.857.2796, or email us at montanabookcompany@gmail.com. If I join your mailing list, will I be spammed? NO. We respect your privacy and never sell our mailing lists. Questions about condition What is the difference between fair, good, very good, and fine? These are standard terms used by most booksellers. We use these terms according to the way they are defined by American Bookman's Weekly and by Allen and Patricia Ahearn in Book Collecting: A Comprehensive Guide (New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995): Fine: Close to new, showing slight signs of aging but without any defects. Very good: Shows some signs of wear but no defects. Good: Shows normal wear and aging, but complete and without major defects. Fair: A worn and used copy, probably with cover tears and defects. We do not sell books with major defects, such as missing pages, and always note if the book has any writing or underlining. All of our books are fully returnable within 10 days for any reason whatsoever. How do I know whether a book has a dust jacket? If the book has a dust jacket, we note it in the description. Some cloth-bound books were issued without dust jackets, and we try to note that, too. Can you give me a more detailed description of a book? We'll be glad to give you a more detailed description of the book. Send us your specific questions, and we will respond by email. Or if you prefer, call us at 508.857.2796, and we will describe the book in detail. Questions about ordering Are your prices negotiable? Sorry, our prices are not negotiable. Can I return a book? Absolutely. Just send it back in the same condition within 10 days of receiving it, and we will refund your check or credit your charge account. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are returning a book. Do I have to pay tax? If you live in Massachusetts, we must collect 5% sales tax, unless you have a tax-exempt number. What forms of payment do you accept? We accept checks (U.S. funds), money orders, MasterCard and Visa. If you find it necessary to pay by a check in a foreign currency, please email us and we will attempt to make special arrangements. Is it safe to send you my charge card number over the Internet? At this time, we do not have an encrypted order form. In many years of doing business, we have never had a problem, but we take the security of your credit card information seriously. If you are uncomfortable using our form to submit credit card information, send it separately via email. For maximum security, you can send it in two emails, including half of the 16-digit number in each email. Note: We do NOT store credit card information on our web server! The illegal programs which search for e-mail messages with credit card numbers operate by looking for unbroken strings of 16 numbers. A popular way of shielding your credit card number from these programs is to break up the number string with text. An example is "4234 and then 45678 followed by 912 and finally 3456." Or, more simply, call us at 508.857.2796. Can I keep my charge card information on file with you? Certainly. When you are placing your first order, let us know you would like us to do this, and we will store your information in a secure place. For future orders, just inform us that you wish to pay by credit card, and that your information is on file. How do you handle library orders? We will invoice, bill, and ship according to the library's needs. Please send us an email message to reserve the book and to let us know your requirements. Can you order a new book for me? Since Montana Book Company is a used and antiquarian bookstore, we don't order new titles direct from publishers. We recommend Harvard Book Store, an independent new bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for special orders. How do you handle book dealer orders? We welcome orders from others in the book trade, and offer drop-shipping and standard dealer courtesies. Please contact us individually. Be sure to include your tax exemption number. Questions about shipping How soon will my books be shipped? We make every attempt to ship your order within 24 hours of receiving payment. What is your standard method of shipping? Shipping within the United State by the US Postal Service is $3.50 for the first book and $1.00 for each additional title for Media Mail. Priority shipping is $4.50 for the first book and $1.00 for each additional title. UPS ground service is $5.50 for the first book and $1.00 for each additional title. Bookrate and priority mail packages are not insured; UPS is insured. Please let us know which way you want the book shipped when you order. We regret that we cannot be responsible for loss or damage to uninsured orders. Our primary method of shipping overseas for books weighing 4 lbs. or less is via "Global Priority" Air Mail. If the book is oversized or weighs more than 4 lbs. we will provide you with the various shipping options, both insured and uninsured. We will contact you with the amount before shipping in order to assure your approval. If you need special shipping arrangements, please contact us to make arrangements. How long will it take my order to arrive? Although we will ship your order promptly, we cannot exercise complete control over its arrival time. However, our experience with the USPS is 10-14 days shipping time for Media Mail (many packages do arrive sooner). We have experienced shipping times of 3 weeks for orders to the West coast. Priority and UPS are much quicker, about 3 to 5 days. Do you ship overseas? How much does it cost? We ship worldwide. Our primary method of shipping overseas for books weighing 4 lbs. or less is via "Global Priority" Air Mail. If the book is oversized or weighs more than 4 lbs. we will provide you with the various shipping options, both insured and uninsured. Foreign orders are billed at exact cost. We will contact you with the amount before shipping in order to assure your approval. Can you send a book for me as a gift to someone else? We will be happy to send a book as a gift. We will enclose a tag with your message, and will erase our price. Just send us the name and address you want the book to be shipped to, and what you would like to say on the gift enclosure. Gift wrapping is available for a $2.00 fee. Can you rush an order or provide other special handling? USPS has next day and second day service available for an additional charge. We will compute the exact cost when you place your order. Please let us know what your needs are, and we will make every effort to accommodate them.