ALL ARTICLES

A: BiblioDirect.com is being developed by Bibliophile Books, Inc. as a site for booksellers by booksellers. We intend to create a site that will attract quality booksellers: the best dealers have the best books, and that combination will attract the best customers. BiblioDirect.com is designed to facilitate the transaction between the buyer and the seller without getting in the middle. We will charge a monthly fee to the dealer, but after that we just get the buyer and the se

I generally try to avoid saying anything nice about Los Angeles, but every so often the ole town will elicit a begrudging compliment from my lips. The weekend of February 1st – 3rd was one such occasion. For an all-to-brief weekend, Los Angeles became the center of the rare book universe, hosting the 35th California International Antiquarian Book Fair. As it did two years ago, the fair occupied the entire bottom floor of the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, and featured some 250

Firsts magazine, a print publication founded twelve years ago, describes itself as “The Book Collector’s Magazine.” What more natural place for the Independent Online Booksellers’ Association to advertise? Len Lanfranco, outgoing IOBA Public Relations Committee chair, made an advantageous deal with Firsts for a whole year’s advertising. The first ad, designed by incoming Board Member at Large Maria Bustillos, appeared in the February issue of Firsts. In future months, IOBA wi

The IOBA seminar on identifying first editions was held at Vic Zoschak’s shop in Alameda last fall. It was free of charge to IOBA members and to any interested folks in the area who could attend. A lucky few turned up for the midmorning to early afternoon workshop. We each introduced ourselves, delivering more-or-less book-related thumbnail histories. Primary discussion, of course, pertained to the announced topic, but we wandered down many side paths, too, including digital

Q. I have a 1905 copy of BLACK BEAUTY with a nicely illustrated cover. I think I see the initials “DD” intertwined near lover edge. Is this the mark of a book illustrator I should know about? A. The intertwined D’s is the signature of the firm of The Decorative Designers of Henry and Lee Thayer (who also wrote mystery novels). Q. Sometime back, I purchased a wonderful tool. It removes price stickers and other adhesive based labels with the help of a little Goo-Gone or simila

This is what he wrote: …you have the book listed as VG/VG. How does this differ from mint? Any tears in the dust cover (sic)? How are the pagesany yellowing? Is the binding tight? Drawing on my reserves of patience I replied, explaining the difference between mint, fine, and very good. In polite tones, I further explained that there were no tears, no yellowing and that the binding was tight. I wondered, as I wrote, why it hadn’t occurred to him that if the book had exhibited

Sam: I was on one of my usual Saturday Garage Sale mambos when it suddenly dawned on me how much time, energy and gasoline I had been wasting week after week after week. Suddenly growing tired of the book sale grind, a certain sense of determination to PERMANENTLY discontinue these fruitless ventures overwhelmed me and I stepped on the gas, headed home. Two short blocks later, I passed another garage sale which looked like it had a couple of shelves of books…As I commenced dr

Barbara: Of the many projects you have taken on in your life, Bibliophile has been important to many booksellers. Let’s begin there. What is Bibliophile, how many subscribers do you have, and how does one subscribe? Lynn: Bibliophile is an email list for buying and selling books among its members, and discussing issues of interest related to book collecting and the book trade. The list also covers Books Wanted. There are between 1100 and 1200 subscribers. To subscribe,...