Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/12/amor-librorum-nos-unit.html
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"The matter was apparently resolved when Sally Burdon, an Australian bookseller who is president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, spoke with Arkady Vitrouk, chief executive of AbeBooks.
This all sounds like a subplot in a Neal Stephenson book. Cool.
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nebulous transaction-processing difficulties…
Without knowing what this means, the story is meaningless. But it’s an outrage anyway!
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I have been to a basement bookstore in Prague, and it was a truly amazing place. If anything, book buyers should probably GO to all these countries in person because you are missing out of some great bookstore experiences.
In other news, I did not realize abe was now amazon (since 2008 no less!!!), so thanks for the post!
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Awww, solidarity gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling 
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We should all have an International League of whatever it is we do.
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Noobie corporate fascist move! Busted!
i hate being all jaded about where i buy books, but i’d like a solid answer on, “Whom is the owner of biblio.com ?”
They are my current go-to-get-the-book-that-I-want-dotcom
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Good question; I’ve visited before, but have never bought from them before. ABEbooks became my ‘go-to’ years ago, and I generally found what I wanted there. Earlier on, I was checking Alibris as well, but I haven’t ordered there since 2007.
I checked the biblio website, and there’s a rather lengthy corporate history. Here’s an excerpt:
We started Biblio.com as a price comparison engine for new and used books in the autumn of 2000. Later, this price comparison engine became SearchBiblio.com, famous for several years as the fastest “metasearch” site for books. In the summer of 2003, we retired it to focus all of our attention on Biblio.com.
When Biblio.com launched as a marketplace in February, 2003, some in the industry dismissed us or laughed at us. We were “chasing windmills”. Over a dozen small marketplace sites already existed, and no one saw room for yet another marketplace.
Undeterred, we began to recruit booksellers to trust us with their inventory. We did this the old-fashioned way, forming relationships, opening dialogues, and - most importantly - listening to these professionals. We listened to our customers, we adapted to their needs, and shaped our learning experience around them. And, slowly, we gained the trust and respect of a small but loyal base of customers and booksellers.
Brendan Sherar
Founder & CEO (& Quixotist)Biblio.com
Asheville, NC
Also, their site has a staff page with a few key bios to further endear them to you, if you wish to read:
Hey, thank you. I had used abebooks until I found out it was owned by amazon.
I saw that page. It placated me into using them as I said … but I don’t really believe stuff company’s put on their About bits any longer.
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Yeah, it could be creative corporate fiction. I shortened the quote. It was epically too long!
I didn’t either, but there are also Thrift Books and Better World Books. I’ve had pretty good luck with them.
does your choice of bookseller depend on your taste in books?
My last couple of book purchases included a couple of French books from before 1910. (I think it was through www.antiqbook.com). If your idea of a used book is a second hand textbook from 2016, I’m not sure that sort of aggregator is best equipped to help you.
USE bookfinder.com it searches most used bookstore metasites. Click on options, then use classic display.
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