The Worth of Rare Books - An Interview with ILAB President Arnoud Gerits
Don't buy books as an investment, buy them because you love books, you love a subject, a historical figure, a period. Build a collection and become the expert on the subject. It is the voyage that will give you incomparable pleasure, not the arrival at the destination.
I was recently asked by a reporter to comment on this question, and I offered some specific examples. My comments in the article, as well as an explanation of the examples, were very much cut for space (no hard feelings, I understand how these things go).
Out of the Classroom and Into the World - ILAB Internship Program
Eight weeks in Australia, Hungary, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands: ILAB has initiated an Internship Program to help young dealers widen and deepen their knowledge and plug into the worldwide network of rare book dealers. Three young antiquarian booksellers from Russia were the first to take part in the internships.
It happens. You miscalculate scarcity or demand. Or a widow asks you, tears in her eyes, "Is that all?" A dealer charms you with a book's virtues. Or assures you "The only one on the internet right now." You get overexcited at an auction. Or you drool over some choice item at a book fair.
A few years ago, as Sotheby's sold J. K. Rowling's handmade book, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", one of the auctioneers displayed the book for the gathered crowd while wearing white gloves. Gloved hands turn the mundane act of touching a book into a ritual.
The Genetics of Book Price Design - Amazon's Special Offer: $23,698,655.93 for a Book about Flies
Amazon's Special Offer: $23,698,655.93 for a book about flies. The story was posted by Michael Eisen (it is NOT junk) on April 22, 2011, a CNN report by John D. Sutter followed on April 25, 2011. Exciting! Or not?
The ILAB Metasearch and the Future of the Online Book Trade
We should really be asking about the future of rare book-buying on the internet. We cannot know where we are headed without knowing where our customers want to go. So put yourself in a collector's shoes.
Rare Booksellers' First Catalogues - A Cover Story
Booksellers' first catalogues are as rare as some rare books. Often printed and produced with much love and energy, yet on cheap paper and for a still small company of customers, they are "used" - and thrown away.
Book Sizes at first sight come across as a bit pointlessly arcane. There are a myriad of variations within each theme "Crown Octavo", "Elephant Folio", "Royal Quarto" etc. These are usually tied to bibliographical descriptions from SOMEONE OLD AND DISTINGUISHED who wrote about this book eighty years ago and whose word has been taken ever since.
Does the Book Dust Disease Threaten the Rare Book Trade?
Dust on the shelves. Collectors consider it romantic. Dealers live with it, or ignore it: dust in the corners where boxes with hundreds (thousands) of books are stored waiting to be described, priced and put into the showcases.
This ILAB Newsletter is made up of the most successful articles on our website. We want to use this special issue as a way to attract as many customers as possible.
Please, send this issue to your friends, colleagues, and customers.
Don't buy books as an investment, buy them because you love books, you love a subject, a historical figure, a period. Build a collection and become the expert on the subject. It is the voyage that will give you incomparable pleasure, not the arrival at the destination.
I was recently asked by a reporter to comment on this question, and I offered some specific examples. My comments in the article, as well as an explanation of the examples, were very much cut for space (no hard feelings, I understand how these things go).
Eight weeks in Australia, Hungary, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands: ILAB has initiated an Internship Program to help young dealers widen and deepen their knowledge and plug into the worldwide network of rare book dealers. Three young antiquarian booksellers from Russia were the first to take part in the internships.
It happens. You miscalculate scarcity or demand. Or a widow asks you, tears in her eyes, "Is that all?" A dealer charms you with a book's virtues. Or assures you "The only one on the internet right now." You get overexcited at an auction. Or you drool over some choice item at a book fair.
A few years ago, as Sotheby's sold J. K. Rowling's handmade book, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", one of the auctioneers displayed the book for the gathered crowd while wearing white gloves. Gloved hands turn the mundane act of touching a book into a ritual.
Amazon's Special Offer: $23,698,655.93 for a book about flies. The story was posted by Michael Eisen (it is NOT junk) on April 22, 2011, a CNN report by John D. Sutter followed on April 25, 2011. Exciting! Or not?
We should really be asking about the future of rare book-buying on the internet. We cannot know where we are headed without knowing where our customers want to go. So put yourself in a collector's shoes.
Booksellers' first catalogues are as rare as some rare books. Often printed and produced with much love and energy, yet on cheap paper and for a still small company of customers, they are "used" - and thrown away.
Book Sizes at first sight come across as a bit pointlessly arcane. There are a myriad of variations within each theme "Crown Octavo", "Elephant Folio", "Royal Quarto" etc. These are usually tied to bibliographical descriptions from SOMEONE OLD AND DISTINGUISHED who wrote about this book eighty years ago and whose word has been taken ever since.
Dust on the shelves. Collectors consider it romantic. Dealers live with it, or ignore it: dust in the corners where boxes with hundreds (thousands) of books are stored waiting to be described, priced and put into the showcases.
