Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker
Jed Birmingham on William S. Burroughs Collecting
AbeBooks sucks. There, I said it. I have to say I feel a little bit better. I have been denying it for quite some time. Rare booksellers know this and talk among themselves about it; hardcore book collectors suspect it and turn a blind eye. I cannot ignore the obvious any longer.
Do not get me wrong; I still spend an ungodly amount of time on AbeBooks. I search and I search some more. My father spent five to six hours a day on eBay looking at every art listing posted on a daily basis. For me, this obsession with the hunt is in the blood, the DNA. AbeBooks is a pornography site, really — entry upon entry of all those seductive and inviting titles; so many beautiful books to pick and choose from. But like all those databases of porn, most of the thrill is in the search. When was the last time anybody actually watched a porn movie in real time? AbeBooks is all about the latest listing and coming up with various key search combinations to find that mis-categorized book that is hidden in the ether. The endless searching on AbeBooks is an expression of bibliomania. For many the juice of book-collecting is the hunt. Once you have put the book on the shelf, the anguished voice of B.B. King starts playing in the background. I have tried to thwart this post-coitus depression by researching and writing about my books but, to be honest, nothing replaces the high of grasping a book that has eluded you for years on end. The pure rush I felt when I opened the package containing a copy of Jabberwock, a literary magazine from the University of Edinburgh, featuring Burroughs’ “And Start West” from Naked Lunch, is tough to duplicate. Adding to the excitement were the networking, the side-deals, and the research that went into the purchase.
I still pour over AbeBooks, but increasingly, the site is a buzz kill. I have written about the megalisters before. Throw the print-on-demand bullshit and the textbook recyclers on top of the seemingly endless amount of dorks hawking books out of their basement and garage, and the site has become the equivalent the worst aspects of public access TV. It is all cranks and crap. AbeBooks is the QVC of book sites.
AbeBooks is well aware of its decline. This is why there are filters and sub-sites (such as textbooks and rare books, you can also filter out various undesirable hits) available. You can put out requests and want lists, which will be automatically be sent to your email. But even with the filters and want lists, spammers target key words, such as “William Burroughs,” to clog your inbox with irrelevant, copyright-free POD junk. Once upon a time you did not have to be subjected to this. In a more innocent era, you could type “William Burroughs” in the keyword field, search the most recent listings, and get interesting, relevant, and exciting hits.
Now, I am not going to lie to you. I am not a typical Burroughs collector. I have been doing this for close to two decades. As a result, I have become jaded. Seeing a copy of the Ace Junkie has lost its luster to a certain extent. The books and magazines I am looking for are generally tough to find, like Ex 3 out of Tangier in 1964. (To be honest I have little clue as to exactly what it is, since I have never seen it in person, nor seen it offered for sale. There is a grainy, poorly cropped photo of Ex 3 in the indispensible, essential, and irreplaceable Maynard & Miles bibliography. This is the only proof I have that it even exists. Entry C96 seems to suggest that Burroughs himself edited this folder / magazine. Burroughs as editor — think of the never issued Interpol on top of the obscure Ex — proves to be the most mysterious side of el hombre invisible. As for Ex, this Keyer Söze of the Burroughsian still remains at large.)
That said, I still suffer from an incurable disease when it comes to Burroughs. I always get excited when I press that “Find Book” button on AbeBooks. What could possibly come up? As of two to three months ago, a bunch of POD nonsense and overpriced books that are still in print. I have to say that things seem to be getting a little better, but by and large, it seems to me that AbeBooks has steadily declined over the last three years or so. (AbeBooks was founded in 1995.)
When did AbeBooks jump the shark? I can give you the exact date: December 1, 2008. That was when AbeBooks was acquired by Amazon. The press release for the acquisition described AbeBooks as follows: “AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books, with over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world.” Once Amazon got involved, the Amazon ethos worked its way onto AbeBooks. Amazon is not a bookseller; it is an all you can eat buffet, a jack of all trades. They offer everything, and although AbeBooks does not at this time sell toasters, its listings seem to have gotten further and further away from “used, rare and out-of-print” books of the past. In addition, once upon a time, you could expect a certain level of knowledge and professionalism from the booksellers listing on the site. AbeBooks now seemingly sells any type of book from just about anybody — megalisters, POD shillers, and anyone else who pays the AbeBooks fee.
I remember sending a flurry of emails to book collectors and book dealers when Amazon acquired AbeBooks. The general consensus was “There goes the neighborhood.” And neighborhood is the key term here, as in community. On its own site and increasingly on AbeBooks, Amazon attempts to stamp out any direct contact between seller and buyer. Try finding a bookseller’s direct email, mailing address, or phone number. Amazon wants to be the black hole into which all communication (and money) funnels. Amazon just wants to maximize their 20% take on each sale. Nothing surprising about this; all monopolies do.
Such practices strike at the very heart and soul of rare book collecting, which consists of open communication, developing personal relationships, and community building. Amazon and AbeBooks might present a smiling face and open arms but they are less a neighborhood than, dare I say it, a concentration camp. Clearly I have gone too far. Hyperbole shades into the ridiculous, even the offensive. Did I mention that Big Brother definitely is watching? Amazon monitors all communication on its site. As a seller you better not contact a buyer through back channels lest you find yourself in The Ministry of Love. Have you seen any trace of Bibliofind, another rare book site acquired by Amazon? The word is that Amazon will acquire Alibris in the near future. Look for AbeBooks to be schlupped into the Amazon site or, more likely, to be quietly disappeared. Alibris, if acquired, will meet the same fate. Make no mistake about it: Amazon despises rare books as well as poetry and anything else that can be labeled as art or literature with capital letters. Reason being, these categories are not primarily concerned with monetary profit, but with intellectual capital. Of course this is also profitable but it is not a part of Amazon’s business model to exploit the use of information. Do not worry. Google will squeeze every dollar out of this philosopher’s stone. In the meantime, Amazon will actively destroy the communities that the rare book market engenders as a threat to pure profit. It is all about the exchange of cash. The shakedown rules not the shaking of hands.
This culture has seeped into AbeBooks. Its bookseller rating system is a case in point. This five-star rating merely tracks orders filled. Nothing about customer satisfaction, bookseller knowledge or service, nothing about accuracy of descriptions or quality of packaging, nothing about whether or not the dealer offers a good bang for the buck or is expensive. In effect, nothing about the true business of bookselling, which is the building of personal relationships and the offering of personalized service. Furthermore, the average Mom and Pop bookseller does not have the staff on hand to keep diligent track of their listings on the five or six independently operating book sites out there. As a result, previously sold books remain on these sites. The book sites offer no help on this end, either. For example, AbeBooks does not offer to delete sold books from its site once a sale is made. Clearly it could do so electronically after each sale, but it has no problem (and in fact requires) running customer credit cards for booksellers on top of requesting a 5 percent fee for this “service,” even though a bookseller can negotiate a lower rate (such as 2.5%) with its own bank.
What are the serious book collector and bookseller to do? Where do we go from here? I have heard some good things about Biblio, but again they have opened the door to megalisters, which may bring in listing fee revenue but it will turn off rare book customers. Perhaps we should go back to where I started. Over a decade ago, I used to search the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) listing religiously. Then I stopped and searched AbeBooks instead. Recently I went back to the ABAA database and lo and behold all my old friends were there: Between the Covers, Jeff Maser, Derringer Books, Skyline Books, Ken Lopez, Second Story Books, Royal Books, Brian Cassidy, Lorne Bair. These are the guys I buy from and, more importantly, these are the guys I trust and share information with. With ABAA members, I know they know their shit: the books will be as described and according to certain principles, the books will be shipped properly, they will have the titles I want and need, and they will have information about those titles. And believe it or not they will be intelligently priced. Do I sincerely believe this? I am not so sure, but I will tell you this: by and large when I see a completely ridiculous price on AbeBooks, i.e., a price I personally know is ungrounded in, and unfounded by, past sales and values, the book is not listed by an ABAA member. Let me be clear here, there are ridiculous prices by ABAA members, but usually they are trying to establish a market or set a price, and I can respect that. There is reasoning and research behind those decisions. They are not pulling prices out of their ass: “This book is old so it must be expensive.”
It is unclear to me how up-to-date the ABAA book listings are. Does every listing to AbeBooks automatically go to the ABAA site? If so, the ABAA site is not a bad place to go. If you search “William Burroughs” through the ABAA listing, slightly over 800 listings appear. AbeBooks comes up with over 12000+. For the serious Burroughs collector, are there over 800 relevant listings on AbeBooks? And how many of those listings come from ABAA members? In my opinion, it would behoove ABAA members to seriously promote the ABAA website and their ABAA affiliation. Maybe booksellers already do this. I am a sure thing, an easy mark. Booksellers do not have to market to me. But I hope they make clear to new collectors just how important the ABAA label behind a bookseller’s name is and just what that acronym means. The ABAA label is worth its weight in gold and is the gold standard. Take my word for it; it can be a costly lesson to learn. I know.
I’ll tell you I am at a crossroads. Just weeks ago I bought a book off of AbeBooks from a non-ABAA member and I was very happy with it. The book was packaged well and shipped on time; the condition was great. But such transactions are getting few and far between. Again, I am looking for really tough-to-find books. But even so it seems to me that beginning booksellers would be better served by shopping away from AbeBooks. Nothing is more daunting and confusing then trying to buy the Grove Press first edition of Naked Lunch off of AbeBooks. Search “Naked Lunch” and “first edition” on AbeBooks and you come up with over 200 hits — and let me tell you it is scary out there. The listings are full of all types of pretenders, posers and ne’er-do-wells. If you are a novice to the game, best bet is you are going to get played. So head on over to the ABAA website and try your luck: 37 hits plus the company is nicer and more refined. Or better yet call a bookseller listed on the ABAA page. More expensive to be sure, but you get what you pay for. At least with an ABAA dealer, you are, generally, going to get the best.
It seems that booksellers are slowly getting off the AbeBooks grid. Enough is enough. For as long as I can remember Beatbooks out of London sold off of its own website and from print catalogs. Between the Covers seems to be slowly putting more and more books exclusively on its own website. Division Leap, which just moved its brick-and-mortar location from Harlem to Portland, Oregon, is not re-upping with AbeBooks. They are now selling on their own site and from print catalogs. I just got set up with alerts from them for all their new posts on key items like mimeos. My first alert came in a week ago and everything looked interesting to me and in my area of interest. Adam and Kate at Division Leap are two of the young guns in the rare book industry. They are setting up a gallery, publishing their own work and that of others, printing a magazine, and beefing up their print catalogs. Sounds like the days of old. Think Eighth Street Bookshop, Peace Eye, and Am Here. Maybe the old guard should take note of the traditions they have left behind because, increasingly, AbeBooks is old news and bad information.
Here is an identically titled post from 2006 on Abebooks from a booksellers POV. This has been a longstanding problem that has only gotten worse since Amazon got involved.
http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/abebooks-sucks
I took great pleasure last year, closing and shutting down an account I had with Amazon. I’ll never again do any business with that company as it thoroughly sucks.
It took some convincing of the account staff that I really really really meant it when I told them to close the account.
You’d think I was asking them to help me defect to a foreign country based on the initial and following responses I received.
While it never quite burst into flame, the exchanges did become heated and late in the process, I was considering issuing the 4chan /b/ command for them to DIAF.
After reading Jed’s article, I wish the whole company would DIAF.
I agree, Abe is horrible, but the ABAA? Good grief man! Did the ABAA pay you for that paean? Or is it that you mainly search for modern books? The ABAA, as observed by me during my 30 years in the antiquarian book biz is so full of lies, misconstrued entries, corrupt purchasing practices, and misanthropic egotists that I can even bring myself to attend their fairs.
thanks for a great read. although I have a bunch of signed books, i’m no collector, not in the sense that you are, jed (uhm, who is?), but it’s still really useful to me to get serious and reliable info about bookdealers who are worth consulting.
So you got a second copy of Jabberwock, Jed? the first signed one you got from Alex Neish not enough for that book junkie fix? :)
SOrry. Forgot to say: excellent article. I had an experience with Abebooks where they erroneously listed what they were selling and sent me completely the wrong thing, thus ruining a surprise birthday gift for my wife. They were, to their credit, quite conciliatory about it, saying I could keep the wrong merchandise they sent me, but it was stained-paper garbage and I didn’t even want it. But I confess to having had good experiences with the site too. Guess it’s just your luck, or lack thereof, sometimes.
Graham,
No getting that copy of signed copy of Jabberwock was what I was talking about. Your interview and research, the emails back and forth, the negotiations, etc were all part of what made it great. The fact that it all happened without Abebooks, book dealers and bookstores and involved contacting the editor directly was all the better.
It was a fun, rare find. I ended up sending Neish copies of his letters to Ginsberg about Jabberwock to bring back some memories for him. He was a gracious and genial guy. I have a copy of that Jabberwock too. I love it. The text of And Start West is so different to the finished book text.
Todd,
Just saw your comment. My knowledge of ABAA dealers is strictly Modern Firsts, and really post-WWII. My collecting focus is really narrow and very specialized so I deal with a very small subset of all bookdealers, probably no more than 5-10 dealers in total. Less on a regular basis. I would be interested to hear more about your thoughts. I have heard other criticisms of the ABAA since i posted the piece.
I’ve read your article & would like to thank you
for the information.I have quite a number of Rare,
Antique books in my collection & would like an
appraisal. Can you suggest a Rare Book Seller,
not, in any way, connected to Amazon??
Iris Gusel
This reminds me of how I used to go into Radio Shack back in the 60s and the people working there really knew about electronics. Sold you inexpensive parts to build a crystal radio and told you how to do it. Then they changed into just another retail store. “Opening this appliance will void the warranty.” I don’t know what they are like now.
Hey, I just found this article reposted on Reddit and followed through! Full disclosure – I am a Biblio employee.
We do indeed have some megalisters, which is the only way we can stay alive while keeping low commissions for our sellers in the face of Amazon/ABE and Alibris’ clout in the market. We’re the largest independent book marketplace out there right now, and we have no intentions of selling out.
To address your original theme – we have removed Print On Demand books from standard book searches, unless the user chooses to see those options. Come check out Biblio, and let us know what you think.
Oh those horrible PODs and e-books. So irritating. You can filter out the PODs, but not the e-books. I doubt that will ever change. The other thing that bugs me is keyword abuse. If I’m looking for a “signed” copy, results come up that aren’t signed, but the word “signed” is in the listing. I’ve written to Abe about that and they asked me to give them the listing ID. Good grief. All they have to do is search “signed” to find them. There are numerous dealers using this little trick. They’re either adding their store info the the listing, or they’re writing “not signed” to the listing. If the word is there, it comes up in the search results.
It’s all well and good to go directly to the seller websites, but if you’re looking to compare price, shipping fees, condition etc., etc., Abe fits the bill for me. Just have to accept the nuances.
Its ok for ABAA members to list books high as they know what their doing; but others are just cheats? High prices are high prices – regardless!
I have noticed the decline of abebooks for quite sometime. I started selling specialized books through abe since 1998. As a typical bibliophile, I buy at least 100 books for each book I sell. I totally disagree with the abebooks ratings of their sellers. I even suggested to leave the ratings to buyers. I enjoyed a 5 star rating until a few days ago when I noticed it went down to 3. Puzzled, I logged into my account and checked “My emails”, sure enough, from 22 September to 6 October, there were 29 emails in their storage file, and I received just one email through the normal channel. It happened in the past too. Orders from buyers never reached me, and as a result abebooks cut my ratings. I have sent several emails to the effect to sellertech@abebooks.com, but received no response. My internet provider assured me there is nothing wrong at my end. This is just to say that the service provide by abebooks has hit rock bottom. They no longer care about their sellers, and as Anthony Marshall recently did, it is time to say adios to abebooks.
Yup, sucks and getting worse, fast.
OMFG. So glad I found this. I thought I was losing my mind, because I used to love ABE. I actually didn’t make the connection in my mind with Amazon until today. I avoid Amazon, and have used it only about four times, but was on there today, and then realized (a) they have three credit cards for me, and (2) I could not figure out how to log out of my account! Seriously. Then I searched in the search bar, and someone has (hilariously) created an audio book product with the title of “How to Logout . . . ” That is the only thing that shows up.
So now here we are on September 3, 2017, and all of the bad things predicted by the author have — basically — come to pass. “Look for AbeBooks to be schlupped into the Amazon site or, more likely, to be quietly disappeared.” Today is the first day of the quiet disappearance, and we we’re all just going to have to move on to other booksellers.
Who could disagree with the above? We have too little options to sell our books at a fair price these days. I need to pay these schmucks 25 a month when I already give the other beanbags 40 a month? How can these numbers be justified when one is a senior citizen simply trying to get some wonderful books into the hands that will appreciate them? Pardon the Yiddish, but sometimes there are no words in the English language to fill the opening.
It might be a good idea to search for English books in German web pages. you will be surprised what you can find there in rare books.
They, Abebooks, scarcely bothers to even pretend any longer, their site now incorporates virtually every disagreeable feature of Amazon. They ceased to be “associated with” and became came “wholly owed by” Amazon several years back.
I now use Abebooks strictly as a search resource and contact the sellers (once I’ve ferreted out and discarded the “warehouses”) directly.
Somewhere between eighty and ninety percent of my “wants” are to be had only in the UK or its former or current members of the Commonwealth and, once I’ve done a bit of checking with fellow collectors on their, that is, the booksellers reliability, I make the purchase directly.
Not only is it a pleasure to deal with sellers who actually know something about my area of interest AND genuinely love books, the sellers almost always will reduce the price of the volume (I never ask) to reflect the percentage they don’t have to fork over to the gangsters.
Spot on piece. Im a collectibles brick and mortar owner that over the years has been slowly building a small book stock, as i have the idea of leaving my current store (as in selling it) and opening a small rare book studio.
Been using ABE for years, of course, and yeah, the feel of “mall” is getting worse. Will check Biblio. But as technology keeps improving, i think that several layers will allow us to be in smaller circles and be able to promote our world directly to the interested consumer.
Greetings from Spain.
I use Addall books for my searches. They do the leg work and I can see who’s offering what. I’d also like book sellers to describe the book I am actually buying, rather than the twaddle about how good they are. Photos are really helpful as stock images mean nothing. Last night I got an ABE stock image for a book and it presented of a pair of shoes!
I WILL NEVER AGAIN DEAL WITH ABE BOOKS NOW AMAZON BOOK DISTRIBUTER
TALK A LOT OF RUBBISH WHEN YOU TRY TO GET THE BOOK YOU ORDERED.
WAKE UP BOOK LOVERS THIS IS A MONEY MAKING MULTINATIONAL WITH GROSS DISREGARD FOR COSTOMERS.
Perhaps someone can make a constructive suggestion.
Back in 1962, while living in Paris, I purchased a copy of the Robert Delpire edition of Robert Frank’s photographs, “Les Americains”at the American Library opposite the Odeon Theater on Place de l’Odeon.
I’ve taken care of this book, the cover covered with plastic, since then.
Now I would like to sell the book.
Would someone please recommend the most reliable avenues to do so?
The only mark on this book is inside the front cover, where I wrote the thin line: “George Haling – May 6, 1962 – 4, rue Laplace, Paris 5eme.”
I would really be extremely grateful for responsible advice on this matter. George Haling
Could someone please suggest a reliable avenue for selling my copy of the Robert Delpire edition of Les Americains by Robert Frank?
Edited and printed in France in 1958.
I bought this book at the AIS Library opposite Le Theatre Odeon in 1962.
It has been protected, the cover under plastic, since them.
Any advice or help would really be appreciated. It is copywrited 1958 by Robert Delpire, a Paris. Serie Histoire No.3 Encyclopedie Essentielle.
I sent you an email with some suggestions. Hope it works out.
Today I was surprised to see that my 5 star rating with abebooks got knocked down to 4, simply because No sales came through for the past 2 months. But abe promptly took out my monthly listing fees on the 1st of every month, and then punishing the book seller by a reduced rating system. As long as they are doing it this way, they should reimburse all the monthly fees to the seller for the months they did not receive any sales order from Abebooks. You can’t have the cake and eat it too. As I stated in an early comment, the ratings should leave to the customers, not to the clerical staff works for abebooks. Abebooks truly sucks!
I myself recently bought a rare used book from a seller on their site, a book published in India concerning the ancient site of Khajuraho. It’s now been two days since the book was to be delivered, and the seller is refusing to refund me for my purchase. To make matters worse, they gave a tracking number that hasn’t been updated since I made the order. I contacted Abe customer service, to force the seller to refund me for what was obviously a scam, but Abe refuses to step in, for the stupid reason that the seller gave a tracking number. How does having a tracking number excuse the seller from actually delivering the book I payed for? This is blatant theft, and I will definitely not be buying from Abe again.
AGREE WITH ALL OF YOU !!!But this a new one ARTIC SOLITAIRE BY PaulSouders was my Xmas gift for all on my list.The first arctic explorer that had me laughing. Whan one person on my list is a KINDLE Reader . I found out they DID NOT have his Pictures on Kindle !!! A mountaineers book at that!! This week i purchased a 1955 edition of a book from ABE they sent a later edition-Revised again no pictures Imiss most the ABE great people you were able to talk to before AMa—and the hunt the thrill of the find!!!!!
I just found this blog after getting some frustrating news from Amazon that I am sure other sellers are now groaning over. The title of the messages that I have been getting for the last few days is “Listings deactivated for potential pricing error”. In an attempt to “clean up unrealistic listings” their software is deleting titles that are priced much higher than the others. The problem is, at least with the listings that were taken off my database, is that the software does not take into consideration the unique variables associated with certain listings. For example, they deleted my listing for “Amazing Fantastic Incredible” by Stan Lee which is priced considerably higher than the next highest offering. However mine is signed by Lee and is fine/fine. I guess I will have to sell it elsewhere. On another rant I also want to express my 100% agreement with you regarding all the vague warehouse listings at the bottom–“may have highlighting, etc”. And now leather bound reprints from India! abebooks lets them list as many as they want under 1 title making you scroll down even further to find an actual book. I once saw 13 identical listings under one title! Abebooks has sucked since the greed factory Amazon took over. I’m glad that I own an actual store front because on-line bookselling is not what it used to be. I do not have any hope that it will change because like everything else it is the bottom line that counts. Who cares about integrity anymore?
Stay away from AbeBooks. I’ve purchased books for 25+ years online and they are the worst. Why? Their return policy means nothing:
I was told that “Like New” books are technically a type of used book (because of the modifier “like”), and used books sometimes get damaged, so I should have expected to receive a book with a torn spine. WTF?
If they are unashamed to rip me off for a few dollars of return shipping, I’d hate to imagine what they are willing to do to others.
I’ve also been a bookseller on Alibris since 2007 and I am not thinking about moving my operation to AbeBooks anymore, since the monthly fee is MUCH TOO HIGH here so I’m having not only reservations but also LEGAL OBJECTIONS.
Due to Covid-19 in order to protect our clients and guarantee quality of service etc. we currently only sell online, we have some 6000 antiquarian books and among them about hundred VERY VALUABLE books, that are really worth listing here.
You need to pay for at least 500 books to have ANY BOOK listed here. If you have 400 or less books to sell we may suggest to join our off-site community, where we propose to launch a very profitable ACCOUNT SHARING program, that will seriously cut ABE’s ILLEGAL PROFITS. Join us at 2dehands.be/u/brochbooks/42798664 for Europeans only, no US citizens allowed, and named after Hermann Broch, the famous German author, contact the seller and LEGAL SHOPOWNER to join.
I’ll start a new topic with this, I wonder how long it will take ABE’s hypochrites to delete it and BAN my account.
Note that we spent much VALUABLE time and work on cataloging, shooting, indexing and posting our books, so destroying people’s work is an act of ILLEGAL VANDALISM.
plse tell me how much amazon paid for abebooks? i am frustrated now with asking search engines to provide this information!
I’d appreciate some insight regarding the book re-sellers on Amazon since when you dig into them, up pops “Abebooks”. I have a newly published novel which is listed on Amazon. It has been listed for merely a week and I’ve not sold any as yet. However, there is already a re-seller advertising used copies at a discounted price. Moreover, the publishing date listed by the re-seller is a month earlier than the actual publishing date of my book. I find it weird and it makes me uncomfortable. Any idea what’s going on? I can’t get any real information —I’ve tried. Who’s making what on this transaction?
AbeBooks has rapidly descended into sheer incompetence. Have a problem with an order and trying to reach the firm? Go ahead, see for yourself. The prompts shuffle you from one section to another without providing access to the firm. Who’s running the store? Apparently no one capable.