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Show TK IUL IN OLD HOOKS. ONK MW SFII. T1IIJI X)I. CVSII Kit OET Nt 10KS IS I1ITUI V ' ostlitfenonnbUAF.toikofH'cond-hand ostlitfenonnbUAF.toikofH'cond-hand books that u carrj, fald"a ValiliiIoii UxiksilUr toa Sur reporter, re-porter, iiiiU jihml from an astonish lu.; varkt.) of touiw Somu ul the volumes that till alt that arrai of loaded shLhiM conic to us from the wit-dlni; out of lihnrkt l-j kwji1l uho wish to make room for frisli booliHbi dlIu,; of others which thtj liaveno use for. Jota fo arc brought in lynewspa-ier reviewers, who are glad to UisiKj-eof thu publications publi-cations "cut thtni for notice riure aru veri matii iitisons, too, who do mw of their reaJIn in a vcrj curious u), as it would probiblv n-ar to iou. Thej biii a bojk here, iTUe it at their Iibure, and thin sell it hack to us again. ISut instead of ta'-in nloti tliey re-ceivu re-ceivu the vrluu due tin in in the sli ipo of auotlicr liook Tins one thci aIo ri i and bring btck, Colng tlirouh the Fame irDce&s iu definitely, luh time, of court e, tliti lose vDiuitliln, nd it (joes without sajlng tliat i single book would not carr them very fir Itut tlu j keep It up with a number of volumes at oucii, Mippljlnjr thelos bi purchasing fnth iKiofcs now anil then, m that tliey h.-ue asort of ka'cldo-copIc lilirary alnai on hand, the ma"te-up of which is continually con-tinually changing borno denlers encourage this same tort of business with arr novels on what ml'lit oe caileu i twoToromi lasts In other word", tho customer bnj s two, reads them brings them back and Is given one new one in exchange . for them Tills Is j rentable to the I feller, itid the rcaJer gets his or her literature, at h ilf rates. ObviouMy it Ik n.oru j roOtablo to give value for volumes bought in the shape of stock tlmi to fa it In money. We la praise the books brought us at so much, and nlloir a corresponding I amount on what is irclixed To . tell at a glance precis-1 how much an given secondhand hook is worth require tho training nf n facult wlilc Ii only long ears of ex-prienco ex-prienco can rojierly dec clop "As fur the prices that recoud-liand recoud-liand Iwoks tiring, it might bosiid that a volume iu really good condition con-dition we can tell from 50 to 00 per ceiitof Its origins! price Goods In an inferior condition of preservation are worth roionioiistely Ics, Mve intheunusualcawofKimethlngthat is a rarity. It is umteccssar to remark that wc do not pay any uch trice for the looks In Isijing them c could not aflord to do o, indeed, in-deed, for you must remember that we have to carr a great stock of second hand volumes, cm r so many of which will rcmalnon the shelves for vears liefnm nnttlnTvn?it,nii.Ap This means a Urge exeue, ami I mlht put tho Idi-a I y saying those sold must bear the cost of those not sold. In other words, our j roflt on each Imok dispoisl of must be a good one, elso we should Ioe mom y on tho whole Wo will always glvo more for a book that wo know will sell right off" than for one wo are doubtful ntout. You see, w Hh new books there Is no difficulty. The arc quoted at so ranch from month to mouth in the isililishers catalogues, cata-logues, and w e have only to add our prollt. Itut tho value of secondhand second-hand books Is fimply a question of Mi ply and demand One thing cssentis.1 is that w o should keep our-telves our-telves always acquainted with such quotations as there are In the great second hand book markets of the world. "I.ondoii is a vnt market for second hand books. Literally thousands of shops for their sale are to be found In the llrltish capital My lartncr goes abroad each sum mcr and )nds weeks Iu going through trcni.scirchlng for anything any-thing that ma bo desirable and purchasable at a price allowing a good margin of protit, A curiosity of Ijondon town is the famous Book Lam, when- Si) or -10 musty old book shops aro crow ded tngetb e r. Such shops gather their stock from nil sorts of qaecr sources, but largely from the sale of libraries. In alt the small t"wcs of I ngland arc second band book 'hops which are In communication with tho-e of the metropolis. It Is from London and other great foreign book marts that wc get a large part of our own supplies. Tho mct interesting of them all Is that of Paris, where you rind near) two miles of continuous second hand book stalls In a line, the proprietors of them exhibiting tin ir wares In boxes placed along a wall. The Frenchmen havo no fixed prices for their volumes, as they do In London, and they will put tho prlco sk high if they Imagine Im-agine you want a thing. So In going go-ing through tho old book shops of Paris you must dissemble and play tho hyiocritc. On one occas'on at a l"arls stall I found 60 copies of I a book that had acquired great value threugli the fact of lt3 having gono out of print. A gentleman once bought a very precious book of me, paying quite a big prlco for it. It would have been worth even more had It not been that half the title page had been torn oU and was missing Years after it happened that the same customer was exploring a Ilttlo book shop in an out-ofthe-way street in London, when, between the leaves of a dirty looking, volume he had taken down to look at, lie found the missing half of the title page Ho showed It tome af'er-ward af'er-ward and I aw that It Jilted the oilier half perfectly. |
