Ah yes, Remember the "Good ol' days"? Or "Barrow Boys" Revisited

Funnily enough it occurs to me that it wasn't only in the "Good ol' Days" but is a tradition kept alive in many of today's Independent Used and Antiquarian bookshops.

The tradition I'm thinking of is that of browsing through the shop, bringing a few (or many) books up to the counter and negotiating a price, lower than the total of the prices marked for the books. You could do that in most old bookshops in the past. And you still can in some. Not, of course, in the Blackwell's, Waterstones, Borders or Barnes and Nobles of the world, but in many of the small, independent shops.

So what's happened to that grand old tradition in the On-line book world?

Well, a few years ago, during my first anniversary sale, I offered customers the opportunity to make me a reasonable offer on any book priced at (as far as I can recall) £100 or more. One of the UK's pre-eminent independent booksellers called me a "barrow boy" for doing so. Although I believed at the time he was being derogatory in the description, I continued the sale for the alloted time.

For those of you who don't know what a "barrow boy" is, another bookseller described it thus (and in more positive terms than I assumed the other bookseller intended it) "...barrows are large hand trucks (approx 10 foot
long ) which would be set-up in street markets : Farringdon Road was famous for books in London -
in days when booksellers often had more knowledge than the present breed....

"Barrow boys generally have impeccable manners, especially in mixed company, as well as good
business sense : many fine bookdealers have traded in street markets."

And in the light of that definition, I am today starting an on-going policy of allowing price negotiation. It is as follows:

1. If you see a book you want, priced at £25 or more, make me a reasonable offer on it.

2. If you see several books you want, priced at a total of £25 or more for the lot, make me a resonable offer for the lot.

3. To take advantage of this new policy, please browse my website and then email me or phone me and make me your offer.

Let's show the world that even online, the old traditions still exist.