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When any business changes, and the used/rare/antiquarian book market has changed dramatically over the last decade, everybody seems to be pointing fingers at everyone else. The terms “fraud”, “forgery” and “fake” get tossed around in wild abandon. “Playing fields” are described as “tilted”, “honest information” is hidden and “the buying public” routinely cheated. This is, of course, hogwash. There has, in fact, been a revolution in used and rare bookselling, occasioned by the

Attorney General John Ashcroft is on the campaign trail. He is not running for office. He is trying to shore up support for the USA Patriot Act. Ashcroft is making speeches to groups all over the country in an effort to head off a growing list of amendments that have been proposed by members of Congress. It’s a remarkable change in the political fortunes of the Patriot Act, and booksellers can claim a considerable share of the credit for calling attention to its problems. Cer

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