I know I’ve talked a good deal about shipping times over the past week or so, because of the problem of Amazon’s changing my books from being in stock for immediate shipping to listing them as shipping in 2-3 weeks.  But, I still need to discuss this issue again, because I have had some customers contact me in some confusion.  I have advised everyone that I am currently listing for sale the 3 most current books (on the Panasonic Lumix LX5, the Leica D-Lux 5, and the Canon PowerShot S95) as a third-party seller on Amazon Marketplace, with the seller ID alexstrawhite, and that I ship quickly, by the next business day.  These customers either bought the book or started to, and then noticed that Amazon was saying the book would not arrive for about 2 weeks.

It appears that Amazon sends out that sort of delivery-estimate message when people select Standard shipping, because that method usually is Media Mail, which can take 2 weeks or more to arrive.  (Though I believe Amazon also sent out that message to a customer who chose Expedited shipping, which really doesn’t make sense.)

Anyway, please don’t pay much attention to those canned announcements from Amazon when you order a book from me as an Amazon Marketplace seller.  I have maintained 100% positive feedback there, which is not easy to do. I always ship by the next business day, and sometimes the same day, if the order comes in at just the right time.  When I ship the book, you will receive a shipping confirmation message with the USPS tracking number.  The book should arrive within 2-3 business days after it is shipped. (Of course, all of this applies for shipping within the United States.  I ship books anywhere in the world, but naturally the shipping time will be considerably longer for international shipments.  Also, the books are available through Amazon.co.uk, which could be a better choice for customers in Europe.)

One other point:  As I noted yesterday, I have ordered one of the Canon PowerShot S95 books from Barnesandnoble.com (bn.com) to test the shipping time.  I received a message today saying the book has shipped via UPS, and is scheduled to arrive on Monday, July 11, which is a good, quick arrival time for a book ordered on July 7. So, if you want to order any of these books for quick shipping from a major retailer, it looks as if bn.com is a good bet.  Amazon will ship fairly quickly and the book should arrive within 1 week, despite the posted shipping time of 2-3 weeks.