Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2006 Issue

Creative Book Packaging Creates Repeat Buyers

Movie photographs can also add value to the printed work.

Movie photographs can also add value to the printed work.


Where possible or feasible we always attempt to complete sets of books or to sell our orphans to other booksellers. We were once contacted here on the Cape by a bookseller who had the second volume of one of our advertised rare books. After I purchased it I discovered it not only completed the set, but was the actual mate of the book we owned, right down to the matching marble endpapers and unique binding design.

A completely different way to think about packaging is to consider selling books that contain additional information. I have some customers who do not use the Internet. They really appreciate the fact that I enclose material about information related to their purchases -- an author's biography or bibliography, for example, or information about the history of the book's publication, or contemporary history. That "value-added" service takes me only a couple of minutes, but creates happy return customers who do not comparison-shop.

Related materials packaged with the book do not have to be limited to just a vertical file. For example, I once purchased a copy of the Playbill for "Death of a Salesman" that was signed by Dustin Hoffman on eBay. Later, we included it with a second printing before publication of Death of a Salesman at a package price higher than the value of either item separately. Books made into films can include signed photographs of principals from that film, posters of the film, collectibles, and any other items that would add value and interest to the book. Put them all together and you have a unique item to sell that cannot be compared to any competitor. Think outside the box! There is no reason to just sell plain vanilla books that can be undercut by any competitor walking in off the street from a local library sale. If you do not have a signed first edition you can still create an attractive high-priced package with related signed and specialized materials.

Sometimes the actual packaging is done after making customer contact. If I have some idea why the book is being purchased I can often suggest additional items or services to make the package complete. The idea is to stand out in the crowd, differentiate yourself with intelligent and thoughtful extra touches, add value to your inventory by creating multi-dimensional packaging and increase the level of customer service and satisfaction for repeat sales.

Rare Book Monthly

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    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    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
  • Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

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