New World Archive – Unveiled!
There has been much discussion in these pages of the mystery that is New World Archive, but for the first time we have inside information as to what’s going on inside the company.
A reliable source close to the company has confirmed that they are indeed, as surmised here late last year by Liz, Ben and Ron, selling books in Canada as Vanderbilt_ca. Interestingly, the parent company is actually Ultrabuys Disc. registered at:
ULTRABUYS DISC INC.
32 VETERANS LANE UNIT 5
PLATTSBURGH, NEW YORK, 12901
They’ve only been in business, according to NY State corporate records, since January 2009.
Here’s the location – I believe the warehouse in question is directly above the A.
32 Veterans Lane, Unit 5 - home to New World Archive
They also have another warehouse in Plattsburgh on U.S. Ave, apparently. What’s fascinating to me, beyond the apparent scope of the operation (an estimated incoming traffic of between 300-2000 packages daily, and outgoing of twice that) is that they are, apparently, in the book improvement business. They – and this sounds crazy – have a team of people (as many as 15 at a time) erasing pencil marks in books and cleaning them up to be re-listed at a higher condition grade and price. I picture a huge, empty room with men and women at desks, quietly rubbing away with little erasers – like medieval illuminators or cigar rollers.
Book erasers at NWA
Does this make sense to anyone? I’d like to hear people chiming is as to what percentage of books they sold have pencil marks.
One of their other main activities is cleaning and repackaging CDs (they have CD seller businesses as Mom and Pop and OOP Music) – they run them through one of those industrial CD cleaning machines, shrinkwrap them and sell them as new.
Also fascinating to picture is that they reportedly have P.O. Boxes all over for receiving books – apparently to avoid raising suspicion (which, frankly, suggests that I was right in the first place and they ARE building an underground archive in preparation for the apocalypse and, extremely cleverly, using a giant, Byzantinely complicated book reselling scheme as a cover.) as to the extent of their activities – and shipping books from downstate NY for similar reasons.
It’s believed that Vanderbilt_Ca is only one of their aliases – my CI, as they say in the business, might be able to comment further on this.
What’s most remarkable to me is that they are, to all appearances, buying most of these books on spec, and not dropshipping. They don’t have a ready buyer for the books, just what they believe to be a ready market. I’d also be interested to know if there was any software that was driving these purchases – it seems extremely intensive for people to be doing the buying manually.
Some quick math – if they are, as my source says, selling 2-3000 books a day and let’s figure they make $2.5 on each sale, free and clear on average, (which could be low) they could pay 25 employees to work 8 hours a day for $10 an hour and still be making a worthwhile sum. That’s two grand in wages per day – fixed expenses would almost disappear as a percentage, but let’s call it $20k a month in rent (Plattsburgh is CHEAP) and utilities – that’s $70k monthly in profit (that I just completely fabricated) so you can see that this sort of thing does actually scale pretty well. You’d need quite a bit of capital to build up enough stock to be making those sales though – and a hell of a belief that this was a workable business model.
Didn’t we decide that they were also Michael Milde? That was used for a few years (I got a NWA Milde order just a few weeks ago on ABE) so would have been plenty of practice, I guess.
Interesting stuff, for sure.
9/30/2010
82 responses to New World Archive – Unveiled!
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← Older CommentsOut of the past 6 orders from this place, 4 were either “refused” and sent back with open package or had erroneous claims of inferior product. I always cancel orders from them. Not worth it.
Just received my 7th order from NWA in as many months, was curious about info on them, and came on this and another site.
Out of 6 orders sent, one was returned and refunded; their claim was “not as described.” The book was new, ordered for a school when I was still brick-and-mortar. It came back in bad condition, I’m sure not what I sent and not what the USPS would have done.
Thought little about it, but after reading the comments of the last couple years, not wanting to send this last order — a more expensive book. After postage (a weighty book), packaging (odd-shaped/sized), tracking, signature, insurance, Amazon’s cut, my overhead, possibility of scam return or delivery denial: doesn’t seem to be much in it for the seller.
Would love to see some follow-up on previous questions (Amazon’s reactions to cancelling orders to suspicious buyers)and investigative attempts.
I always cancel orders I receive from them after they claimed the book I mailed them was never received. The orders go to Chazy NY which is about a 30 minute drive from my location. I do not believe the books get lost. They are never returned. I cancel the order and use the “Undeliverable Address” when I cancel.
DON’T SELL NEW WORLD ARCHIVE ANYTHING! I sold them 8 books & all was fine & then the next order was a nightmare! They falsely claimed my book wasn’t in listed condition so they defaced it & sent me insulting notes & threated to leave me negative feedback on amazon-
We sold them a book on Amazon and then got an email from them saying it had wrinkled pages, wrong ISBN and not in NEW cond. This WAS a brand new book and still in the original shrinkwrap packaging with the exact ISBN for the product.
Will not sell them again
Do not sell anything to New World Archive! They initially were great customers, but I have had a string of four or five sales that were extremely questionable, always claiming that the book wasn’t in listed condition–one of which the shelf wear was actually noted within the description…They are a total nightmare and have begun canceling any orders to them.
I just sold them a new book and was told the book is old with folded ages. Why doesn’t Amazon check into them?
I have “sold” 10 books to them and half of these sales were disputed. As others have said, they sometimes return the books, other times claim “Undeliverable” and still others, empty shipping box comes back to me. I am done with them. Each order I get, I cancel and the reason stated is “Undeliverable Address”. Today I cancelled 2 orders. Saves me a lot of grief that I know is coming in the next week or 2.
First time seller to them, turned into a nightmare. They have a new book I took a loss, I didn’t want bad feedback. Wish I ad seen this site beforehand. I won’t sell to them again and Amazon needs to check on them.
NWA purchased a higher priced book from us on Amazon in Like new condition. They want a refund and returned, “not our book” but another exact book “in worse condition” without asking for refund through Amazon.
Our book had an Original price sticker on cover and like new cover pages as it was a collectible large size paper back. They removed the price sticker, admitted it, and said they could not use it as it was damaged in the mail.
We received the book back in our packaging and repacked in theirs. our packaging was not damaged as stated. So the book could not have been either.
We are being threatened with them stating they will leave negative feedback, report us to Ebay and not buy from us again. LOL
We told them to do as they say and they just continue to use email system through Amazon harassing us for refund.
It is still ongoing and we have told them that we will not return anymore correspondence and to just go to Amazon with their complaints.
I will update later as to results.
Good for you! If everyone who deals with these clowns shares the info, they will not be able to play their games with quality sellers any more. Keep us posted!
Surprised to read all of this. I have filled dozens of orders from NWA over the years, averaging about two a month, and only ever had one return for what was a legitimate complaint. Glad to finally get an explanation of who they are and what they do.
To everyone reading this forum, you must contact Amazon seller support and share your experiences and concerns, not simply vent them here. Our most recent negative experience with them: I received an e-mail to my PERSONAL e-mail address asking me for a refund due receiving a book allegedly “not as described” (it was new in every sense). I have no idea where they got my personal e-mail address, but it is clear they are now trying to bypass Amazon’s messaging service–probably because they have done this to so many sellers and do not want to raise additional red flags. I would suggest that every seller reading this forum contact Amazon seller support as I did and share your experiences; they are violating Amazon terms of service. Good luck!
I’m another Amazon seller who recently received an email from New World Archives that they did not receive the book. Their emails were rude and unprofessional. I told them I would not issue a refund, and they threatened to leave negative feedback and put a claim into Amazon. (The book was $12) I did not respond nor do I intend to give a refund. I’m so relieved to find this blog!
Update. New World Archives filed a A-z against us with Amazon for full refund. We responded back to Amazon per the system and added this link to our response for evidence against their methods. It says 10 days for investigation and tommorrow makes day 11. Amazon is holding our funds until they make a decision. So far I have requested Amazon investigator to contact me per email twice but with no responses one way or another. Hummmm we get rated down for not responding to emails and they just ignore you. Funny how that workds huh? Well I will post final comments as soon as I see if they are going to issue New World Archives my funds to pay them back, even though all my evidence, photos, and information should deter them from doing it.
same experience.I sold a book, they returned me acceptable, not like new condition. I will not refund them. Let us fight together against this.
I sold one book to them yesterday. I thought the name was strange so I found this page. I hope I do not have a problem with the order…
I got into a fight with them last year and by Amazon seller credentials state that we are B to C only. They managed to get a refund once from me. When I told them to stop buying from me they threatened me with their attorney over messaging, lovely. They tried to buy again last week and I canceled immediately, impacts metrics of course. Please contact Amazon seller support, the more messages and cases they get the more they will take notice.
NWA claimed not as described. Arrived in worse condition and missing sleeve
Well final feedback. Amazon did not even pay any attention to this link I submitted to them with New World Archives A-Z claim against me.They of course gave me negative metrics for the A-Z even after they said if I refunded a partial refund to NWA at my discretion they would close the case. It was like pulling hairs to get Amazon “investigators” to even acknowledge my side of the picture. Since NWA stated in an email to me that they removed my original price sticker from the book they sent back, they were considered at fault, but only if I gave them partial refund??? Obviously, Amazon cares not for sellers only buyers, no matter what the background or evidence shows. So we continue to prod on and I positively will cancel any order from NWA again and damn the metrics. Who cares anyways as long as your satisfied customers are happy.
I listed a book with “spine and cover defects.” It was a great discount. They complained about “spine and cover defects.” I am grateful for this list. I have urged Amazon Seller Support to investigate. I got them to file a formal complaint with Vincent in Philippines. He told me to do nothing while they investigate. This may need to be referred beyond Amazon. Good work folks.
After getting another aphasic response from Harish at Amazon indicating he did not know what the nature of my inquiry was, I spoke to Allison in Grand Forks, referred to this site and got a promise to refer this matter to the Investigative Team–and got a Case #.
Those who wish to contact Amazon should make reference to this Case 97974011. I have received a message from Technical Account Management that the matter is now formally under reviews.
It appears this matter is handled by escalation in Amazon.
Done. Acct closed.
Good news, Edwin! About time. What a nightmare they have been for so many of us. Thanks for the update.
I have dealt with these people a number of times. They have returned over half of the books they have bought, but they are NOT the books I sent…just the same book in bad condition. My books are never in bad condition. I am a little old lady just trying to make grocery money for me and my husband. I try my very best to be EXACT in my descriptions of books! Don’t know how else to describe what happens at their end.
I just received the book back with a request for a refund. Please note: the request came on a pre-printed form annotated with a place to hand-write ta detail or two and included a large reprint of Amazon selling rules. That any buter would have such a form should be quite revealing. They extracted and cited book conditions from https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161242 except the text on their form was rewritten from the actual text appear on the Amazon page.
again without typos–sorry
I just received the book back with a request for a refund. Please note: the request came on a pre-printed form annotated with a place to hand-write a detail or two and included a large reprint of Amazon selling rules. That any buyer would have such a form should be quite revealing. They extracted and cited book conditions from https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161242 except the text on their form was rewritten from the actual text appearing on the Amazon page.
This should be the last return you get from them … because now you know not to sell to them.
I read these comments after buying shipping for the book from Amazon and thought I want to keep as far away from this outfit as I can. Sounds like they just swindle the sellers with a book in worse condition and abuse the return system. I refunded their money and asked for a refund on shipping from Amazon since I hadn’t mailed it yet. I said the reason for refund was no stock.
I haven’t had any problems with NWA, but have heard a lot of horror stories. I’ve probably sold 50+ books to them over the years. They just purchased a book from me today, so I don’t think their account was closed…