Requests For Quotes

Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Company of Manila:
OPERATION MANILA BOOKLIFT

Most of the irrelevant requests for quotes that I receive have something to do with plumbing, because I had taken a lot of pictures of toilets. But there is more to me than that! Some people think that because I have a large collection of pages on information security, then obviously I must be an international book seller.

From: "Dianna S. Duay" <dianna.duay@agp.ph>
To: Bob Cromwell
Subject: Request for Quotation
Date: Tue Mar 31 05:34:08 2009

Hi Sir,

Please quote us for the below information security reference books of 5
titles as follows:

1.      Stolen Access 
2.      Targets of Opportunity 
3.      Look Out for your Laptop 
4.      Ready for Anything (Business Continuity) 
5.      Back in Business (Disaster recovery) 


Please indicate the validity, availability, delivery CIF manila & manner
of Payment.

    

Regards,

     

      
Dianna S. Duay

Purchasing Department

Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co. of Manila Inc.

San Roque, Bauan, Batangas, Philippines 4201

Tel No. +63 43 485-0133

Fax No. +63 43 485-0113

Website: www.agp.ph

Well, if I can make up absurd responses to irrelevant requests for plumbing quotes, I can surely do the same thing for irrelevant requests for book-selling quotes:

From: Bob Cromwell
To: "Dianna S. Duay" <dianna.duay@agp.ph>
Subject: Re: Request for Quotation
Date: Tue Mar 31 19:05:21 2009

On Tuesday 31 March 2009, you wrote:
> Hi Sir,
> 
> Please quote us for the below information security reference books of 5
> titles as follows:
> 
> 1.    Stolen Access 
> 2.    Targets of Opportunity 
> 3.    Look Out for your Laptop 
> 4.    Ready for Anything (Business Continuity) 
> 5.    Back in Business (Disaster recovery) 
> 
> Please indicate the validity, availability, delivery CIF manila & manner
> of Payment.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Dianna S. Duay
> Purchasing Department
> Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Co. of Manila Inc.
> San Roque, Bauan, Batangas, Philippines 4201
> Tel No. +63 43 485-0133
> Fax No. +63 43 485-0113
> Website: www.agp.ph

Dianna --

Let's first deal with what might be the major cost, depending
on the number of copies you need:  the cost of air transport
as an escorted shipment.

Expedia is currently showing a round-trip cost of US$ 2,138
round trip from Indianapolis to Manila on Northwest Airlines.
I will, of course, need hotel accommodation for the duration
of my stay until our transaction is completed, but fairly
basic accommodation will suffice and surely we can complete
the delivery within 48 hours.  I believe that a surcharge
of US$ 60 for every multiple of 30 kilograms of books beyond
the first 10 kg should suffice for the required additional
baggage costs for the books.  While this cost might seem a
little steep if you are only ordering a few copies, I am
happy to offer, free of charge, a presentation on the
fundamentals of information security to be given to a
group of any size in your corporate training facility.

I assume you mean the city of Manila.  Given that the title
field of your home page mentions "Manlia", as in "Atlantic,
Gulf & Pacific Company Manlia Inc - Heavy Fabrication Yard",
and your address is not Manila (or, apparently, Manlia), but
San Roque, Bauan, Batangas, I am not completely certain of
the meaning of "manila".  Pardon my caution, but precision
is crucial in an operation such as this.

As for the costs of titles you require:

> 1.    Stolen Access 

Not available at this time from Amazon, my preferred provider.
Do you have an ISBN number for this title?  Or should we flag
it as "invalid"?

> 2.    Targets of Opportunity 

Do you mean "Targets of Opportunity: On the Militarization
of Thinking" by Samuel Weber, or "Target of Opportunity",
#98 in the Mack Bolan: The Destroyer series, by Pendleton,
or "Targets of Opportunity" by Michael Z Williamson?

Costs of those are US$ 18.00, $0.30 and up, and $6.99,
respectively, the second available only in used form.
Initial shipping to my staging and transshipment area
for the first and third would be free (assuming you are
interested in more than 2 and 4 copies, respectively),
while the initial shipping for the second would be
approximately US$ 4 per unit.

Tell you what, I'll assume you want at least 4 of this
title and offer this pricing structure:
  US$ 18.00/copy for the Weber version
  US$  6.00/copy for the Pendleton version
  US$  7.00/copy for the Williamson version
Feel free to get a mixture of these titles!  Just make it
very clear how many you want of each one.

> 3.    Look Out for your Laptop 

Not available at this time, flagged as "invalid".

> 4.    Ready for Anything (Business Continuity)

That title is US$ 5.95 and is available as a digital download
only.  You do mean the title by Lawrence Berenson, right?
The product description says it is 3 pages long.  Assuming
that it is a greyscale document, that would add US$ 0.10/page
for printing, so US$ 6.25/copy to cover the download and
production of hardcopy.

> 5.    Back in Business (Disaster recovery) 

That one does not seem to be available.  Do you have an ISBN
number for this title?  Or should this be flagged as "invalid"?

You said CIF, by which I must assume you mean Cost, Insurance,
and Freight.  The above enumerates the Cost and Freight only.
As for the Insurance, I will need to research this further
once I have a rough idea of what sort of quantity and thus
value you will require.

Finally, the method of payment.  I would prefer an electronic
funds transfer.  Given some unfortunate experiences in the past
with a Pakistani company that first indicated a serious interest
in purchasing a large number of stainless steel institutional
urinals and then backed completely out of the deal, I am afraid
that I will need payment in full in advance.


I look forward to doing business with you!


Bob Cromwell


ps: Do let me know the approximate time frame when you will
need these.  I may need to work around or rearrange some other
commitments to schedule the travel.  Are there any more or
less auspicious times to visit Manila?  The monsoon season
might be interesting for a few days, but I understand that
it can get pretty tedious and perhaps should be avoided.