The first SF convention was held in 1936 in the United States (New York City), or in 1937 in England (Leeds) – a matter of debate that hinges on the definition of “convention”. At any rate, more than seventy-five years later, SF conventions are Big Business, with events held every weekend of the year around the globe. Nearly every convention has a Dealer’s (Huckster’s) Room. Typical merchandise for sale includes jewelry, artwork, clothing, toys, games, weapons … and books. Fo

1. Are you sure? We’re living the dream. Three-hour working days surrounded by our beloved books, more money than we can shake a stick at – I can’t help but feel sorry for all those non-booksellers out there. Oh wait, it’s not always like that though is it? The conventional wisdom is thabookselling is getting harder every year, and as with most such pearls there’s definitely an element of truth to that and it’s easy to see why. The devt elopment of new technologies – like dig

The aim of this article is to offer you, the buyer, some insights from a bookdealer on how to avoid these unpleasant experiences and to make buying a book online feel more like shopping in your favorite book store. The first thing to do before making a purchase is to define what kind of book you want. I’ve broken this down to two broad categories: a reading copy (meaning a recent, common book), or a first/special edition. Determining what kind of book you’re looking for will

When I began my bookselling career, I worked not in used bookshops but in new (ie. independent bookstores selling new books only). And in that context managers, section buyers (of which I was one), and owners were always watching the store’s “turn” or turn-rate. It is an eminently useful business concept I brought with me when I started my own used and rare book business. But despite its utility, in my experience far too few book dealers understand the idea or importance of t

[Editor’s note: For more on trade discounts, see our related article Trade Discounts: Good For One and All.] NOTE: These are pitched to the “first-time askers” — those of you who would like to request a dealer discount from a fellow bookseller who you’ve never bought from before, and who is a complete stranger to you. Lesson 1. Ask directly. Take the time to seek out the seller’s email address, and send a direct message. (It’s acceptable, for the sake of convenience, to make

Most booksellers when evaluating their business assets will consider the cost and potential market value of their inventory, the cost of computer equipment, and maybe even the replacement cost of their reference library, but it seems that the value of their book-selling database is often overlooked. A database is far more than just a listing of books which you have for sale and the price you are asking for them. If that is all you need, you can simply input listings directly

“Is it a first?” “What are the points of…?” “I can’t find a price guide for…?” “No copy on the net, and need to know the value of…?” Such are the daily, ubiquitous questions found on the various bookish listservs to which many booksellers & collectors subscribe. Most such queries are asked by novice booksellers, or the o.p./used bookseller who has what is thought to be a [potentially] valuable book. And in fact, upon examination, all these questions have in common this last a

All of you have gotten the phone call. The person on the other end has inherited or been given or found at a garage sale a book/books which he believes may be the next record breaker at a Sotheby’s auction. “What’s it worth?” he wants to know. That is not the type of appraisal this article is going to address. Those appraisals can be handled with a few simple sentences such as, “That copy of Tarzan’s Revenge published in 1952 missing the front cover and the last three pages i

How A press release has a standard format and should be as brief and to the point as possible. Think of how long it takes you to decide whether to read an e-mail or not. That’s about how long an editor will give your press release before deciding what to do with it. Your press release should be written on your company letterhead if it is typed and should be double-spaced. The sentences should be short, and the word count should be no more than 300-500. At the top of the page

As the publisher’s foreword points out, “Anyone who has gone to Boston to look for rare books in this century will have memories of Goodspeed’s Book Shop.” The history of this establishment, founded in 1898, was recorded by Charles Eliot Goodspeed in his 1937 Yankee Bookseller, and here son George takes up pen to bring the narrative forward in a limited edition of 750 copies. As George worked his way up at Goodspeed’s from 1924 until the shop’s closing in 1995, it appears tha

I recently journeyed to the Charles Matthews Bindery in Los Angeles to participate in a basic book repair class followed by some tips on restoration. It turned out to be a book autopsy, however, followed by major reconstructive surgery. Incredibly informative, very helpful and a lot of fun. With piles and boxes of books in need of varying levels of attention, I thought it a good, practical idea. But lurking in the back of my mind I had dreams of creating beautiful volumes wit

There is a package on my desk, unopened. I know what’s in it. It weighs slightly more than a pound, and its cold, metallic heart holds my merchant’s life blood as surely as did that pound of flesh from another merchant so long ago. It’s my hard drive, still encased in the static-free, plastic sleeve the technicians used when they returned it to me. Through the lightly tinted plastic, I can read the “Seagate Recovery Services” sticker. I have finally learned the hard way what