industry in so conducting his business that his stock may not
become a mass of ill-assorted rubbish.

The small collection of books in the ordinary household (averaging
usually not over a few hundred volumes), contains, it is safe to say,
a large percentage of no commercial value. The rest may be valued
either for rarity, for the place which they may fill in some
collection, or for the intrinsic excellence of the edition. Customers
for the rarities are found amongst numerous collectors, and to a more
limited extent in the large public libraries. Many individual buyers
prefer the sterling editions printed on rag paper by the old masters
of the craft to books of modern production, and so create a market for
good old editions. Modern editions of standard authors are produced so
cheaply, however, that an old edition will bring but a small price
unless it has some distinguishing merit.

These points should be borne in mind by those who have books to sell.
They should remember, also, that the public is to-day no longer
interested in many subjects on which books were printed in the past.
It should also be known that the arts, the sciences, and the
professions, have made such advances that old books on these subjects
are of little more value than waste paper, excepting in the few
notable cases of books which are of historical importance to the
student as landmarks of progress. The omission of these works, of
obsolete fiction, and the books of the hour, reduce the bulk of the
ordinary collection to a small value.

It may then properly be asked where the valuable books come from, and
how are they obtained? It may safely be stated that most rarities
to-day are discovered in out-of-the-way places, in old collections or
libraries, attics, or from sources which have not been investigated by
the keen-eyed collectors and dealers. There are comparatively few
houses, at least in the most thickly settled parts of this country,
which have no books, and in a considerable number of these collections
there are at least some books which have a degree of rarity and a
special commercial value. The large private libraries are also
constantly being dispersed, and, excepting always the books which are
being absorbed by the permanent collections of public institutions,
form a constant supply, passing from the owner to dealer, from him to
a new owner, only to find their way eventually to the market again.

Books are not valuable merely because of