Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2016 Issue

AbeBooks Adds "Collections," Where Sellers Can Compile Catalogues of Ephemeral and Highly Targeted Material

AbeBooks' Collections.

AbeBooks' Collections.

AbeBooks has added a new section to their website and it represents an expansion of the material the site is offering on behalf of its dealers. It's no secret the book market is not as robust as it once was. More and more booksellers have responded by expanding the type of items they offer. As collectors focus more on subjects rather than just one particular type of presentation – books – dealers are selling various other types of paper and ephemeral items within the fields they cover. The "secret" to successful marketing, of course, is to give the customers what they want.

 

And so AbeBooks is expanding to fit the reality of collecting today. Founded in the 1990's, and quickly growing to become the largest marketplace in the world for old books, Abe has long remained focused on its original mission. That hasn't changed, but Abe is now adding a separate section to their website that is centered on material other than books, but that still appeals to today's more expansive book collector. Maps and atlases, art and photography, comics, and the broad category known as "ephemera" get their own sections. So do very specific types of books, such as signed books, fantasy, romance and reference. Within such categories are subcategories for further refinement. For example, within the category of ephemera are subcategories specifically for broadsides, magazines, manuscripts, pamphlets, postcards and posters. The collector can browse through a catalogue of material highly targeted to their own specific interests.

 

AbeBooks calls this new section Collections.

 

Abe points to a couple of Collections as examples of what is possible. Lorne Bair Rare Books offers a Collection of Eccentrics, Cranks & Difficult People. Bair regularly presents the writings of radical political movements, but these go from extreme to just plain crazy. Francis Livesey printed a broadside around 1905 headed Worse! And More Of It! Schools, Socialism, Lynchings, Ministers, Catholics, Negroes, Revolution, England. Livesey is consumed by creeping socialism, with public schools and child labor laws the primary culprits. He cites someone with the pseudonym "The Other Fellow" for showing "how child labor laws are working for 'race suicide' and other unnatural and ungodly acts." Livesey also points out how "Dr. Searle Harris, of Mobile, Ala, told President Roosevelt the negro was doomed to extinction by consumption. Somewhat true!" How does one become somewhat extinct? This, and many other comparably rational publications, can be found in Abe's Collections.

 

Földvári Books offers us a Collection of Propaganda, in this case, Eastern European communist era propaganda. Don't look for great art here. The Communists were more interested in the message than the art. A tough looking worker and unemployed man on this poster walk briskly, arm in arm, toward five tiny, fleeing capitalists. Though small, the capitalists are fat and bald. Ill-gotten wealth does this to you. In the background, factory chimneys bellow copious amounts of black smoke. The environment was not a major concern for those who produced Chernobyl.

 

Not all Collections offer such oddities. Donald A. Heald Rare Books has a Collection of Pocket Maps. For the young, this is what travelers used for directions before Google Maps and Waze.

 

AbeBooks' CEO explained, "Anyone who enjoys hunting through used bookstores, antique shops and art galleries for obscure treasures will relish Collections. We think customers are going to love this new way of browsing." The Collections do recreate the atmosphere of a treasure hunt through an old bookstore or a collection of catalogues. If there is a weakness to them, it is that the quantity of items is so great, and rapidly growing, as to make it a challenge for those looking for specific items. Abe has done some things to make it easier. Within a Collection, you can search by the most popular items (default), lowest price, or most recently listed. The last of these is particularly valuable when you come back to a Collection you have viewed before, so you aren't searching through items you have already seen to determine whether there is something new.

 

AbeBooks also offers dealers what they call "Master Collections." These allow booksellers to put their items in a larger, common catalogue with other sellers. Here, the ability to sort by price and recency becomes particularly important as these Master Collections can run to thousands of items. AbeBooks' Richard Davies noted that Collections are already divided into 25 main categories and 130 subcategories, with more to be added later this year, enabling viewers to target their interest. Still, he acknowledged that an ability to search for topics across Collections would be helpful and noted that Abe is working on such a feature right now.

 

A bookseller's collection can not only be found through the Collections page but also the seller's storefront. They will automatically show up there, enabling a collector to follow the Collections of a favorite dealer. Sellers can also link to their Collections from their own website, enabling them to serve as dedicated e-catalogues.

 

Abebook's Collections can be found on the following page: Collections.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.

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