Rare Book Monthly

Articles - February - 2014 Issue

Highs & Lows of a Small Antiquarian Seller - Robbery & Retail Both Learning Experiences

Bryant Neal experimented with a pop up exhibit and sale.

I’ve been writing from the seller’s viewpoint for AE Monthly for quite a while now. I've looked at various genres in the book arts, visited shows and fairs, profiled other dealers and sites and dispensed tips I’ve learned growing up in the trade and selling on-line on eBay.

 

This month's article is a summary of some of the high and low points of 2013 from my own business on the island Maui where I have been a Hawaii-Pacific specialist since 1979.

 

Burglary was the low point

 

There’s no question that the low point of last year came in April when there was a burglary at my property and many of my personal and business belongings were taken.

 

There’s no better wake up call about the need for better security than discovering your passport, client files, tax records and many valuables including a portion of my high end inventory had been stolen.

 

Yes, I had insurance and yes, they paid the claim promptly, but the experience left me shaken.

 

Next came changing all the locks, installing motion detector lights and moving what was left to more secure storage. It also meant closing my old bank accounts as well as notifying clients whose records were compromised by the theft.

 

As the police officer who came by a few days later pointed out -- one break-in in 30 years wasn’t exactly a crime wave -- still it was a painful reality check that reinforced the point that the days when no one knew or cared about old books in this part of the world, much less wanted to steal them, was over. Even on a little island in the middle of the ocean the need for improved security became a painful reality. To date nothing has been recovered.

 

Pop Up Retail Store an Interesting Experiment

 

The most interesting business experiment I participated in was consulting with a colleague who decided to try a pop-up retail antiquarian store at a local mall over the holiday season.

 

Though pop-ups have been popular for restaurants and food related events in this area I had not actually seen one done as a combination retail and exhibit venue. My friend Bryant Neal looked for a high traffic location and then pegged his exhibit to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He chose that theme because he had acquired a number of interesting maps, photos, books and documents that told the story of the WWII Pacific from the Japanese perspective. Hoping his material would find a market he signed a lease for 60 days at one of the island’s largest shopping centers. The terms were a relatively low flat monthly fee vs. 15 percent of sales.

 

The best part of the experience was working with him to select and display some of the original items he had acquired. Laying it out on the floor and trying to figure out how to display the fragile original material was challenging, especially in an environment not originally intended for this kind of event.

 

The store with almost 2,000 square feet of floor space did draw quite a few patrons. In December, during the height of the Christmas shopping frenzy, it turned out to be a good place for husbands to hang out while their wives shopped.

 

Working on the project I met many people and I learned quite a bit about the war years in Hawaii. Among the things I found out was the person that guarded Tojo before he was hanged in 1948 was from Maui. I also learned that the guard - now in his 90s - is still alive and living on my street.

 

It was reassuring to discover that lots of people are still fascinated by history. They still enjoy looking at maps, they still want to see the pictures of the voyaging canoes and learn about the Polynesian migrations as well as the story of other Pacific voyages.

 

In the course of December and January I watched the traffic develop and saw it was not quite a museum and not quite a store either, but rather an odd hybrid of unusual Japanese and American Pearl Harbor and WWII era memorabilia and vintage Hawaiiana mashed up with other kinds of goods, including giclee reproductions, arty travel souvenirs and low end nick nacks.

 

It did draw a crowd but it did not turn out to be a good way to make money. Even with high traffic and a bargain rent the hours were long and the overhead was high.

 

That said, my friend extended his short term agreement for another few months and is still evolving his sales strategy. For him the things that did well were reproductions of Pacific centered maps, nostalgia items like plaster figurines of ethnic types from the 1930s, decorative menus from the Matson line and almost anything that evoked the Hawaiian Monarchy period.

 

The year on-line

 

Watching how it worked out for him in a traditional store reinforced my conviction that future sales growth in my own business would be on line. In that respect 2013 was a better year than 2012.

 

In 2013 I passed the 1,000th feedback mark on eBay and retained a rating that was 100 percent positive. In 2013 I found it was easier to find buyers ready to purchase the more expensive items. I was pleased to make an increasing number of some bigger sales and my sales figures year over year edged upwards, not a lot but definitely in the right direction. The prices of items sold ranged from $7.99 to nearly $2,000, with most sales in the $40-$150 range. Despite being located in Hawaii and being in business here for more than 30 years, more than 90 percent of all my business came from outside the state and it looks like it’s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. None of my really good Pacific sales were made to buyers in the islands.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

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