Purchasing on the internet can be a slippery slope. Often, unless you deal with the traditional stores such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders to purchase a book, the shipping charge is huge, the customer service is impersonal, and delivery can be a hassle.
Starting in February I searched far and wide to purchase Monica Bellucci's Photo Book. My search started with several calls to Barnes and Noble. They told me that this book was a special order. I decided to place my order with them online. The Book, according to them was on back order. They kept telling me that they ordered it, and were waiting for it to arrive. This went on for 5 weeks. After their final window had expired I called their head office in NYC and they again assured me that the book was on order. I told them I would wait one more week. It never came and they still had the book available on their site. Finally they told me in an e-mail after I canceled my order that they could not get the book. This was more than 6 weeks, after me doing all of the leg work. Needless to say, this was quite frustrating.
During the time I was waiting I searched all over the internet to purchase the book at a reasonable price, not the crazy price from Ebay dealers or some of the Amazon market place dealers who bought several copies of the book when it first came out, and are now selling it at 400 to 500 percent of the actual value of the book. Normally I am all for free market capitalism, however it was Monica's initial desire when she agreed to do the book was that the proceeds would be donated to a couple of charities she picked. The initial printing of the book was by Rizzoli in Italy, in Italian. Limited copies were produced for the English market, but being that I am a purist, and the fact that this is mainly a photographic book. I wanted the Original Italian language book. I honestly was not willing to pay $300 for a book that retailed for 50 Euros ($60 US) at the time.
I saw on Amazon, a market place seller called Deastore that had the book for $72.95. I did some research on the internet and realized they are a huge online outlet. Read some of the comments about them and decided to make a purchase.
To be honest this Deastore was perhaps one of the best purchases I have ever made on the internet. I was contacted as soon as I made the order, as soon as the order shipped which was only 2 business days later. I had several questions regarding the order and not only did they answer them all, they were so polite and respectful.
Although the book took awhile to arrive because Amazon had only the ground shipping option they were very reassuring and continued contact with me. The kind folks at Deastore, were excellent. The 5 pound package arrived, in perfect condition. There was a professional invoice, including their address and phone number in the package, and a very nice gesture of a 15 percent off coupon good until the end of the year on any item in their vast library!
All I can say it Graze Mille!
For more information go to http://www.deastore.com
Buy from these folks!
As far as the book goes, it is awesome, especially for any photography buff like myself. It is 250 pages of various photos scattered all throughout Monica's modeling and film career. There is a artist drawing in the beginning, a forward, and a note from Monica in the front few pages. The paper it is printed on is very high quality and the book has the quality of an archival volume.
I like how the photographers are named as the pictures are taken, and there a a few fold out pages as well. A full location, photographer, and page listing is found at the end of the book. Excellent all the way around. This is a must purchase book for any photography or Monica Bellucci fan.
