One time honored approach to liquidating inventory is to sell it to one of the firms that makes a business in such acquisitions. Powell's of Oregon aggressively buys entire inventories, will send its own packers and arrange the shipping. It's a clean solution but they accept a reality that many sellers have trouble with. Some books will never sell while others will sell only after several markdowns. Many books will never make it onto the selling floor. They're too common to warrant any effort and will go directly from the incoming trailers to the disposal boxes. Today about a quarter of all purchased material goes directly to pulp.
The writer Larry McMurtry has for many years acquired bookstore inventories. Today he has 325,000 volumes in his company Booked Up in four buildings in Archer City, Texas. Peter Howard of Serendipity Books in Berkeley, California has 425,000 books and a cautious but continuing appetite for stock, a celebrated history of acquisitions and several approaches to it. Allan Stypeck of Second Story Books with locations in Maryland and Washington D.C. is also buying as is Bob Fleck of Oak Knoll. Alibris has been an inventory buyer and may be so again. They recently had a change in ownership and it's unclear if they have also had a change of heart. There are of course always others none of whom are knowingly omitted. I simply don't know their names and would list them if I did.
Bob Emerson has shown us one way to resolve these sundown issues. Nelda and Susan will follow a different path. If approached by someone to buy their businesses lock stock and barrel they will no doubt seriously negotiate. They have more to offer than just books and can expect their businesses to be worth more than the sum of the parts. But they approach retirement as bookselling is changing, values are in flux, traditional shops are closing, and inventory is flowing onto the net. In time the process will settle down, the uncertainty will pass, and we will all again remember that books are an essential part of our lives. In the meantime they will sell or dispose because the clock waits for no one.
However these ladies in Ohio deal with it we know this. They will deal with it or their heirs will. They are emotionally connected to their ways of life and to the books that arrayed around them have been a source of comfort, consolation, camaraderie, independence and income. Left unresolved these books are also trouble.
On the next page I provide links and telephone numbers to all members of the book community mentioned in this article. Included with Susan Heller's link is a letter from her detailing her material.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
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>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
