John Bale Purchases Zobel's Better Books: Some Books are Sold, the Story Continues
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Some of the Zobel books.
Dan Gaeta of John Bale Book Company of Waterbury, Connecticut has purchased the remaining higher value inventory of Miriam Zobel of Clintondale, New York for an undisclosed sum. Mrs. Zobel and her husband David, who died in 1990, ran the Zobel Book Service, specialized in academic material and at one time had several hundred thousand items. Mrs. Zobel has been the subject of three previous articles in AEM, detailing the issues associated with concluding a life with books. The Zobels moved up from New York City in the late 1950's. Mrs. Zobel, now 81, in speaking of the transaction said, "I'm cutting back but not dropping out. Years ago I built a collection of children's books for my son. I'll now focus on selling them for him." At the gates of heaven Mrs. Zobel no doubt will be offering God something to read at a very good price. Once a bookseller always...
Here on earth Dan Gaeta of John Bale Books recently expressed satisfaction with the purchase. "I buy the remains of dealer inventories and with a partner, post them on line on Abe, Amazon and Alibris." The purchase was made through Palmer Bale LLC, a partnership with Greg Palmer. "In a sense it is an experiment, a test of the internet marketplace's ability to find customers for obscure titles. There is little doubt the cost will come back, after all, Mrs. Zobel has described and priced many of the better books, totaling a multiple of what we paid. It's more a question of how long it will take."
