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Ah, Commerce! The sounds of the hawkers touting the superiority of their goods, the sights of the brightly colored merchandise shining in the sun, the smell of the camels, oh, wait. This isn’t Morocco. How could I have become so confused? Maybe because were in eBay, the world’s largest flea market. And a flea bite is a flea bite, no matter what the source of the vermin whether it be a camel, a badly cleaned oriental rug, or a bookseller with the morals of a 42nd Street watch

There are many excellent print and internet resources on pulp magazines, and I wont rehash the essential features here, but just take a look at http://thepulp.net sometime if you want a good crash course in all things pulp. Ill use this space instead to relate some personal stories about the genre. I kind of liked staying at Grandma Elizabeths in a small upstate New York town hard by the side of the Upper Delaware River. It was a landmark house, centrally located at the botto

Of all the ways to find books, house calls are now better than ever, what with all the competition in other venues. House calls are generated through direct contact if you have your own book store, through advertisement, and through referral or word of mouth. This is not an in-depth tutorial on house calls, but here are a few points to remember. It really pays to weed out those likely to be unproductive right in person or on the phone, before you make the trip. This takes a b

Not long after my apartment was stripped of sellable product, my art dealer parents announced they were moving to Florida. This meant I would inherit all the stuff they didn't want to move with them. Alongside the groceries, funny hats, and kitchen gadgets transferred to my possession were boxes and boxes of books. Old school books, foreign titles, literature, novels, and, of course, art auction catalogs, along with a few monographs penned by my mother. I quickly listed and s

The Colorado Book School, as it is informally known, offers a wonderful opportunity for those seeking to improve their knowledge of the profession. Attending this famous seminar involves a serious commitment of time and money, but all reports indicate that it is well worth the investment. Please note that IOBA’s own Chris Volk is their newest faculty member. Perhaps Chris can give us a nice report on this experience in a future issue. An official announcement follows THE COLO

International Editions Dear Editor, I thank you for your service, and have found the information on your web site to be most useful. I am an engineer disabled with Lou Gehrigs disease, and as such I pass the time and maintain my intellect engaged in a variety of independent research projects. As I do not have ready access to a quality technical library I purchase a large number of books and other reference materials over the internet. The information on your organizations web

Table of Contents Interview: Peter Thomas of CollectorsBookMarket.com IOBA Q & A Column Do Your Books Smell Their Best? Ephemeral Assays: Genealogical Ephemera Dan Glaeser Books, Modesto, CA Lessons Learned – Life in the Book Business (title goes here…)

Q: Peter, how did you get involved in creating book Web sites? A: I owned a new and used bookstore for 23 years and I began selling on eBay and Bibliofind in 1997. Internet bookselling was changing rapidly and new opportunities seemed to be knocking everywhere. I was particularly fascinated by eBay and I wanted to build a “children’s books only” auction. I closed my store in 2000 and began a crash course in web development and I have been learning ever since. Q: Many children