AE Searches: New & Improved (but where are they?)

AE Bibliographic Database

The remainder of this article deals with changes in the AE Database. This will help existing and new members understand some of the new services being offered. If you are a serious dealer or collector but not yet a subscriber, you need to subscribe now. Seriously… the quantity of essential data is unparalleled in history. At 3 million-plus records it's more than three times the size of any other such database we have seen, and it's growing by leaps, maybe even bounds, virtually everyday. Avoiding one pricing mistake (as buyer or seller) on one couple of hundred dollar book will pay for this for a year, and you will likely use it every week if not everyday. If you aren't sure, sign up for a cheap, short-term "Visitor" membership to see. Click here to sign up.

Get Current Estimate (with Probability of Reappearance) - New!

There are six buttons above your AED search results. We will discuss just two of them here. The first is Get Current Estimate. Select the records for which you wish to get a current estimate by checking the box for each and then click the Get Current Estimate button. It will give you a current estimate for each item, plus an average for all items selected. The program uses an algorithm that looks at year-to-year changes in prices for books in the AE Database since the year of that record to estimate what its sale price might be now. Naturally, it cannot be perfect as not all books have appreciated/depreciated at the same rate, but it provides a useful ballpark of where current value should be. It is very useful for making sense out of older auction records, and making wise decisions.

New to the revised AE site is a second number - Probability of Reappearance. To use this tool effectively, you should select only records of the same book and edition over the past 50 years. It will then calculate how frequently this book is likely to show up at auction. Again, this is not a perfect science, but if it says it is likely to reappear every year or two, you may want to be cautious about chasing after a copy. If it indicates it may take ten years or more to reappear, and you really want it, you may choose to be a bit more liberal towards paying the price.

Get AE Keywords

Again, select the records you want to view by checking their boxes and click the Get AE Keywords tab at the top. What you will get is a list of the most frequently appearing words in the records you have selected. This is a neat tool that will help a collector know what keywords to search for to find related material, and show a dealer what keywords should be included in his listings.

Epilogue

There are lots more features to the AE Database, the other databases, and the entire new site, but we will save that for other articles and other times. Provide too much information at once and nothing is remembered. Feel free to roam around the new site and give its features a spin. Most are free, and the combination of unique new tools with the largest database of book records anywhere makes subscriber membership, in our humble opinion, an outstanding deal. We recognize there will be a few glitches and it may take a little time to get used to the changes, but we have put in a lot of time, thought, and effort to make this the greatest book collecting site ever envisioned. Hopefully, the road to a bright, well-informed future for the book trade is paved with good intentions.

Toward the bottom of the right hand column is an "Ask a Question" link if you are having a problem or have questions or suggestions.