Matt Meyer book dealer
The 57th Michigan Antiquarian Book and Paper Show sponsored by the Mid-Michigan Antiquarian Book Dealers Association is once again hosting the Midwest’s largest book and paper show (Sunday, April 7, Lansing Center). The show which features more than a million old, rare and collectible items is organized by Ray Walsh, owner of Curious Book Shop, and is coming to Lansing Sunday April 7 at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing. The show, the largest of its type in the Midwest, brings together more than 75 dealers from across the U.S., but especially the Midwest.
According to the show’s founder and impresario Ray Walsh who also owns two East Lansing book stores there will be one million collectible books, paper items and post cards for sale. If you are looking for a book on flying planes or an autographed Hemingway novel you are likely to find it at the show. The show is open from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and admission is $4.50. Check out this week’s Lansing City Pulse for a complete list of dealers. Read more about the show at the Curious Book Shop blog.
Each show sees different dealers but loyal customers of Matt Meyer’s This Old Book (Booth #54) may have wondered why this long-time bookseller didn’t exhibit at the last Antiquarian Book Show in October.
He blames it on the weather. Meyer, who does about 12-14 shows a year, many of them outdoors, had set up at local antique mall in the Chicago area when word was passed that a big storm was going to hit. Meyer covered his book shelves with tarps and got set to wait the storm out.
“I was ready, but not for 60 mile an hour winds,” he said. Meyer said 90 percent of his stock was lost when the tarps took off like kites and the book shelves toppled exposing his books to the torrential rain.
“Most of the stock went into the dumpster,” he said. That was the downside, but Meyer said there was an upside since he admits much of his inventory was “old and stale.”
“I was able to clear out the old inventory and I’ve been hunting ever since,” he said.
Meyer, who began selling at the Michigan Antiquarian Book & Paper Show more than a decade ago with his mother, Dorothy Meyer, said “I learned from her.”
“It’s a hobby and a passion for me.” In addition to the large collection of children’s books, he will be bringing a general line of books to the sale in categories as varied as military, historical, sports, hunting and fishing and sports.
Meyer said he stays away from general fiction since he’s noticed in the last few years that buyers are attracted to more specific interests.
This Old Book is known for what Meyer calls “books in good condition and priced to sell.” He said he sells most books in the range of $8- 10 and wagers that “he sells more books, by volume, than any other bookseller there.”
Meyer said when he reads it’s mostly in the categories of Civil War and the American West, but once he’s done he sells them. He said he does have a small collec tion of books that have what he calls “great dust jacket art such as Zane Grey’s ‘The Young Pitcher’ and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ old Tarzan books.”
The Brookfield Illinois bookseller said even though he does some highly rated shows throughout the year he said the Lansing show is much better than all of them.
“It’s very well attended and the attendees have a passion for books.”
Meyer still enjoys “the thrill of the hunt” and says that the Chicago area is a good place to do it.
Also this year the Book Show is sharing the Lansing Center with an annual anime convention and sale which should make for an interesting highlight reel.
