Avalon.ph Blog

Congratulations to cebukitty! She won a Signed hardbound copy of Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour!

Thank you again to Kitchencow.com for hosting the contest.

I seldom source out classic works of literature because they are easily available in local bookstores.  However, I just have to get this set- The Midpoint Press Limited Edition series.  Soon for sale.  See for yourself why.

Here are images of the books in stock right now:

The Illustrated Library: Shakespeare
The Works of Oscar Wilde
The Original Illustrated Strand Sherlock Holmes

Hard-to-find hardcover, all in limited edition. Over 1100 pages, special antique-cream paper. Size 12.0″x9.5″. Bound in full cloth, foil-blocked cover and front board. Gilt edged pages.  Just beautiful.

Read more…

Hi there,

For those who really can’t wait! Avalon.ph Auctions presents- a very
special auction for a SIGNED copy of Neil Gaiman’s upcoming book- The
Graveyard Book. This is an ARC. The book is scheduled for release on
September 30, 2008.

Auction starts at PhP10.00 – no reserve.

Start Date: at 12:30pm, 13 August 2008
End Date: at 12:30pm, 21 August 2008

Read this book ahead of everybody else. Half of the final bid price will be
for a good cause (scholarship program). Check it here: www.avalon.ph.
Probably the only copy that’s actually available for sale in the
Philippines! Happy Bidding!

Jasper
www.avalon.ph

Thanks to the Guardian Newspaper UK for the link.

“Matthew Pearl is the author of The Dante Club, a literary thriller about a group of 19th-century Harvard scholars secretly working on a translation of The Divine Comedy who are forced out of hiding by a series of gruesome murders modelled on Dante’s Inferno.”

Read the complete article with commentary.

Oak Knoll Press and the British Library have given permission to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers to make available for non-commercial use their latest edition of the classic book ABC FOR BOOK COLLECTORS by John Carter as revised by Nicolas Barker.

Download it here.

Thanks to Karin Bergsagel of BookThink.

You might notice the term “remainder mark” appearing in my item description every now and then. So, what is exactly a remainder mark and why do some books have it?

“After a book has been published and in the retail book stores for a while, unsold copies are returned to the publisher in order to make room for new books. These ‘remainders’ are then sold to wholesalers at deep discounts, where they enter the secondary market of discount book stores. Or they are bought by Internet entrepreneurs like myself who, because our stores are virtual and we have little to no overhead, can make them available to you at a small fraction of the original retail price. The publishers often mark these books with a ‘remainder mark’. This mark prevents someone from buying the book at a discount, and then returning it for a full price refund at a retail store. These marks are usually unobtrusive, and wouldn’t be noticed unless you knew to look for them. They in no way diminish the readability or display value of the book. These marks may cause a book to be valued less by collectors.“

Here are examples of remainder marks:

Technically, these books were never read. Unless of course, it was previously read by someone who bought a remaindered book. Due to transit, these books might be in a condition slightly lower than brand new. In the collector’s market, books with remainder marks are valued less than those without.