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Articles - June - 2009 Issue

Around the Books Sites: Alibris Offers Listing Tools, Biblio Opens U.K. Site, Abe's Latest Top Ten

- by Michael Stillman

News from around the listing sites.

News from around the listing sites.


By Michael Stillman

Alibris has announced the availability of a set of tools to help their sellers manage and improve their listings and set prices. The tools are available free to Alibris sellers, though they can help manage listings on other sites as well. The purpose, as described by Alibris CEO Brian Elliott, is to provide independent sellers with "the tools they need to list better and sell more."

Dubbed "My Inventory Manager" (MIM), the new service includes the following tools. The ability to create listings using a database of 11 million ISBN numbers plus 2 million music and movie UPCs (unlike the other major book sites, Alibris also lists music and movies). Sellers will also be able to upload their images to the listings. These listings can then be downloaded for use offline or for placement on other sites. MIM will also provide sellers with access to sales data and current market prices for books with ISBN numbers or music and movies with UPCs. Sellers will be able to use the tool to automatically reprice items on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Explains CEO Elliott, "'My Inventory Manager' aggregates the tools we've developed and improved over a decade of online book, music, and movie sales into a single, one-stop suite for our sellers."

Alibris has also initiated a college textbook buyback program. Alibris has already been selling new and used textbooks, so this service allows students to get some money back on these texts when the course is finished. The buyback, however, is not limited to texts purchased from Alibris. They will buy such books purchased anywhere, and believe their offers will regularly be higher than those offered by campus bookstores. Anyone with textbooks to sell can go to Alibris' buyback page to find out how much Alibris will offer. Offers include a prepaid shipping label so the student incurs no shipping expense. To find out what Alibris is willing to pay, just go to the following page: http://buyback.alibris.com.

Biblio announced the opening of a UK site to serve customers in England and Europe. The site, www.Biblio.co.uk, will feature primarily books from sellers in the U.K. and Europe. Biblio CEO Brendan Sherar explains the reason for this separate location as, "We believe most UK customers prefer to shop for secondhand books from within their own country and Europe, and tend to purchase abroad only when the title is not available locally." The new site will also post books from other regions if the subject matter is of European interest. However, Biblio says that most listings will originate from the U.K. and Europe, and "general trade titles shipping from outside of Europe will generally be discouraged."

AbeBooks has released their list of the top ten highest prices paid on their site during the month of April. Here they are.

10. An Early Arabic Manuscript of Sharh Alfadh Al Tanbih by Abu Zakariyya Muhiyiddin Yahya Bin Mirri Al Hizami Al Haurani Al Nawawi. That man must have dreaded giving out autographs. This is a 13th century manuscript (naturally) copy of an Islamic law scholar's writing. $4,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
    Open for Bidding 2-17 April
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.

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