Eastern Massachusetts is such a rich source of books, though, that we're often a little overwhelmed by the volume of what we're offered. We try not to stop buying, but we're often not looking to buy outside the fields in which we have heaviest demand. And we do have four active buyers, but it's not unusual for all four to be busy at the same time. So please, if you have books to sell, call (617) 229-5641 first to make sure we're looking in your fields, and to arrange a mutually convenient time.

For larger collections, we can go out. We've done house calls as far away as Wisconsin. Most likely, though, if you're outside New England we won't be able to help. We don't allow books we haven't seen to be shipped to us, as we're offered so much and have to turn so much down already.

WHAT WE BUY:

Essentially we look for uncommon titles in interesting subject areas, usually in fields in which it's very hard to be gainfully employed, but in which a lot of people would like to be so employed. A good area could be archaeology, it could be blacksmithing or zookeeping or flyfishing--we're better at getting the academic stuff, though, than we are at getting fishing or gunsmithing or the like. Our market is heavily academic.

This does not mean textbooks, if that's all they are, because NO ONE reads them for pleasure. It does include good history, especially the earlier periods; advanced math; real physics; good philosophy and such; and good language reference, especially classical languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Aramaic--in a sense, the deader the language, or the closer to death, like Welsh, the better). Even if these materials are used for courses, they have a life outside the prison atmosphere of a course list, and so can excite desire, the key.

The best word to express the idea is "sexy," as strange as it sounds.

Our customers want books that new-book stores don't sell very many copies of, hence which are published in lower print runs, usually on better paper, and so on. If a book is on bad paper, as almost all stuff from 1880 to 1910 is, it usually means it was made to be mass-marketed. Consequently, there's very nearly no used market AT ALL, at least in the older parts of the country--just too common. If it was made to be sold, it probably shouldn't be bought. It's just like telemarketers now.

What We Buy 1       What We Buy 2       Delivering to Us       What We Pay       Store Credit