News & Updates

Wide Media Coverage - Rare Booksellers send their books "on vacation"

06 November 2018

By 6th November 2018, over 550 booksellers had sent their books "on vacation", pausing their listing on AbeBooks. The protest by rare booksellers worldwide resulted in an unprecedented echo in the media.

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The New York Times writes (4 Nov 2018):

Booksellers Protest Amazon Site’s Move to Drop Stores From Certain Countries

SAN FRANCISCO — More than 250 antiquarian book dealers in 24 countries say they are pulling over a million books off an Amazon-owned site for a week, an impromptu protest after the site abruptly moved to ban sellers from several nations.

...

As the news spread, even unaffected dealers were surprised and angered. AbeBooks, together with Amazon itself, is by far the biggest international marketplace for secondhand and rare books.

AbeBooks lists millions of books and manages the payments. The booksellers mail the books directly from their shops. The platform was founded in 1995 and was bought by Amazon in 2008. It continues to operate independently, and many of its customers never even realize who the owner is. AbeBooks is based in Victoria, British Columbia, where it started.

The Amazon subsidiary told the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers that it was scaling back because “it is no longer viable for us to operate in these countries due to increasing costs and complexities.”

Full Article here.

The Guardian writes (7 Nov 2018)

Booksellers unite in protest as Amazon's AbeBooks withdraws from several countries

Hundreds of booksellers have taken ‘vacation’ from the secondhand books marketplace due to it dropping sellers from countries such as Russia and South Korea

The motto of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, “Amor librorum nos unit” or “love of books unites us”, has been adopted as a battle cry this week by an army of hundreds of secondhand booksellers around the world. From Australia to Mexico, they have united in a flash strike against Amazon, after its secondhand books marketplace AbeBooks announced it will withdraw from markets including South Korea and Russia, which booksellers fear will devastate local businesses.

Booksellers in Hungary, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Russia were told by AbeBooks that from 30 November, it would “no longer support sellers located in certain countries”. “We apologise for this inconvenience,” added the marketplace, which was founded in 1995 and acquired by Amazon in 2008.

Full Article here.

Other newspapers and press outlets covered the issue.

See links to further press coverage below.

3/11/18

France: https://www.actualitte.com/article/monde-edition/mobilisation-internationale-des-libraires-anciens-contre-abebooks/91692

Germany: https://www.boersenblatt.net/artikel-antiquariat.1545040.html

4/11/18

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/11/04/booksellers-hit-amazon-with-strike/Pr9A2O4m3hKLEMz18h5lGI/story.html

5/11/18

US: https://www.geekwire.com/2018/hundreds-international-booksellers-go-vacation-protest-move-amazons-abebooks/

https://www.weeklystandard.com/alice-b-lloyd/booksellers-boycott-amazon-in-response-to-abebooks-no-longer-hosting-sellers-in-several-countries

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/booksellers-hit-amazon-with-strike/