IOBA's 25th Anniversary Virtual Book, Map, and Ephemera Fair (May 2-4, 2024)

The Independent Online Booksellers Association Celebrates 25 Years

With a worldwide membership of over 350 independent sellers of rare, used, new books and

ephemera, the Independent Online Booksellers Association marks 25 years of work in 2024. The

IOBA is an international non-profit trade organization founded in 1999 to support ethical and

professional online bookselling.

For generations prior to the Internet, experienced book dealers had created accurate book

descriptions for use in catalogues, using agreed-upon terminology and recognized standards of

grading and passing this knowledge down. By 1999, there were online sellers copying the

language of professionals, often without knowing what it meant. Others didn't know enough

about the profession to be aware that any specialized terminology or standards existed. The

original founders of the IOBA saw a need to somehow translate this generational standard into

the online world.

To do so, the IOBA established and is dedicated to maintaining both a Book Buyers Bill of

Rights and a Code of Ethics for its members. The IOBA provides scholarships, education,

mentoring, and support to its members. Furthermore, it has an ethics committee to investigate

the rare complaints from people who buy from IOBA members.

Over the years and today, the IOBA continues to represent independent booksellers. The IOBA

formally challenged monopolistic companies like Amazon for its parity pricing pressure in the

EU, over a decade before the United States FTC anti-monopoly lawsuit filed in September of

2023. In September of 2023, in light of new censorship under the Texas Reader Act, the IOBA

formally endorsed the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement.

For 2024, the organization launched a separate IOBA Foundation, a nonprofit, tax-exempt

institution “established for the purpose of providing continuing education for the worldwide

community of independent online booksellers, as well as to promote diversity in the trade

through scholarships and mentoring opportunities.”

Readers can find information on the IOBA’s continuing work, ethical bookselling, and

cautionary tales published in trade magazines 

Caveat Emptor: or some thoughts on ethics and online book buying (finebooksmagazine.com)  and on the IOBA website.

Virtual Fair Link:  Book and Ephemera Fair Online (getmansvirtual.com)

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Point of Contact:  

IOBA Vice President

Richard Erdmann

603-742-1229

Mare Booksellers

vicepresident@ioba.org