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IOBA Standard readers are getting a good look at what should be the big bookselling story of 2004, with a chance to play an important part in this campaign that will help our businesses, our customers, and America as a whole. This February, retail and online booksellers, coordinated by the ABA, ALA, and PEN, and other concerned groups and organizations, launched a nationwide and on-line petition, backed by large-scale phone and email campaigns. The goal is to generate 1 milli

[Note: IOBA in no way endorses the contents of this article. It was printed here as an alternative viewpoint, and is left here in the interest of archival integrity.] For the past five centuries, regular people like you and I have enjoyed the pleasure of collecting autographs of both the well known and the not-so-well-known. The hobby began when 16th Century German students maintained albums of correspondence from family, friends and noblemen. It wasn’t until the late 18th c

Buying books on eBay can be a frustrating experience. I hope to give a few basic pointers to make the experience safer and more rewarding in the long run. To begin with, I must explain that nobody ever bought a book from eBay, but thousands of people buy books offered by eBay sellers. This is an important distinction. I have been in open shops where Grosset & Dunlap reprint titles were offered as first editions, and I have received catalogs where book club reprints were offer

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were the seemingly endless miles of perfectly straight stone walls which line the fields and places in the woods where fields once were. Having spent a week of hard labor rebuilding a not too long section of a collapsed one, I have first hand experience of the work involved, to say nothing of what it must have been like to bring all the stones to the site. Some of the descendents of the pioneers who built the originals are now selling t

There are many types of book dealers. When one uses the words “book dealer” to someone who is not in the business, what is often pictured is a poorly lit and cramped bookstore in the poorer side of town, with shelves sagging from the weight of too many dusty but beautifully hand carved leather wrapped collectibles. In the corner of the store is an over stuffed chair, with a goose neck lamp looking over the shoulder of the dealer, who sits and puffs on his pipe while reading.

So, the other day I was chewing the fat with this guy, this book collector guy, you know, and in the middle of emailing the conversation back and forth this guy he comes right out and just gives me a URL for a Roman numeral converter. Without even asking if I needed it, or wanted it or anything. And like, it gave me like the weirdest feeling, you know? I was shocked for like an entire ten minutes. I mean, I may not know much but I KNOW my Roman numerals. I have since found th

This past August, my wife and I made a long awaited trip to Greece. For the first time in many years, this vacation would represent an almost two week break from the book business. No email, no checking orders, no buying books, no schlepping books, no arranging to have books shipped. There was one exception. I personally collect copies of James Joyce’s Ulysses in various editions and translations, and intended to pick up a copy translated into Greek to add to my collection. W

Publishing statistics on the used book market can be a dangerous job as the numbers keep changing and it’s not always clear what is being “counted.” With these caveats, as of October 2003, the Book Hunter Press database of United States used book dealers showed the following breakdown of dealers by region and type. The footnotes offer a brief explanation of what is and is not included in the figures. How are these numbers arrived at? By actual contacts with dealers — not a sa