The most baffling major book theft in years has finally been solved, according to authorities in three countries. On the night of January 29-30, 2017, three thieves climbed onto a warehouse roof near London's Heathrow Airport. Their intention was to steal books held by an Italian bookseller being shipped to the annual California Antiquarian Book Fair in Oakland a few days later.
It was a sophisticated operation to say the least. They cut open a skylight and climbed down ropes forty feet to the floor below. By entering in this unusual manner, they managed to evade the burglar alarm syste...
Just when you think you have heard it all it turns out the FBI has uncovered evidence that some baseball cards have been removed from their protective plastic cases, dolled up, and resubmitted to a...
The set of regulations on the import of "cultural goods" into the countries of the European Union officially went in place on June 27, though meaningful implementation is still a few years away. Th...
In my capacity as a private collector, I recently received a set of consignment documents from Christie’s and found increasing clarity as to their consignment rates after first misreading the docum...
AbeBooks has released its latest quarterly list of the Top 20 or so books that brought in the highest prices on their website. These are actual sales, not asking prices. Sometimes, these lists are ...
The most difficult problems to solve are those with many variables—inevitably those with more variables are more difficult to solve.
Book collecting has been both the victim and beneficiary of ...
Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach is one of the most iconic pirates ever. Knowing that fear was his best ally, he fed his own legend with many tricks like tying lit matches to his hat in order to frighten ...
Whether for want of subjects, or the increased presence of mood lighteners in the first waning days of summer, I have sometimes written about the comic book business as a parallel universe to rare ...
Would you like to own a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone? How about the $3 million 1909 Honus Wagner Baseball card? Of course you would, but you can't. These are only avail...
Recently I purchased a small group of mid-Hudson Valley material that I found useful as examples of what would logically be included in a deep-dive experimental database for the New York State coun...
F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom is an economics and social philosophy classic that seems to take on new meaning as we go into the 2020 elections and cries of “socialism” ricochet across the politi...
This story from the rocky shores of Down East Maine throws a light on a dilemma that increasingly is ensnaring both libraries and book collectors these days. In the digital age, with decreasing use...
This month we review 11 new bookseller catalogues. The 19th Century Rare Book Photograph Shop has a catalogue of material they accurately describe as "magnificent." Erasmushaus offers some very ol...
