Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2018 Issue

The Great Revolt

Books on Vacation (from ILAB website).

Not since David and Goliath... A ragtag army of independent, unrelated booksellers took on the largest retailer the world has ever known, Amazon, and won. Experts looking at the situation could not recall this ever happening before. Amazon moves for no one. Now there is an exception, and it comes from the field that gave the marketing behemoth its birth - bookselling.

 

It began in late October when AbeBooks, the antiquarian and used book selling subsidiary of Amazon, decided to cut off dealers from a few countries from selling on their platform. AbeBooks sent notices to dealers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Poland, and South Korea that it would no longer accept their listings after November 30. It was but a short, terse notice, without explanation as to why or much feeling beyond a standard "we apologize for this inconvenience." Digging into the reasoning it turned out that a change in the service provider for payments was the cause. Evidently, a better deal must have been struck, but one that called for the jettisoning of sellers in certain countries.

 

The tiny spark that led to the fire proved to be a posting from a dealer in the Czech Republic on the ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers) site. Jan and Ondrej Schick of Antikvariat Valentinska of Prague posted a letter saying that they had listed books on ZVAB, then ABE after its takeover, for 15 years. They said they had worked hard to treat their customers well and had never received a major complaint from them or from ABE. Nevertheless, on October 18, they received a brief, impersonal letter stating, "Effective November 30, 2018, AbeBooks will no longer support sellers located in certain countries. Your business is located in one of the affected countries and your AbeBooks seller account will be closed on November 30, 2018. We apologize for this inconvenience."

 

The Czech booksellers described the decision as a shock, "especially since no reason was given." They went on to say they would have to dismiss at least five employees and had no idea where else to sell their 20,000 foreign books. They said this in effect would cut booksellers in these countries off from the world antiquarian book trade, and asked which countries would be next. They closed with a request for Amazon and AbeBooks to reconsider its decision.

 

One of the booksellers who took this message to heart was Simon Beattie of England. You couldn't ask for a better bookseller to start such a revolt. Beattie specializes in books that are unusual, sometimes daring and radical. He announced, in effect, he was going on strike. ABE has a feature that allows booksellers to put their books "on vacation" when they go away. They don't remove their books from the site. They just make their books invisible until they return. Beattie put his books on vacation.

 

He would not be the only one. Other booksellers put their books on vacation too. The number grew, until around 600 booksellers, with 3.5 million listings, put their books on vacation. Then, Britain's Antiquarian Booksellers' Association announced they would would not renew ABE's sponsorship of their London Book Fair in 2019, saying they could no longer consider the firm a "suitable fair sponsor" as a result of the "significant negative impact on the businesses of our friends and colleagues."

 

Amazon/ABE blinked. They realized they had made a terrible mistake and needed to reverse course. It may have been the first such substantial reversal by Amazon over a policy having a major effect on its suppliers.

 

On November 7, Sally Burdon, President of ILAB, spoke with Arkady Vitrouk, CEO of AbeBooks. Ms. Burdon said Mr. Vitrouk apologized for the decision and said that the dealers would not be dropped from ABE's listings on November 30. According to an email she sent, "Arkady told us that ABE are very well aware of the mistake they have made. He stated that it was a ‘bad decision’ and that they deeply regret the hurt and harm they have caused." She also noted that Vitrouk was up at 4:30 a.m. for the call, so obviously it was of great importance to him. Even more significantly, Burdon explained that booksellers in the affected countries could continue to post books as they do now until December 31, and that Vitrouk had pledged to find a solution that would enable them to continue selling books on AbeBooks indefinitely thereafter.

 

With that, the booksellers began ending their "vacations." An improbable victory against an immensely powerful company had been won, with many of the booksellers expressing surprise that it had turned out so well. Hopefully, Amazon/ABE will see this as a victory too. For almost two decades, the balance of power between ABE and its clients has shifted, booksellers, being unorganized, feeling increasingly weak and dependent on them. There has been resentment against Amazon, ABE and other such sites, such as eBay. That isn't healthy. Good relationships come from equals, not master and servant. If this helps renew a greater spirit of a shared vision, not a boss telling his underlings what to do, everyone will be better off, ABE included.


Posted On: 2018-12-01 10:06
User Name: PeterReynolds

I suspect that an article in the New York Times "Booksellers Protest Amazon Site’s Move to Drop Stores From Certain Countries" which not only associated ABE (previously "good" for some) in the book-buying public's mind with Amazon ("bad" for some), but was bad publicity for Amazon itself, might have been what tipped the balance! A frequent US customer of mine saw it, and I told ABE about this.


Posted On: 2018-12-01 14:59
User Name: bookdemon

A small battle was won this time. When serious booksellers permanently remove all of their stock from Abe/Amazon, the war is over and booksellers will be victorious. Sadly, this will probably never happen.


Posted On: 2018-12-16 13:46
User Name: quaggabooks

Earlier this year ABE announced that all dealers in South Africa have to have American bank accounts. A number of my colleagues here in South Africa have found a solution by making use of an online portal that, (for another fee) allows them to keep trading. We at Quagga Books have pulled our listings from ABE as the fees are now so high that I would feel ill every time I got an order. We are focusing more on our own website and other online platforms. Goodbye and good riddance to ABE.


Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Books and Manuscripts
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining, Philadelphia, 1846. $3,500 to $5,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: 17th–19th-century case maps of various locations. $1,500 to $2,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Andreas Cellarius, Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale Cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri, celestial chart, Amsterdam, 1708. $2,500 to $3,500.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: Vincenzo Coronelli, Set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, Venice, circa 1688–97. $18,000 to $22,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, group of four navigational charts, Antwerp, 1580s. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Thomas Bros, Block Book of Berkeley, Oakland, 1920s. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Nieuhoff & John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, map of China, plan of Canton, London, 1673. $1,200 to $1,800.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Frederick Sander, Reichenbachia, St. Albans, 1888-1894. $5,000 to $7,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Two early illustrated works on horsemanship and breeding, Nuremberg, early 18th century. $700 to $800.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Supplement to the First Edition, London, 1834; 1855. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Swann, Dec. 7: John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, London, 1808–14. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Dec. 7: Oakley Hoopes Bailey, Hackensack, New Jersey, Boston, 1896. $800 to $1,200.
  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000

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