On October 30, 2025 Raven & Gryphon Fine Books celebrated its 8th anniversary. Our on-line listings on Abe state “Abebooks seller since October 30, 2017”. We sold our first book on April 18, 2018 “Michelangelo” off to NYC for US$50.
Our revenue and inventory have grown steadily over the first seven years and for our year ended August 31, 2024 we enjoyed our highest revenue to date. We are happy to say that our revenue for the year ended August 31, 2015 was more than double last year’s figure. It was quite a year.
In January 2025 we had our largest single book sale - The Passionate Neatherd, by Jack Lindsay, Fanfrolico Press, Sydney, Australis, 1926 for C$5,000. There are less than five known copies of this book and the value is driven by the illustrations of infamous Australian Artist Norman Lindsay’s illustrations. The book was bought by a man in Australia who had inherited
from his father two of the original paintings used for this book’s illustrations. He had been trying to find a copy of the book for a long time. The book went to a most appropriate home.
In August 2025 we eclipsed the record when we sold The Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri, London, 1802 for US$8,000. This was the first translation of the literary masterpiece into English and again only single digit copies are known to exist. This was bought by a gentleman in Alabama as a gift for his wife. I’m sure this will be a good home, as well. This book was one of the first books we posted on Abebooks over seven years ago and it was our highest priced volume. What I have found over the years is that books don’t get stale once posted but rather are just waiting for the right interested party. It will be tough to increase our revenue again this year, but we will try.
To this end, we recently uploaded our new price leader, The Breeches Bible, London, 1606 for
US$9,000. We bought the book in the spring, sent it off to have the cover reattached and other issues taken care of, as well. The story of this book was the subject of two previous musings: The Breeches Bible – Parts One and Two.
When we started the business, I used to buy interesting books. A couple of years later, I
challenged myself with the question “Why isn’t this a $20 book?” and this helped reduce the flow onto the bookshelves. Recently, the question became “Why isn’t this book a $50 book?”. This makes sense since I don’t post books onto Abebooks that are less that $50.
And speaking of Abebooks: they advised sellers a couple of months ago, that they will be
making a mandatory change on the uploading process, effective early 2026, but available now. I continued with the old method until I focused on a key improvement. Heretofore, a dealer was limited to posting 5 photos per book. This was being raised to 20. A lot of dealers don’t even post a photo; they go with the “Stock Image”. A lot of dealers post 1 photo, replacing the “Stock Photo” with their own. I tend to do 5 photos per book, and I tend to write a much more detailed description than most dealers. We are not a high-volume shop, we have out minimum of $50 and it is worth a bit more effort. Sometimes, I lament that I am restricted to 5 photos. A speciality is art books, 500 plus and counting. 5 photos would have been extremely limiting for The Breeches Bible. So, I did a test run on an art book and posted 8 photos. Doing this, I discovered a significant improvement in the new system. Under the old system, I had to upload the book and then add the photos one at a time to the listing. Now, not only can I add the photos when I post the book, but I click on the first and last photos and they all post at once! Beautiful. I posted 17 photos with the Breeches Bible. Thank you Abebooks.
After I send a book off to buyers, I send an e-mail to them saying how I shipped the book, when they can expect it, thank them for the order and usually include a comment about the book. It often generates a little exchange – it personalizes the sale. I take pride in packaging up a book for shipment. It takes me half an hour, but they are completely damage proof.
Many customers’ positive comments are included in the Testimonial section of our website. A couple of weeks ago, we got an order, I packaged up the book, but then the customer cancelled the order when he realized he could not get it by a certain date. Oh well. For the first time, I unwrapped one of my books – it wasn’t easy, mumbling under my breath, and I had a box knife, but when I got through the packaging tape, the outside kraft paper wrapping and the thick cardboard wrapping, the bubble wrap and white kraft paper were easy.
The success Glenda and I are having with our book business is very much dependent on the
fine work contributed by Renée Gruszecki, who looks after our website and postings there and in Facebook, and to Gary Humphries who is my partner in crime at the fairs and who is
becoming quite the charming seller of books. And to you, the readers of my musings and to our customers.
This past year was the first without our beautiful book shepherd, Freyja. But her spirit lingers
and we have a wonderful painting of her, at the entrance to the shop, done by my great friend, Stuart Hampton.
I look forward to writing the 9th anniversary musing update.