Is this odd, or new, or...?

[Tony Nance]

I just received a book order from Amazon, two books in a box, and one of
them -- a paperback -- was shrink-wrapped. Is this new? normal? What's
the purpose?

Tony, puzzled

[Michael F. Stemper]

I just received a book order from Amazon, two books in a box, and one of them -- a paperback -- was shrink-wrapped. Is this new? normal? What's the purpose?

I've not seen that, but I almost never buy books there.

My theory, which is mine, is that it could be intended to keep packing
materials from getting jammed between the pages of the book, which could
lead to bent or ripped pages.

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by Tony Nance
I just received a book order from Amazon, two books in a box, and one
of them -- a paperback -- was shrink-wrapped. Is this new? normal?
What's the purpose?

I've not seen that, but I almost never buy books there.
My theory, which is mine, is that it could be intended to keep packing
materials from getting jammed between the pages of the book, which could
lead to bent or ripped pages.

The book most likely was packaged and shipped by some company using
Amazon as their online sales point. I still semi-regularly order books
from/thru Amazon and I see a lot of different packaging methods.

As for "why?", other than "different companies do things differently" I
have no idea.

[Paul S Person]

Post by Tony Nance
I just received a book order from Amazon, two books in a box, and one of
them -- a paperback -- was shrink-wrapped. Is this new? normal? What's
the purpose?

I've seen something like that in a bookstore, but they were large
paperback volumes of an /Akira/ set and I suspected that this was done
by the publisher to keep them from getting thumbed to death on the
shelves.