Store Policies

Terms: Major credit cards and PayPal accepted via this website. Other payment options are available by phone or mail. 30-day term offered to institutions, for all others payment is expected with the order. A 20% discount is offered to the trade (contact us by email for discounted ordering).

Returns: All books we sell hold a lifetime guarantee of authenticity. We check edition points and scrutinize signatures when cataloguing our books. If any claim we make about edition, signature, or a similar characteristic is ever shown to be mistaken we will refund 100% of your money including all shipping costs. We also guarantee the condition as described in our online and print catalogues. If you are at all dissatisfied with your online or catalogue purchase please contact us within one week of arrival for a full refund of the purchase price. Shipping will generally not be refunded on properly described books. Please remember when ordering that general wear and minor flaws may not be noted on books in less than Very Good condition. Sorry, we do not accept returns on any merchandise purchased in person at book fairs or other events.

Shipping: We carefully package and ship every book priced $20 and up in a well-padded box with a tracking number. Books priced below $20 will be carefully packaged and shipped using a bubble mailer or other packaging at our discretion with tracking. If you are ordering a book priced under $20 and would prefer us to ship it in a padded box let us know when ordering and we will gladly do so for $2.00 more per order. We guarantee the arrival of all shipments and ensure against their loss or damage, if your order arrives damaged or does not arrive contact us ASAP so that we can help! We ship through the United States Postal Service (USPS) exclusively and rely on their tracking information when resolving shipping mishaps. Most books ship Media Mail for $4 or Priority mail for $10 with larger and heavier books costing more to ship. International shipping rate quoted is only an estimate and may actually be more (or less). If we must charge more for shipping we will contact you for approval before processing your order.

Book Condition: We adhere to the standard grading scale used by most booksellers and collectors:

• Fine- A book without visible flaws.
• Near Fine- A book that may have one or two minor flaws or may just lack the "crisp" look and feel of a book in Fine condition. Any flaws will be noted in our description.
• Very Good- A book that has possibly been read carefully and now shows some light wear. May have a few minor flaws or one bigger flaw. Any flaws will be noted in our description. This is the lowest grade acceptable for most collectors.
• Good- A book that appears properly cared for and stored but is worn or shows its age and/or use. Most used books fall into this category and will have several minor flaws and/or perhaps two or three more serious flaws. Books in this grade will be complete (unless otherwise noted) and readable but will most likely not meet the standards of serious collectors. It is understood that books graded good or below will have wear and soiling and this fact may not be mentioned in our description, all major flaws and any damage will be described.
• Fair- A book in this grade will have damage or a massive amount of wear that make it undesirable to collectors and possibly inconvenient for others to read. It could be missing pages or even its covers. All flaws will be described but general wear will not be as a book in this grade will almost always be heavily worn.
• Poor- A book in poor condition is damaged (possibly beyond repair), missing pages, missing covers, and/or worn so badly that it is no longer readable. We try to note all flaws on books in poor condition but often end up simply describing what is NOT flawed on books this badly worn. Generally, we would only sell a book in poor condition if it is rare and still collectable in this condition or would be collectable with repairs.

When discussing condition it is important to mention ex-library books. We will always note library markings in a book and almost never grade them above good. This is not to say they are heavily worn in all cases, sometimes they have never been checked out and are in like new condition except for the library markings, please closely read the description for more details on ex-library book condition.

Many of our listings will have a (+) or (-) following the condition description. This simply means that the book's condition is slightly better than or worse than the average condition of the average book in that grade (e.g. a book graded Very Good Plus (VG+) would be in slightly better condition that a book graded Very Good (VG) but does not quite meet the criteria for a Near Fine (NF) grade).

Also, we put dust jacket protectors on most books priced $20 and higher that have dust jackets. Upon request, we will ensure dust jacket protectors are put on all books with jackets in your order. We charge a $3/book fee for this service on books priced below $20.

We try to keep the condition of our listings up-to-date but sometimes books jump off of shelves and we miss the damage done to our inventory until it is ordered online. In this rare case, we will contact you before shipping your order with an updated condition description and updated price. If this happens you are under no obligation to still buy the book.

Appraisals: We offer appraisal services on antiquarian and collectable books and paper only. We charge $75/hour plus travel billed in 30-minute increments and work at a focused but brisk pace. We do not bill per book because common titles require just a few minutes of research while rare (and valuable) titles can take much much longer to properly research. For large collections, we generally work on-site. For small collections (a box or two) we will need to arrange a time for delivery/pick-up. When finished, we will provide a spreadsheet listing your books and our opinion of your books' condition along with their value (either for resale or your insurance) in that condition. We can also provide condition descriptions of your books (like those found in dealer catalogs) if desired. Please keep in mind that we are ethically bound not buy or consign items that we have appraised.