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WISHING
YOU ALL A HEALTHY AND SAFE 2010!
SERVING COLLECTORS for over a
decade; online since 29th JULY, 1997.
Updated 7th January, 2010.
2009Collecting Books and Magazines was
originally established as part of the Penrith City
Library (NSW, Australia) information site back in 1997.
At that time Barbara collected a number of the better
known "girls own" authors, Elsie J. OXENHAM including the
ABBEY series, Dorita Fairlie
BRUCE including the Dimsie series, Mary Grant BRUCE, Ethel and Lilian
Turner, etc. I collected W E Johns including the Biggles series and Charles
Hamilton including the Billy Bunter series and story papers. That was in the early days of
public internet access and we rapidly came in contact
with other collectors and clubs, and filled in gaps in our own
collections.
2009CB&M
took over our lives in the late 1990s but several years
into the new century the library reorganised their site
and decided our content was "surplus to
requirements". Barbara began seriously growing
fuchsias and mostly lost interest in books. The Barbara
& Friends booklist which used to go out quarterly
eventually dropped to a yearly event. Barbara still picks
up books but as we all know, there is less of interest to
be found, at least in Australia. Whereas in the early
days we used to travel to every book fair in NSW, we now rarely visit more
than a couple a year.
2009There has probably
never been a better time to collect books, as the net has
created a level playing field. Prices for post WW2
collectable authors and series have fallen to their
lowest level in a decade. You'll still pay a high price
for prewar Johns and Oxenham first editions in nice
order, but just about everything else has fallen, due in
part to the world economic downturn. Many of the scarcer
authors are being reprinted so you don't need to look too
far to fill in your collection gaps; eBay will generally
supply most needs.
2009I'd like to thank
Steve Holland, Jim Mackenzie, Greg Ray and the few other
folk who have contributed to CB&M over the years.
Generally I've been disappointed by the lack of support
from collectors, dealers, public institutions and
publishers. All expect publicity, but none have provided
any incentive to keep CB&M online. In fact early in
CB&M's life, we made the error of signing a
exclusivity contract with an online search site which
cost us dearly.
2009Finally, CB&M
will remain online while I can afford to pay the costs of
maintaining same.
2009200920092009200920092009200920092009200920092009200920092009200Your Web Editor,
20092009200920092009200920092009200920092009200920092009200920092009April, 2009
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