Better prices on Mr. Bear

[Michael Eisenstadt]

http://www.abebooks.com is probably the best place to 
access all the used book store inventories in the
English speaking world. http://half.com also has 
good coverage of used book store inventories in the US

I once ran a mail-order bookfinding service called
Long-Lost Books, a great name which my mother 
came up with for me. In those days, there was a weekly
magazine from Newark NJ called Antiquarian Bookman
which had ads listing titles various book stores
were seeking. there used to be some grizzled old
book men who used to read the current Antiquarian
Bookman at the NYPublic Library, the one with the
2 lions on Fifth AVe. this way they got out of
having to pay for a subscription. then they would
quote sought for titles by sending 3 cent postcards
to the searching bookstore offering the title at a 
price somewhere above the price for that title which
they knew was available at one or another of the 
fifty or so used book stores on Fourth Ave downtown 
which these grizzlies frequented. this was a small 
living but there were a few inhabiting this bizarre 
nook of the book world. the editor of Antiquarian 
Bookman was an old codger who useta brag that his 
periodical was the last one in America which 
accepted advertising copy written by hand. this was 
in the 50s

http://www.abebooks.com is named after Antiquarian
Bookman the periodical

there is now only 1 used book store from the Fourth
Ave book row of yesteryear surviving. this is the Strand
Bookstore which is just as dusty-funky as it ever was