BookThink provides resources for online and open shop book dealers, book collectors, and serious readers. Resources already in place or scheduled to be added in the coming months include first edition designations and issue points for 1,000’s of publishers; detailed and illustrated book terminology; a moderated book forum; an extensive library of active and pertinent book-related links; reviews of books about books; and tutorials on practical book repair, grading, buying for resale, selling books online and off, building a personal collection, and more.

The BookThinker Newsletter
ISSN 1547-9501

#21, 21 June 2004

BookThinker Update
28 June 2004>>>

Kim Stanley Robinson Good Things Come in Threes Collecting Science Fiction   Tim Doyle surveys the major works of powerhouse Science Fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson in today’s BookThinker Update – and, while he’s at it, reminds us why we’re in this crazy business in the first place.

Organizing Books for Pleasure and Profit BookThink history columnist Alison Lake takes a detailed look at how book collectors and booksellers organize their books. Interestingly enough, Dewey Decimal System originator Melvil Dewey has next to nothing to do with it!

From the Editor

Why Boookseller's Ain't Rich The Hard, Hard Numbers and What They Mean Starving for sales? Well, nyah, nyah, online used book sales are booming, so what's YOUR problem? A look at some hard numbers published in a recent report on the U.S. used book market will open your eyes what's happening.

Statistics and the Used Book Market A Difficult Marriage And you thought bookselling was hard? Try gathering statistics on used books, and you'll soon find out what hard really is. Book Hunter Press author Susan Siegel examines the difficulties in today's BookThinker.

BookThink's Premium Content
What's Hot and What's Not in Encyclopedias
As a frequent reader of book forums, I've noticed that encyclopedias often appear, along with microwave cookbooks, on lists of things to avoid purchasing for resale - unless, perhaps, they are still in shrink wrap and at least warm to the touch off the press. In bookselling, however, it seems that no matter what book or grouping of books is tagged with the loser label, there are inevitably exceptions. I frankly don't know if near-legendary, quirky microwave oven inventor Percy L. Spencer ever signed a microwave cookbook, but if he did, you and I know that it has significant value. To scientists and inventors, that is. Not cooks. Encyclopedias, as a group, are populated with far more exceptions than our treasured m.c.'s, so many, in fact, that they frequently reward savvy booksellers with profits in three figures. Today's Premium Content gets specific on what to look for. NOTE: Gold Edition replaced regular Premium Content on August 2, 2004. Learn how to subscribe.

Previous BookThinker Update -

BookThinker Update 14 June 2004>>> Book Buying for the Blind The Evidence of Things Not Seen Arrived at any book sales late lately? Instead of stomping out empty-handed, it might be instructive stay a few minutes and, paradoxically, learn something about the books that have already been sold – that’s right, the ones you can’t see because they aren’t there. Can’t be done? Well, a trip to Indostan for an elephant ride might change your mind.

Previous BookThinker Premium Content -

Slumming It In Bookland
Slumlord Profits on Time-Life Books
Time-Life Books, the bookselling equivalent of Reader's Digest Condensed Books? Not quite. $100's if not $1,000's of dollars in profits await the bookseller who knows which sets to buy and which to leave alone. We'll show you what's hot, what's warm, and what's not in BookThink's Premium Content. NOTE: Gold Edition replaced regular Premium Content on August 2, 2004. Learn how to subscribe.