Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2006 Issue
What's Up and Coming with West Coast Bookstores?
Susan Lupkin and Robert Gavora.
My next question was "What do you think about the future of bookselling?" "I honestly don't know," Peter answered. "I'm committed to it. I'm a little bit less worried than some dealers as I have assiduously cultivated the institutional market so that I have good relationships with research institutions all over California which I hope to broaden now that I'm out of California. My base with special collection librarians and the like pays the rent, utilities, and things, and I worry about profit later. I don't know many people who get rich selling books. One reason we are moving to Corvallis is that I rely on my wife's continuing job at Hewlett Packard and her good sense of humor which allows me the luxury to continue doing what I do."
My next seller was one dear to my heart as I carry a lot of vintage and ethnic cookbooks, and she had a nice selection of both. Lori Hughes, "The Cookbook Lady," who works out of El Sobrante, California, sells books and antiques from estate collections. She buys collections or whole households. She does almost all of her sales at shows.
I asked her if she expects to stay in the business for a long time. She said, "Yes, I love books, but I also do antiques. In fact, I do about twenty shows every year. But I love books the best. People who come to book shows are really focused on what they want. At antique shows there's more diversity and variety of items, they may not know what they want, and it's more work to pack and unpack."
I asked how much of her book business is on the internet. "My whole book inventory is listed on ABE. I do a good business on ABE. I also do internet research on Biblio and ABE, then price about middle-of-the-road." She thought she did about 15% of her business online and the rest at shows. "People still like to look at things, touch them, and make sure of condition, not just base their choices on written descriptions."
"With the number of fly-by-night dealers online who don't know the difference between "Fair" and "Very Good," that seemed to me to be a good policy," I said, "and one I adhere to."
