Rare Book Monthly
Analysis: Is the Internet Making the Book Fair Obsolete?
New York Book Fair
For Medium to Small Bookdealers, the average # for the Weather was 3; for the War, 6.2; for the Economy, 7.2; and for the Transition of Bookbuying and Selling to the Internet, 6.2.
So what does this mean? Several aspects seem apparent:
The Internet:
Perhaps most striking is the difference in the way the Medium to Small Bookdealers rated the impact of the internet, versus the Large Bookdealers (6.2 vs. 2.6). Smaller dealers seemed to see the net as a positive factor while larger dealers seemed to view it negatively. Said another way, smaller dealers seemed to see it as a way to get business while bigger dealers seemed to view it as a threat to their existing business.
It is interesting that several of the very same large book dealers who gave the internet a low rating discussed, with me off-the-record, the “negative” impact that the internet has had on their business and/or on the book business in general: one such dealer cited to me the example of a potential customer browsing abe.com or a related site and finding an $8500 copy of a book that the book dealer was asking $10,000 for. “Now which copy do you think that customer is going to go with, assuming all condition points are similar?” this dealer asked. Other comments on the internet were similarly phrased, and many, using a kind of converse logic, cited the influence of internet book buying sites as a deterrent to their using the internet as a sales mechanism. Interestingly, I could get no large book dealer to go on-the-record with a quote about the internet, though many had much to say off-the-record. Certainly some of the large dealers discussed the potential of the internet as a means for customers to explore similar copies of books in a range of prices. From this perspective, the internet takes the power of pricing directly from the hands of the dealers and places it in the hands of the market, an aspect of the internet that is not greeted with open arms by dealers, especially large book dealers who have enjoyed pricing power for years. Clearly medium to small book dealers are generally more welcoming of, familiar with, and positive about the internet than are the large book dealers. It is their ticket to market parity and they know it. There is also a residual of regret that the net is changing book selling so much. For some the book business is turning out to be more than they bargained for.
The Economy:
There seems to be general agreement that the state of the economy is a worry to all book dealers, large, medium, and small alike. Medium to Small Bookdealers rated the impact of the economy at an average of 7.2; Large Book dealers rated the economy’s impact at an average of 6. This may suggest that the net is more market sensitive. Sample off-the-record quotes went as follows: “The economy is in the dumps.” “Considering the economy right now, I think we made out alright.” “I heard that everyone had a mixed fair, and even smaller ticket items were not moving.” “Due to the economy, dealers are not going out and buying hundreds and hundreds of books for stock, but they are buying good books in fewer numbers that will sell in the near future.” Even larger book dealers who did well had disclaimers: Seth Kaller of Kaller’s America Gallery, Inc. said: “This fair had a decent enough opening, the opening night was pretty good. The rest of the fair was disappointing even though we made some sales that we were happy with. On the other hand, we didn’t see some customers we were expecting to see. There were also more expressions of interest in important documents than actual documents that sold.” William Reese of William Reese Company said: “I think that this fair was very mixed from the people I talked to. Some people or firms seemed to do very well; others poorly. There seemed to be no middle ground.”
