What is the Americana Exchange?
- By Michael Stillman
AE's auction search find 38 Revolutionary War-era items for sale at auction now.
By Michael Stillman
What is the Americana Exchange? Most people really don't know a lot about this site, but it has many useful features, some of which you may be missing out on. It is intended to provide many benefits for book collectors, sellers, librarians, auctioneers, researchers, and just about anyone else with an interest or need for information about antiquarian and rare books. What we find is many of our readers are familiar with a few of the site's features, but not most. So here is a quick review, and we hope you will find something new and interesting in the process.
First, a quick note about what it is not - a site about Americana. It started as a site about American books, but it took us about ten minutes to realize that our readers wanted information on all kinds of books, not just one field. However, once you choose a name and web address, it's hard to change, but you can call us "AE" for short.
Our services divide into two types, free and subscription. Most are free and very useful, but some are more expensive to provide, and without any paid services, it would be difficult to offer any, paid or free. Of course, we hope the free services will entice you to try the subscriber ones. However, there is no such requirement, and we don't check up to see if you have subscribed. So go ahead and use the free services all you want without subscribing. You don't have to feel guilty (but you may).
Free Services
Auction Search. AE offers the only comprehensive book auction searches anywhere. By "auction search" we don't mean a search of auctions, but a search of all of the individual book and ephemera listings at upcoming auctions. The auction search enables you to conduct keyword searches of listings from the over 150 worldwide auction houses we track. There is nothing else like it anywhere. The number of listings searched usually runs from a few thousand to 20,000, depending on the time of year. Click here to try a search.
Auction Calendar. This is a calendar of upcoming auction dates, subjects and places, along with complete listings as soon as available. It also displays recently completed auctions (past 60 days) with results. Click here for this month's calendar. Arrows for previous and next month's listings can be found on the top corners of the calendar.
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What is the Americana Exchange?
- By Michael Stillman
Early editions by explorer Zebulon Pike offered in AE's Books For Sale.
Recent Auction Reports and Trends in Book Auction Prices. Recent auction reports provides sales data on the 25 most recently reported auctions, along with listings of the top 10 prices paid. Click here. We will send you weekly updates of auction results by email if you'd like. Click here to sign up. Graphs of median prices and sell through rates at auction, updated monthly, can be found at Trends in Book Auction Prices. This is the pulse of the book market.
WikiBibliographies. This service allows you to create and post bibliographies of subjects you collect or interest you, and read the wiki-bibliographies of others. Anyone can provide suggested additions to the WikiBibliography of another, providing the great reach to bibliographies that Wikipedia provides for encyclopedias. This service is new, but will be very important in the years ahead. Propose your WikiBibliography now, as only one per subject is allowed. Click here for WikiBibliographies.
AE Monthly. You already know what this is, since you are reading an AE Monthly article. It offers news and commentary on old books, published online monthly, on the first of each month. Click here for the AE Monthly front page. At the top of this page is a link to "Archives," which allows you to read or search all past issues. A link to "Reviews" lets you see our section of booksellers' catalogue reviews.
Books For Sale. Who needs another book listing site? Fair question. This certainly isn't the first or largest. It does have a greater concentration of collectible material than the typical used book site. Most significantly, potential buyers are connected directly to sellers, so you can freely ask questions and discuss items without any middleman in the way. You can actually build relationships if you like! We can do this because we collect no commissions on sales, allowing sellers more room on pricing. Click here to search Books For Sale.
Book Fair List and Calendar. We post upcoming book fair notices, both in the form of a Book Fair List and a Book Fair Calendar.
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What is the Americana Exchange?
- By Michael Stillman
The AE Database finds many records about short-lived President William Henry Harrison.
Subscriber Services
We offer two types of subscriptions: (1) Research, which provides access to the 2.1 million-plus record AE Bibliographic Database, and (2) Premium, which offers access to the AE Database plus all other subscriber services. Pricing is designed so that information gathered or sales made from the site just once will often pay for an annual subscription or more. We'd like to make a living, but don't plan on becoming the next Amazon on your back.
AE Bibliographic Database. This is the crown jewel of the site. Consisting of over 2.1 million records and increasing practically everyday, it is your source for sales and bibliographic records about collectible books, pamphlets and related ephemera. All sales records from the 150+ auctions we cover go into this database. That comes to over 200,000 records for each of the past three years, plus hundreds of thousands for prior years. Prices are included, or a notation that they didn't sell if they did not (unsold lots are included, along with their estimated price). Full descriptions are provided, not truncated ones. Auction listings are usually added within a few days of the sale. Additionally, many older and historic auctions are covered, along with important bibliographies and some major, hard-to-find older dealer and collector catalogues. Outside of the bibliographies, almost all records include prices. A pricing tool is provided to update older prices to current values based on the amount of appreciation (or depreciation) of the typical book since the date of sale. A "Get Keywords" function lets you see which words appear most often in a group of records, so you can know which to search for on book listing sites, AE's auction search, eBay, etc. (see "MatchMaker" below). Any seller or buyer who enters the marketplace without access to this database goes unarmed.
Here is the link, but please note that only signed in subscribers can reach the service. Others reach a descriptive page.
MatchMaker. This is a great service many people overlook. It provides automated daily searches for keywords and book titles or authors on sites such as eBay, AbeBooks, ZVAB, and AE's database of upcoming auction listings from 150+ houses. Such thorough searching for great deals is impossible to accomplish manually. Simply enter your words and once a day MatchMaker provides a list of matches. Only newly listed items are included so you don't get the same items back day after day. Receive your matches on the site and, if you wish, by daily email. Now, instead of missing the great deals, or the items you especially want, you are the first to know. This is one of those services that can pay for years of subscribing with one great purchase. Here is the link.
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What is the Americana Exchange?
- By Michael Stillman
"Get Current Estimate" updates old values for Wizard of Oz; AE Keywords for "Lewis"+"Clark."
Books For Sale. Here is where you can list your books for sale, which can be found through searches on the site and the internet. All inquiries and requests to purchase are sent to you. There truly are no commissions. The price of your subscriptions covers all costs. Upload listings with standard programs or on the site. This is another service where just one mid-priced sale can pay for an annual subscription. Here is a brief description.
AE Footnotes. This service allows you to aggregate records from the AE Bibliographic Database, and attach them as a footnote to a for-sale listing, descriptions on your website, WikiBibliographies, or anywhere else. Check them out here.
Web Catalogue. This allows you to keep detailed records of your collection, including purchase and sale prices needed for tax or estate purposes. Can also be uploaded to AE's Books For Sale. Here is a link.
There are a few more things on this site, but we'll let you explore them on your own. If you have any questions, you can contact us here. If you would like to sign up, and we heartily recommend you do, just click here now. We have a free membership that will get you a once-a-month emailed table of contents for AE Monthly and a few other things (no other emails and no, we will not share your name). This is also the place where you can sign up for a paid subscription, a one-week trial, monthly automatic billing (good until cancelled) or a one-year membership. Click here now to sign up.
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