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Dear Edith,
Read with amusement your story of Dan and Denis going to the SF Book Fair. After reading I said to Don, "Hope they come through Denver." Well we can report that they are as far as Denver and buying along the way. Where they are cramming them in is unknown. We are only sorry that we were not at the shop when they stopped in. Would have loved to see the van/car. Our shop is in an antique mall and operates as a cooperative so another person was working in the shop today.
Best regards,
Sue
I have to tell you Sue that Denis Gouey and Dan got quite a kick out of hearing that they were spotted in Denver. I think they were a bit unnerved to think that Big Brother was watching and almost expected papparazzi to greet them in SF. By their own admission, there wasn't an inch of room to spare in the station wagon by the time they reached the show but it was great for me to hear that they found lots to see and lots to buy along the way.
Given what the two of them bought, I can safely say that there are wonderful "finds" from the east coast to the west, including your shop in Denver. The stores they visited were welcoming and some of the non-book visits were pleasant surprises. Dan is raving about the atmosphere of Louisville, KY and the most wonderful soda fountain and candy shop in Cincinnati, OH. He and Denis sent our shop a sampling of the candy and for a brief afternoon at The John Bale Book Company diets were forgotten.
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Hi Edith,
I love the Bookologist! I'm a director at a 200+-year-old library in PA - we've stopped lending our collection of aging fiction and are now concentrating on building the genealogy and local history sections and we're having a marvelous time doing it!
One of our board members recently said she heard someone on the Antiques Roadshow talking about using a leather preservative. Could you please comment in a future edition about this?
Thanks,
Ellen
There are several products out there. Some are ready made but there are die-hards who prefer to mix their own. One recipe I found is the following:
LEATHER PRESERVATIVE
(for polished leather)
1-cup lanolin
1-cup castor oil
Mix well. Clean leather surface with a warm soap solution.
Apply preservative with a soft cloth every three months.
Polish as usual, if desired. Store preservative in a tightly capped glass jar.
Another recipe is a mixture of neatsfoot oil and lanolin but I do not know what the ratio is.
Some of the companies specializing in archival products carry Fredelka Formula Leather Preservative/Restorer and this is very good. Lextol is another.
Leather polish can darken bindings and there is a growing debate about whether it is simply better to leave old books alone. The Roadshow has an article about this very topic that can be read here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/series/highlights/2004/sanfran/fts_hour1_1.html
My advice is to consult a bookbinder whose work you admire. These are craftsmen who have experience with various polishes and techniques for applying them. You can also find help at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bookbinding
I hope that helps.
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Dear Editor,
First, how can I find an approximate value of a book I have had in my family for years, before putting it up for sale. I don't want to sell it for $4.00 & it might be worth a lot more. The name of it is: The Life and Work of Dwight L. Moody By Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 1900. Rev. Moody was an Evangelist.
Since I was about the only child who loved reading, my grandparents & aunts left me their books when they died years ago so I have a lot of these older books to put up for auction. There is no library of congress number or book number for me to look these up under.
Many thanks again.
Cynthia
This is an easy one to answer Cynthia. There are several ways for you to easily find the value of an older book and there are other ways that require memberships, etc. For our readers who want to know about researching a book, here are some useful sites to know.
Bookfinder.com is my personal favorite. This site compiles all the copies of a particular book listed on the Internet with the exception of Amazon.com. All you need to do is type in the author's name and the book's title. You can select to search only new books, out of print books or all. You can single out signed copies and first editions; types of binding, and a price range. With an advanced search Bookfinder will also let you can add keywords, publisher, etc. There is, of course, a basic form but no matter what one you choose, it is a user-friendly site that sellers and collectors will find very useful.
In one of our past issues we interviewed the founder of the site and I can tell you from experience, it is a very reliable resource.
Other options are addall.com, eBay (current and past auctions), abe.com, alibris.com, amazon.com. Aside from eBay and Amazon, the other sites will show up on Bookfinder.com. (Now be careful because some enterprising scallywag has pluralized the site's name and created a porn page).
For your book:
Alibris-- 13 copies with a price range from $12.45 to $52.95
Antiqbook--1 copy at $15
Biblio.com--3 books from $28 to $50
Choosebooks--3 books from $24 to $28
Global Book Mart--1 book for $35
Abe--12 copies from $10 to $50
Used Book Central--1 copy for $10
TomFolio.com--2 copies from $25 to $35
Bibliodirect--2 copies from $25 to $35
Now, this does not mean that there are a total of 38 copies out there with prices from $10 to $52.95. Many of these books are repeats, the same book sent up to different sites. You should now look at the owners and descriptions to see how many books are really available. When you are studying the description, you should note what books most closely match yours for wear, inscriptions, etc. This match will give you the truest retail value for your book. And if more copies of this book come to the market, you can surely bet that some of them will undercut the lowest price and so value these days is fluid.
Amazon is a bit trickier. You can search for this book by title and when the listing comes up (there will be a plethora of titles), you match your particular book to Amazon's listing and click on used books available. This will give you a list of sellers who have this title listed on Amazon, the price and condition. It is not as quick and easy to use as other sites but it does give you another option.
I hope this didn't confuse you.
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