Why was I notified the book was unavailable after the order was placed?

ABAA displays the listings from independent booksellers. Much of this inventory is either secondhand, rare, out-of-print, or for some other reason is in limited supply. In addition, many of these sellers also maintain open stores.

While ABAA booksellers maintain overall fulfillment rates of well over 90%, in the world of used & out-of-print books, stock-outs can happen.

When a seller marks an order unavailable, it can mean many things. It may have sold in the retail store and has not yet been updated to our database. The book may have been damaged since it was listed and is therefore no longer in the condition described. Or, the book may simply be lost.

If a book order is rejected you may always search for another available copy. If the book is not available in a new search, then place the title into a Want List under your account name on our site and we will email you as soon as the title becomes available again.