On 1/8/2011 8:44 AM, J wrote:
On Jan 3, 7:45�pm, "Francis A. wrote:

I found at Savers, a used goods store, this evening on the
way home, a first printing (1968) of the Grove Press edition
of the Marquis de Sade's *Juliette* , 1205 pages, with dust
jacket (with only minor defects) and light foxing to the top
edges (otherwise fine) and the first complete publication of
the work in America. �


Does the increasing demise of old-fashioned second-hand bookstores
mean more goodies to be found by the dedicated hunter, do you think?
Or will more books simply be trashed?


What I am observing is a downward spiral of book prices.
The ability to look on-line at ABE or AddALL.com and find
the book anywhere in the nation has undermined the
traditional price structures for books. Before the
Internet, finding a book was not that easy. The only market
in the US was through the AB Bookman magazine. Despite the
altered marketing model, second hand book stores might have
been able to survive were it not for the fact that computer
gaming and internet entertainment has whittled away even
more people from the possibility of reading. Television
gave a wound, but not as bad as that from the computer.
Young people are trained to the screen, and not to reading.
Thus, devalued books are being sold through Goodwill,
Savers and other used general goods stores by people who
have no clue which books are worthwhile and which are not.
Library book sales abound to raise funds for the local
libraries and their sale prices are even lower than Goodwill
or Savers. These sources for books has placed even more
pressure on the traditional used book store. Hence all the
closings of which you write.

So, we are in a period of high opportunity for the
collector, but less so for the dealer, especially if the
dealer has the need of a short turn around time and has a
cost associated with book display.

But just as black and white photography has had a major
revival as people have begun once again to understand that
that type of photography gives results not obtainable in
color (emphasizing texture, for instance), so I expect that
in not too great a time (ten years or so), boredom with
gaming and internet entertainment will set in, especially as
the limits of gaming are reached, and, then, I hope, there
will be a renaissance of appreciation for the written word
and the textured materials in which those words come to us.

--
Francis A. Miniter

In dem Lande der Pygmäen
gibt es keine Uniformen,
weder Abzeichen, noch irgend welche Normen,
Und Soldaten sind dort nicht zu sehen.

Siegfried von Vegesack, "Es gibt keine Uniformen"
from In dem Lande der Pygmäen