The Price is Wrong -- How Much is that Book Really Worth?
- by Michael Stillman
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So, one more time, what is that book offered for prices between $20 and $200 worth? My answer is $20. Tops. Until someone is willing to spend even $20, it is worth no more. We are still at the final edge of an era when people were less aware of comparative prices. Perhaps the dealer will still be able to sell it for $100 in his shop to someone who hasn’t yet heard of places like Abebooks. There are still a quite a few of these people. Some buyers will continue to buy as they have all of their lives. My mother was loyal to her grocer until the bitter end (that being when a lack of sufficient customers forced him to close shop). The old model will continue to work for awhile, but it is in decline. The reality, I believe, is the dealer who will be most successful in the years ahead is the one who can find a way to sell that book for $20 and still make a nice profit.
I take no joy in these changes. Whether they are good or bad is irrelevant. They simply are. Some dealers will adjust. A few will lead. Others will be left behind. This is what always happens in a period of change. Some will be unhappy with people like me for even saying these things, but I don’t wish them, let alone make them happen. I’ve never been a bookseller, but I have been in other businesses and seen what happens in changing times. Those who evolve and change survive; those who don’t, don’t.
I do not know what the successful bookseller of the future will look like. I don’t know what practices will enable him or her to sell that book for $20 profitably. Will they succeed through volume like Wal-Mart? Will they became middlemen between buyers and sellers without ever owning the inventory? Will they succeed through lowered expenses, operating on the web out of their homes or industrial warehouses with no storefront? Will those who hold onto their storefronts through tougher times eventually become more successful when the number of such “hands-on” competitors decline? If I knew, I’d become a bookseller instead of writing articles like this. But I don’t know. What I do know is that the times they are a-changin’, so you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
