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Articles - August 2012 Issue


Relationship Marketing - By Bruce McKinney For many, probably most of the world’s serious booksellers, selling books is more than having the right material at the right price. It’s essential to have the right customer. For acquirers, who increasingly are aware of online inventory, it often turns out there are several copies of the same book in varying states and if left to their own devices simply choose the apparent best copy for the money. That judgment will be logical if...

Relationship Marketing

- By Bruce McKinney

For many, probably most of the world’s serious booksellers, selling books is more than having the right material at the right price. It’s essential to have the right customer. For acquirers, who increasingly are aware of online inventory, it often turns out there are several copies of the same book in varying states and if left to their own devices simply choose the apparent best copy for the money. That judgment will be logical if...


First of 56 Books Stolen by Thief Who Killed Himself in 2004 Finally Located - By Michael Stillman Eight years ago, a request to see an old map of the Mississippi River from a patron at the Royal Library of Sweden led to...	Living the Booksellers’ Lifestyle - By Susan Netzorg Halas Though bookselling with an open shop where buyers browse and money changes hands at retail is a dying occupation, it is still one of America’s...
Perspective on August - By Bruce McKinney August was once the quietest month in the auction business but a look at this year’s auction calendar tells us that scheduled events are increasing. ...	It's 7 years in the Big House for Presidential Documents Thief - By Michael Stillman He was one of America's foremost collectors of presidential material as well as being an advisor to several U.S. Presidents on matters of protocol. Now...
Sotheby's Delivers Its First Comics Auction - By Michael Stillman Comics have come of age. Your teachers may have looked at them with disdain; your mother threw them out the minute they began collecting the...	Leslie Hindman Auctions: With an Eye for Collectability August 8th - By Bruce McKinney On August 8th in Chicago Leslie Hindman Auctioneers is offering a primer on collecting – a broad and, by American standards, large sale of material...
Sandras De Courtilz and His Little Book of Lies - By Thibault Ehrengardt Last June, an auction sale held by Pierre Ségeron in Poitiers, France, featured an interesting selection of De Courtilz’ hard to find works. A prolific...	Woman Jailed for an Overdue Library Book - By Michael Stillman Billy the Kid landed in a New Mexico prison for shooting a man. Lori Teel didn't have to do anything quite so dramatic. Mrs. Teel...
The Newtown Book Fair has come and gone - By Bruce McKinney To put together a library organized book fair is a cooperative affair that requires countless donors and dozens of volunteers striving for the benefit of...	A Bizarre Book Theft with a B.I.G. Inspiration - By Michael Stillman One of the more unusual book theft cases occurred this past month in the upscale, coastal Connecticut community of Westport. Two men picked up a...
10 Catalogues Reviewed in Section Two - By Michael Stillman This may be the slow summer season, but we have received 10 new bookseller catalogues anyway. The William Reese Company starts us off with Part...	18 eCatalogues - By Bruce McKinney This month there are 18 eCatalogues posted to section III of AE Monthly. Together they represent more than a thousand interesting possibilities drawn from a...
William Reese Co. Offers a Tribute to Wright Howes and his U.S.IANA - By Michael Stillman For their 294th catalogue, the William Reese Company has issued A Tribute to Wright Howes: Part 1 “b” or Better. Actually, this is Part 1...	The Founding of America from Seth Kaller Historic Documents - By Michael Stillman Seth Kaller, Inc., Historic Documents & Legacy Collections has issued a catalogue entitled Washington, the Revolution, and the Founding. For Kaller, original documents provide a...
A Wide Variety of Material Offered by Forest Books - By Michael Stillman Forest Books has issued a new catalogue with a short title and a long title. Both are accurate. The short is succinct, the long reminiscent...	Five Centuries of Maps from Jonathan Potter Antique Maps - By Michael Stillman Jonathan Potter Antique Maps has released their Catalogue Summer 2012. No surprise as to what will be found here – maps. Lots of them. They...
Texas and the West from Kenston Rare Books - By Michael Stillman Kenston Rare Books has issued their catalogue for Summer 2012, Fine Books on Texas and the American West. Offered are 270 items, some old, others...	Fine Books and Manuscripts from James Cummins Bookseller - By Michael Stillman James Cummins Bookseller has issued Catalogue 112 of Fine Books and Manuscripts. This catalogue contains a wide mix of material, making it hard to describe...
75 Fine Books from Peter Harrington - By Michael Stillman Peter Harrington has issued their 84th catalogue, Seventy-Five Fine Books. These are every bit as fine as the title says. This is a collection of...	Miscellaneous Oddities from Garrett Scott, Bookseller - By Michael Stillman Garrett Scott, Bookseller, recently published Catalogue 38, Miscellaneous Acquisitions. Scott's material is mostly shorter form, pamphlets, brochures, advertisements and the like. Most are American, but...
A Miscellany from Michael Thompson Books - By Michael Stillman Recently printed is Michael Thompson Books' Summer Miscellany, Consisting of 100 Books, Mostly Recent Acquisitions. I always check Thompson's lists of “100 books” to see...	China is the Subject for Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books - By Michael Stillman Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books has issued their List 55, with the subject being China. These are works from a western perspective, primarily by Europeans...