BookFinder lists editions, with individual copies seen by clicking the link.
By Michael Stillman
And you thought there was a proliferation of bookselling websites! There is certainly no shortage of places where a bookseller can go to sell his wares online. It is extensive, perhaps excessive. There are the big name sites, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, eBay and Half.com. There are the big names in pre-owned books (a term borrowed from used car dealers), Abebooks, Alibris, Biblio and Choosebooks/ZVAB. There are European and English sites, such as Antiqbook and Antikbuch24, Bibliophile.net, ibooknet, Livre-rare-book, and Maremagnum. There is the Australian Books and Collectibles, and the Canadian Chapters Indigo. There are the not-as-well-known sites such as Elephant Books, Abooksearch, and A1. Then you have the member sites, such as ILAB, ABAA, IOBA, and Tom Folio. Froogle belongs somewhere in here, though I'm not sure how to classify it. Of course there is even AE's own Books For Sale. There are lots of choices, though sometimes too many choices can lead to confusion.
You might think the solution to the complexity is to have a search engine that searches listings from all of these different sites. There is such a site. In fact, there are way too many of these sites. And while none searches all of the listing sites, there are some that search a great many. The multi-site search engine is a preferred method of search today for many book buyers. However, just when it looked like this might be a less confusing way to find books, we now see a proliferation of these multi-site search engines. You almost need another place to search all of them. Do we really need so many?
We went out and did some search engine searching. Here are some of the mega-search book-finding sites we found. It is in no way guaranteed to be complete. There are undoubtedly more. However, only a few are really useful to the book collector. The majority seem to find new and recent used books, but rarely find the antiquarian or rare books collectors seek. We found only five that are useful for the rare book collector. Many others are fine for those who want books to read.
There appears to be a big three in the listing site search engines, BookFinder, AddAll and FetchBook. It is hard to know for certain how much traffic each site has, but the common wisdom that these are the largest is backed by Alexa's useful though imperfect traffic numbers.
BookFinder is likely the most used of the meta searchers, searching 64 sites, including all of the majors - four versions of Abebooks, five of Amazon, Alibris, Barnes and Noble, Half, Biblio, Choosebooks, plus many smaller sites, non-U.S. sites, the member sites ILAB, IOBA and Tom Folio, and some individual stores. They offer an advanced search with most fields except date. They show estimated shipping costs. Searches are not always speedy, but are thorough. Unlike most sites, they find the older and rare material. BookFinder was recently purchased by Abebooks, but is independently run and scrupulously holds to its objectivity. They show titles of different editions of a book after a search, which are then clicked for individual listings. In other words, listings are shown in a manner reminiscent of Alibris rather than Abe. Link: www.bookfinder.com
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.
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.