Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2005 Issue
MatchMaker: the keys to book collecting
I found this historically significant Catskill imprint on ABE using MatchMaker.
For dealing with each of these market alternatives there is a deceptively simple solution. We call it MatchMaker, our premium service, and it begins to function automatically when you define your collecting interests in words and phrases. Every day we'll automatically queue up all yet-to-be-compared listed books on eBay and in traditional auctions and look for your terms in the full lot descriptions of each new listing as they are posted. How many is that? It appears to be between 25,000 and 40,000 new listings every day. And from the first moment on we'll remember the copies we show you and not repeat them unless you request it. Think of yourself sitting in the reviewing stand at the Inauguration Day Parade. We'll march every new listing by your terms and when there are matches we'll flag them. Then, once a day, we'll send you an email with a report of your matches over the past 24 hours.
Understand this for what it is: an efficient solution that let's you spend your available time looking at, rather than for, material. All you then need to do is, like a Roman Emperor, to give the thumbs up or thumbs down. You may want to make an immediate purchase but more likely you'll investigate further. You will see many matches in the coming months and become familiar with the pace and pricing of matches. Soon you will begin to buy.
How do I get started? It begins with access to MatchMaker. Sign-up links are provided at the end of this article. If you are already a Research member contact us and we'll arrange a trial. But understand what you are doing. You are climbing to the pinnacle of Mount Everest and you are stepping into the future of book collecting. You will not be going back. Here is why.
In MatchMaker your keywords and phrases are going to be searched against eBay and the traditional auctions and the combined results are going to be emailed to you once a day. Come to the site if you want to but it won't be necessary to stay on top of emerging availability. Okay, you're busy and for several days and have no time to keep track of what is going on. The matches simply accumulate in your MatchMaker category accounts and, if you are going to be away for a while, you can even turn off any module and or reduce the period your matches are retained. On/off: it's very easy. Soon you'll be signing in 2 or 3 times a week to track the good ones. On eBay the auction never ends.
Now there is one more step to take: creating a match file for ABE. To search on ABE we need to build a list of titles. Keywords don't work when there are sixty million listings. When searching listing sites, you need to be specific. You can use the AE Database of one million bibliographic records to help you uncover broad categories of material which can be copied into your MatchMaker account to use as your search basis. Alternatively, you can simply enter titles yourself. Now let's run some searches in the AED that encompass your collecting interests. In a matter of minutes you build a highly professional, comprehensive list of titles on virtually any subject. ABE here we come!
