-Contents-
1 Introduction

22-29 Research 
JOHNSON, Samuel

Conclusion
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

            What follows is a  report of my  efforts in finding in answer to the question:

             During our initial conversation on the telephone as you may recall, I quickly searched  ebay.com the internet auction web site for books by Sir Walter Scott.  Both of us were surprised at the low prices.  By  low price I mean any book with a value near the cost of shipping and handling.  ( My general experience with the internet bookseller  amazon.com is that they make  their  money  not on the books, but rather on their high shipping and handling fees.)

             In doing this research my first stop was to Arron Whol, who has a great experience in buying and selling large lots.     Although his life experience is as  a watch repairman, and as an owner of his own watch and clock shop in Montreal,  he now trades almost exclusively on the internet.   His internet business, has almost no overhead,  but the watches he sells in turn have a low margin.   His yearly volume of over $200,000  in small sales ($50 to $5,000) returns about $50,000.   Arron Whol’s advice to me on this project was:  “Get Jack Brown  to name a price for the collection of books, will go from there.  If there is no price put on the collection, this is just a research job”.  I trust him and I trust his opinion.  Unfortunately  for me,  what  Arron said is right.  This does in fact look like a research  job.

            But my conclusion (after this past week of  research), is that the value of the Jack Brown collection is far greater in value than the value given to you by either your grandson or the librarians that you have talked to.

            What follows is a brief example of some of my research that lead to this conclusion.