Together three aspects of collecting have changed. Prices have declined but most listings do not yet reflect the change. Much more material is available and easily accessible online. And, the AED provides a quick picture of transactions that immediately provide both market value and frequency of appearance.

This said, the battlements are not going to be stormed. Collectors do not arrive by the busload. The great collectors arrive one by one, their antenna adjusting, their voices modulating, their brains calculating. Even as we speak there are Streeters afoot although their names, orientations and accents are different. They arrive at a great moment in book collecting and will feast for a generation on both the material and the changing methodology. Are you one? You are alive at the right moment? Be alive to the possibilities.