From The Editor by Craig Stark #75, 12 August 2006

In my early scouting days, I recall purchasing numerous Heritage Press titles. What wasn't to like? The bindings exuded noticeably more quality than the average bear, they were typically issued in slipcases, and published titles included many of the greatest books ever written. And illustrators? Well, there were flashpoints in spades. Some of the very best were commissioned to illustrate Heritage Press titles, and many resulting productions were - this isn't widely reported - hand colored. Alas, I also recall being disappointed many times after researching my 'finds' at home, and often I would dump them onto my discard pile, especially if the slipcase and/or the laid-in Sandglass explanatory brochure was absent. At one point, I stopped buying HPs altogether.

As it turned out, this was a mistake - and I've since resumed. There are in fact significant bookselling opportunities with HPs, especially if you adopt the right strategies. My primer on buying and selling the Heritage Press, which explains some of them, appears in today's issue.

But first let me introduce you to Michael Bussacco. Michael owns one of the largest collections of HPs and associated ephemera in the US and, like other collectors who came before him, was initially frustrated by the dearth of information available on this venerable niche - not a single bibliography, for example, let alone a complete checklist of titles. Fortunately, Michael stepped up to the plate some years ago and did collectors a favor: He wrote a bibliography and checklist himself. He's also written a Heritage Press retrospective for BookThink which includes some valuable information on issue variations and a complete list of published series as well.

Third up today is Steve Weber, who recently registered at AMPro for a free 21-day trial. AMPro is a complete listing, pricing and order management system for Amazon Marketplace sellers. At $49.99 a month, it ain't cheap, but it's so feature-rich that it can produce big savings for active Marketplace sellers - in dollars and time. Read Steve's detailed review in today's issue.

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