Buying books from India

[Das Devaraj]

Hope this email is perceived to be Indology related.  My advance
apologies to anybody who think otherwise.
---------

I am trying to start a small local library in USA (not affiliated
with any university or such big money organization :-) on Saiva
Siddhanta.

One publisher that I contacted refuses to send me even their
catalog (tried sending postal letters from USA and even had one
hand delivered to them!).  One distributor (whom I dealt with over
email) was lots more responsive.  After a couple of emails, sent
them a list of around 80 books and they replied back asking for
my credit card number over email.

My response explained that even though I trust the distributor,
normal Internet email is inherently insecure and refused to send
them my credit card number over email (have no hang-ups in giving
it on a secure server or PGP-mail or such).  Asked them to invoice
me first so that I could send them a check and then they could ship
the books.  But got no response from them so far.

This is going on for better part of this year -- without me being
able to get a book or a catalog!  Is there any catch phrase or
technique that needs to be used to get a success in this endeavour?
Is there some normal but unspoken protocol (have come across this
in other dealings with Indian organizations) that is violated in my
futile attempt at procuring books?

das
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Interested in Vegetarianism?             Vegetarian Restaurant Trek
Web    http://www.VegInfo.com                712 Bancroft Road #320
e-mail info at VegInfo.com (subject Help)       Walnut Creek, CA 94598
Interactive Voice/fax Response  (510) 256-8420                  USA