Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2017 Issue

Amazon Bookstores to Spread Coast to Coast – Is This Good or Bad for Booksellers?

An Amazon store (from Amazon website).

An Amazon store (from Amazon website).

Amazon has announced the planned opening of four more traditional, bricks-and-mortar bookstores for later this year. They join three already open on the west coast, Seattle, Portland, and San Diego, and one previously announced, but not yet open, Chicago. Now, Amazon bookstores will be found coast to coast. Amazon has announced that they will take Manhattan, and three other locations, one across the river in Paramus, New Jersey, and two in the suburbs of Boston – Dedham and Lynnfield. How many they will eventually open is unknown, maybe even to Amazon, and certainly to everyone else. Some speculate hundreds, some thousands. Meanwhile, the motivation behind this move into traditional retailing, which elicited a "what-the..." response when first announced in 2015, is becoming clearer.

 

The bookstores will only generate peanuts in terms of sales for the mammoth online retailer. Still, there are some evident ulterior motives. The stores now offer Amazon electronic devices, such as its Kindle e-reader, tablet computer, and probably most important of all, Echo, its hands-free personal assistant. And maybe even more important, it enables Amazon to personally sell subscriptions to its Prime service, which, for an annual fee, lets you purchase everything from Amazon at a discount. If they can get you to pay for Prime, they know you will buy lots more from them over the course of a year.

 

Of course, Amazon began its existence as a bookseller. Once they became the largest online bookseller, they morphed into something much bigger, the largest online retailer of just about everything else under the sun. They didn't make much if any money, but they grew like Topsy. Books, in a sense, were a loss leader. Perhaps that is what they will be again. The bookstores will undoubtedly help drive traffic to the website, as well as making sales on the spot. And one more thing – as big as online shopping has become, and as huge as Amazon's market share of online shopping is, the reality is that more than 90% of merchandise is still sold through traditional retail. Their share of this 90% is 0%.

 

Amazon recently opened a test site for grocery shopping in its home town of Seattle. The catch to their concept is that products will automatically be scanned as you put them in your shopping cart, enabling shoppers to avoid check out lines. Amazon evidently has an eye on that other 90%.

 

What is the impact of all of this on booksellers? Those most in fear are the shops that sell new books, as this is where Amazon directly competes. Those in the rare and antiquarian trade don't seem so obviously affected, though Amazon's online model turned even the rare book trade upside down in the 1990's, so who knows where this leads?

 

However, some independent booksellers are starting to warm to the idea, and they have more to fear than rare book sellers. Amazon only carries a limited number of books on site. Their books are displayed face out, significantly reducing the number on display. Amazon uses online buying habits to pick the most popular titles to sell at each location. They offer the cream of the crop, but the independents can offer more variety and specialization. They also can give the browser a better experience thumbing through titles to find books of interest they never knew about before. The Barnes & Nobles of the world long ago took away much of their best-seller trade, so Amazon is likely to be more of a threat to these large retailers than to independents.

 

All of this brings us to one more factor which may make rare and antiquarian book sellers feel better about these Amazon stores. Many have believed their stock in trade, the printed book, is on life support, their demise being tolled by the beeps of electronic readers. Young people have less connection to the physical book than earlier generations, simply because there are alternatives available. Some may rarely touch a physical book. They can read books by downloading them onto an electronic device without ever knowing the sensation of a physical book.

 

In an Amazon store, even if they buy an e-book, they will not be able to avoid the presence of printed ones. They may be tempted to touch one, open it, experience what their forebearers did. You cannot experience invisible electrons dancing on a chip. Tomorrow's collectors almost inevitably will come from today's readers of physical books. Amazon stores may be where the young first come to experience printed books. Everyone is always asking from where the next generation of book collectors will come. Maybe Amazon stores will be one of the answers.

Rare Book Monthly

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    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
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    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
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    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.
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    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST THREE FAIRY TALE PAMPHLETS, WITH ALL INDICES AND TITLE PAGES. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: THE FIRST FAIRY TALES WITH A SIGNED CARTE DE VISITE OF ANDERSEN AS FRONTIS. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: KARL LAGERFELD. Original pastel and ink drawing in gold, red and black for Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1992), "La cassette de l'Empereur."
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SIXTH PAMPHLET FOR PETER KOCH. Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn, Second Series, Third Pamphlet. 1841. Publisher's wrappers, complete with all pre- and post-matter.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN RARE AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED IN ENGLISH from "The Ugly Duckling," c.1860s.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HEINRICH LEFLER, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR FOR ANDERSEN'S SNOW QUEEN, "Die Schneekönigin," 1910.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST EDITION OF ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN ENGLISH. Wonderful Stories for Children. London, 1846.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN ON MEETING CHARLES DICKENS. Autograph Letter Signed ("H.C. Andersen") in English to William Jerdan, July 20, 1847.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR EDGAR COLLIN. Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Raekke. 1861.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: DOLL HOUSE FURNITURE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, DECORATED WITH FANTASTICAL CUT-OUTS, for the children of Jonna Stampe (née Drewsen), his godchildren.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR GEORG BRANDES. Dryaden. Et Eventyr fra Udstillingstiden i Paris 1867. 1868.

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