Rare Book Monthly

New Letter

Letters to the Editor

JeromeP8 April 01, 2003

Bookseller descriptions are covered by law. Descriptive material is owned
and protected. What you are suggesting with the 'sale' of the description
passing with the sale of the book is wrong!


diivinedbl February 01, 2003

Dear Bruce,


You were kind enough to email me when I tried to sign up for a trial
subscription on the ad you ran in Booksource Monthly which I subscribe to.


I just received another email from you. Congratulations on passing the one
thousand mark for subscribers.

Bottom Line: whoever figures out how to set up, what I think you're trying
to set up, will not only make a financial fortune but will do for the book
world what the New York stock exchange did for the capital markets almost
two hundred years ago and what the Nasdaq further did in the last decade.


Namely, to provide a universal and open and widely used medium for both auction and negotiated exchange of goods.


Up until now the bookworld continues in it's quirky, semi-subteranean world of operating in the secretive, ill-informed murky shadows of a third world bazar of haphazardly ferreting out buyers, sellers and information in the most obfuscated methods imaginable.


You're on the right track but you still have a helluva lotta work to do and there are twenty other people all trying to do the same thing.


As as a buyer and collector of books all I can say is that abebooks has the format but I think they're going to drop the ball. They
remind me of Commodore Computers twenty years ago or maybe Amiga. Same with E-Bay. Both had the beginnings of a magnificent platform but not able, for whatever reasons of corporate lack of foresight, to see the
bigger picture.


Are you the Steve Jobs of books? I certainly hope so. I hope, and know, that out there one of you is going to figure it out.


As I see your problem now, you have the vision but you're getting bogged
down pretty quick now in HOW you're putting it into effect. And please, though it's wonderful you now have a thousand subscribers, don't delude
yourself, as abebooks and e-bay have, into thinking that because you're finally making some money and creating a niche that you've answered to and found out the real solution to the big picture and are genuinely filling
that need.


Stay with it, keep soliciting ideas, keep revising the plan and tweeking it. I think, while aesthetically pleasing to look at, your web-site is missing a lot of 'meat' that's needed to fuel this puppy of an idea that your nurturing.


Well, I care about books and so took the time because you seem to really on some level be able to grasp what's needed in this book market so hope you found my comments if not helpful then at least interesting.


If I may be of further help, please let me know... all the best to you in
your endeavors, I hope you create what we all need.......and I hope this
e-mail makes it to you.

Kind regards,

Bill Brazz

e-mail at: divinedbld@comcast.net


hhurt December 03, 2002


To: catchall@americanaexchange.com

Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 09:56:40 -0800

Subject:



Dear Ms. Tallmer--

Thank you for the article on e-Bay. Let me add an experience that I've
had that surely is not unique. On three occasions that I have documented,
I have received what appeared to be good-faith queries from individuals
asking me to provide scans of high-end books. I have done so. Then
normal back-and-forth discussions have ensued about possible discounts,
questions about the books' condition, shipping, etc. In the cases noted,
I have then seen the scans of my items (absolutely identified by small
mars on the books in the scans) appear for sale on e-Bay at starting
prices far above my asking price. Clearly, the e-Bay seller was offering
my books and then, if he had a successful buyer, he would then consummate
the purchase from me. (The e-Bay seller's name in each case was seemingly
unrelated to the person I thought I was dealing with.) At first, this
angered me as simply wrong. In each case, I ceased negotiations with the
fake buyer. My complaints to e-Bay were received indifferently. I did
begin to watch the patterns of what appeared to be similar sales (always
very high-end books) and realized that the practice was certainly not
isolated.

In any case, as a bookseller I find e-Bay a good place to buy certain
books, but I've never tried to sell anything--except through these
operators I've just described.

Thanks again for your article.

Henry Hurt.

Shadetree Rare Books


Al Bukowsky November 15, 2002

Good Day,


Please sign me up for a year. The temporary trail period has already produced Lewis and Clark books at upcoming auctions that I would have not found otherwise.

Happy Trails,

Al


George December 01, 2014

I look forward every month to reading AE Monthly. Why lessen the enjoyment by including leftist political orthodoxy into otherwise delightful articles. 


The latest offender::


"He continued through life to support political candidates who were focused on helping the needy, rather than those who sought to reduce taxes on the wealthy…" 


—The Greatest Book Collector Dies at 100 


Had the collector's forebears been of like mind, the collection receiving accolades likely would never have been formed.


Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th May 2025
    Forum, May 29: Darwin (Charles). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, first edition, John Murray, 1859. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Forum, May 29: Astronomy.- Apianus (Petrus). Cosmographicus Liber a Petro Apiano Mathematico Studiose Collectus., first edition, Landshut, 1524. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum, May 29: Bound for Jean Grolier.- Negri Stefano. Stephani Nigri Elegantissime è Graeco authorum subditorum translationes, uidelicet., first edition, first issue, Milan, 1521. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, May 29: Gill (Eric). Eve, number 1 of 50, hand-coloured wood-engraving, signed at foot in pencil, [1926]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th May 2025
    Forum, May 29: America.- Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, Dickinson & Co., 1848. £25,000 to £35,000.
    Forum, May 29: Wodehouse (P.G.) Psmith USA, autograph manuscript of his novel "Psmith Journalist", signed and dated at end and dated "11 November 1909, Hotel Earle, 103 Waverley Place". £15,000 to £20,000.
    Forum, May 29: Women.- Wollstonecraft (Mary). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, first edition, uncut in original boards, 1792. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, May 29: Mathematics.- Whitehead (Alfred North) and Bertrand Russell. Principia Mathematica, 3 vol., first editions, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1910-13. £20,000 to £30,000.
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Peter Max, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore (Versions 1,2, 5, 6), 2001. Estimate $10,000-15,000
    DOYLE: The iconic screen-used wall-mounted "M" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Estimate $5,000-8,000
    DOYLE: The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Al Hirschfeld. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Annie Leibovitz presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke for Vanity Fair. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Al Hirschfeld presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in the CBS Wednesday Night Lineup. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Richard McKenzie, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore. Estimate $1,000-2,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Three Original Bill Hargate Costume Designs for The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Estimate $600-800
    DOYLE: The famous Bonnie and Clyde "Wanted" broadside. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE: Ticket to the Final Episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show Estimate $400-600
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • One of a Kind Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Documents
    Ending May 29th, 2025
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: George Washington Three Language Ship's Paper West Indies Trade Voyage.
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: An Extraordinary Archive of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry: Over 60 Historic Documents, Naval Commissions, Family Papers, and Photographic Material Spanning the 19th Century.
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: Abraham Lincoln Appointment for Vice-Consul of Russia.
    One of a Kind Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Documents
    Ending May 29th, 2025
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: John Adams Signed Mediterranean Scalloped Top ship's passport.
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Signed Ships Paper.
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: Herman Melville RARE -ALS (Moby Dick Author).
    One of a Kind Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Documents
    Ending May 29th, 2025
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: Apollo 10: Flown Flag and Patch Display with Crew-Signed Covers from the Collection of NASA Engineer Clark C. McClelland.
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: James Garfield Rare Signature as President - Possibly the largest Autograph as President almost 6 inches long!
    One of a Kind Auctions, May 29: Walt Disney Autograph over 7 inches in Length.

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