Yeah, I’ve never heard of any other.
I used to sell hundreds of outdoor culture books every year. First editions, new copies. All the good stuff in all the basic topic areas of the outdoor world. A lot of rare stuff.
For awhile I was also the main dealer in George Herter books — sold hundreds of his works.
Bikes, boats, skis, skills, camping, nature, hook’n’bullet, conservation, heritage, mountaineering, children’s… I had a line-up of about 300 titles.
Mostly books but also DVD’s and VHS’s.
It was fun. I also felt that it performed a service of keeping the best books in dozens of fields readily available. I wouldn’t just stock the pricey firsts. I’d keep cheap paperbacks on hand, too.
Then the sales fell down through the floor. I have no idea what happened. Basically all action stopped. Went to a trickle. After a few months of that I stopped re-ordering items as they sold and just sold out my inventory except for what I wanted to keep for my own. I cut deep there, too, accidentally — selling my last copy of something cool then not finding a replacement.
I figure if you want to learn the value of something you should get to know its heritage, history, background. Its lore. By seeing where something has been you can tell where it might go or what to beware of.
I’ve always thought that the dominance of how-to books in the outdoor culture arena was bad. Participants could have no sense of their roots.
For instance, biking is about more than the bike in front of you. If you only knew what you saw or what a how-to told you, you would only be aware of a narrow slice of reality.
Maybe I was only selling to Baby Boomers and Gen Xers — the last groups to read much. Once they got their copies the scene was done. Maybe.
Oh well, that service is no longer needed. I hope that the public is still readily able to find out about these things that nobody points them to any longer. Maybe word of mouth works fine.
