A Slow Antique Books Summer
Posted by Richard Gabriel on Mon, Aug 08, 2011 @ 10:29 AM
Since the spring, the book business seemed to fall off the edge of the earth or at least for us it did. We decided instead to go on a buying trip to Spain, and well we were really disapointed. Barcelona has few antiquarian book dealers and the surrounding towns are equally as sparse. Perhaps we were spoiled by Italy, where book dealing is a vibrant and active industry as it is in England, France and Germany.
Don't get me wrong, Spain was great, good food, good wines, great olive oils and great weather, who could ask for more? How about some antiquarian books and more book dealers? Anyway, we are gearing up for a heavy listing on ebay but we are also doubting the strength of the buying audience on ebay, it seems everyone wants to shop at garage sale prices and sometimes we see bidders purchasing books, we wouldn't touch. It's really simple, if a book is missing its pages, i.e. title page, last several pages etc. etc. then don't touch it unless it is really, really rare. For example, English printed books in English before 1600 are extremely rare because the number of books printed in the 1500's in English is really low. The number of books printed in the 1400's is even lower! Right around the beginning of the 1600's there was an explosion of book printing, not that books in the 1600's aren't rare and if they are, then the purchase of a defective book has to be at the right price...we don't see that on ebay. What we see are bidders buying books that are defective and paying more that what they are worth. What we don't see is bidders buying good, solid books at the market prices that they should be sold at.
So where is all the action? It's in the auctions. Bloomsbury book auctions continues to be a great auction house. But don't forget Dominic Winter, Doyles, Sotheby's, Christies, PBA Galleries, Swann Galleries and many others. The dollar is so weak and since the Tea Party decided to play chicken with the credit rating agencies and our wallets, the dollar is going to get cheaper. So this is not good for buying books in Europe or the U.K. but it is great for selling them in another currency. Right now there is about a 40% premium just in currency for European and UK buyers and its is bound to go up as Congress and the President do battle over spending and tax increases.
So the message this summer is sell your books overseas and buy them in the U.S.!
