Rating: 
Summary: Lots of good tips, made me a collector
Review: After reading this I started hunting for finds on ebay and the local bookstore, oh, and my mom's garage too where I found a first edition "To Kill a Mockingbird" which unfortunately turned out to be a book club editon. But it is certainly fun hunting once armed with solid information. This book is a real good place to start for someone thinking about becoming a collector, a part time dealer, or someone that is interested in obtaining a better collection through trading. I'd also recommend this book for someone that has had a family collection of books passed down, know what you have before getting rid of it at a yard sale.
One more person that would benefit from this book is the reader that wants to branch out, never read sci fi or mystery? Well Ellis has an extensive list of modern authors that he recommends buying for collecting but guess what, they are collectable because they are well written, so if you want to try out something new this list is a great place to look.
Rating:
Summary: A sound introduction to the used book world
Review: Bookfinds is about as good a guide as one can get to the used book trade. I am a book dealer (three years on my own) and worked in a large independent store during which time I priced over a million books over the course of five years. Yes, my hand guiding a pencil to physically write a price on over a million different books. This book is geared at the book lover who wants to make their collecting self sustaining or even profitable. I did not think his list of collectible books was worthwhile, but here are the topics in which the advice is most useful:
1) Where to find books
2) How to sell books (but his margins are optimistic)
3) His list of book references
4) Types of books to look for (what type of sports book, what type of theology, etc...)
But the most effective thing Ellis communicates is the mind frame of a book dealer. This is how we think, how we calculate and how we make money. I have a regular route, just like he suggests in the book. I have explored and made money off of every venue he lists. I have made small repairs to improve a book's salability. I have both been helped and hurt by the Internet book market. I take certain types of stock to certain stores in a certain order. Instead of trying to describe what I do, I often recommend this book with, "This is basically right".
This is not a how-to manual in the sense that it will say "Go to website x and put y books at z price online and make big bucks!" Folks, the market changes fast and a book that gives the broad strokes correctly will be of much more use in a year than one that is precise today. I highly recommend Bookfinds for the collector looking for tools to make back some of their investment. But dealers and scouts might find some useful tidbits as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of Date
Review: I bought this book as I was starting into book collecting. But with about 4 months of intensive collecting and study under my belt, I found it not to have too much new or really useful information. Is is, however, very well written and engaging enough that I read the entire book. If you are starting at a slower pace than I did or if you are just thinking about becoming a book collector this is a fine place to start. It has chapter-length overviews of all the important realms and activities of book-collecting. The only weak-spot, but an important one, is in the area of internet books. In being about 2-3 years behind, it is not an adequate introduction to the range of online resources available to the new collector.Most useful was a list of "1001 more-or-less collectible books" listed by author at the back. (Lacking years of experience, such lists are critical for my reference). This is a useful thing to have around at book sales and the like (along with a good guide to first editions) although not especially wieldy as provided. I found that I finally photocopied the entire section in half-size and ended up with a more useful 5-6 page foldup that I could carry in my pocket. Note that this last section is NOT a price-guide and is not especially discriminatory... for many authors their rarest first book is listed along with much less collectible later works (and since the listings are alphabetical by title, rather than chronological by publication date, you will not be able to use it for parsing-out "first books". Overall a useful starting resource but one that you will rarely use once your collecting becomes a more serious affair.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive guide to book collecting
Review: I have found Ian Ellis' book quite readable and interesting. I have been selling books online for half a year or so and was looking to expand my knowledge base. I would say that Stephen Windwalker's Selling Used Books Online was more helpful for my own purposes of selling used, but not necessarily collectible ones, online. Nevertheless, I found it to be an education on how the book trade operates outside of and before the Internet. It was especially helpful to learn about modern first editions and what makes books collectible and valuable. Stylistically I found Ellis very easy to read, although he has an annoying habit of dropping the name of authors and titles that may mean more to those already initiated in the world of book collecting. I found it to be distracting. More helpful is the list of 1,001 books worth collecting in the last chapter of the book. I found the chapter addressing the advent of the Internet for bookselling to be somewhat out of date - understandable since it was revised in 2001, but I learned very little from this chapter. Overall it was a helpful book that expanded my knowledge base about the book trade, where my experience is mostly limited to online book sales.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive guide to book collecting
Review: I have found Ian Ellis' book quite readable and interesting. I have been selling books online for half a year or so and was looking to expand my knowledge base. I would say that Stephen Windwalker's Selling Used Books Online was more helpful for my own purposes of selling used, but not necessarily collectible ones, online. Nevertheless, I found it to be an education on how the book trade operates outside of and before the Internet. It was especially helpful to learn about modern first editions and what makes books collectible and valuable. Stylistically I found Ellis very easy to read, although he has an annoying habit of dropping the name of authors and titles that may mean more to those already initiated in the world of book collecting. I found it to be distracting. More helpful is the list of 1,001 books worth collecting in the last chapter of the book. I found the chapter addressing the advent of the Internet for bookselling to be somewhat out of date - understandable since it was revised in 2001, but I learned very little from this chapter. Overall it was a helpful book that expanded my knowledge base about the book trade, where my experience is mostly limited to online book sales.
Rating: 
Summary: OK for the beginner - but even then not that great
Review: I was given this book for free by the owner of a bookstore when I told him that that I was starting a bookstore.
I learned maybe, oh, 5 or 6 things that were slightly important.
I especially learned how radically the bookmarket has changed in such a short period of time, and how mired in the past this book is (even with it's new chapter on the Internet).
In any business, there will always be a middle man- but the face of the middleman in the book business is so changed that it is tough to write a book that stays current.
For the young bucks starting in the industry, do subject and content searches of discussion boards hosted by the big bookselling pages: amazon.com (most useful), and abe.com. Getting a part time job doing grunt work (shelving, cleaning) at a local used bookstore will provide you with more practical education in a day than this book will.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent read
Review: I'm impressed with the level of honesty the author, whose life-long career is in books, used, collectible, etc etc..., shares with the reader. He's not afraid to tell secrets of the trade. He's not afraid of sharing the excitement that he evidently feels about the trade. But most importantly, he also faces describes candidly the tedious nature of making a living from book buying-trading.... It sobered me up very fast... It didn't make me want to plunge into a new hobby without the proper warnings.
Additionally, I found the information regarding procuring and properly identifying a "1st edition" book highly useful in terms of its clarifying certain ambiguous and confusing terminology... WIth this information, I am prepared against book sellers who profit from ignorance. I would recommend this book to anyone before venturing to purchase their favorite author's first editions...
Rating:
Summary: Limited value
Review: I've inherited a whole library full of antiquarian books, and I purchased BOOK FINDS through Amazon hoping to learn what to do with them. You'd think a book with the subtitle "How to Find, Buy, and Sell Used and Rare Books" would be helpful in that regard, but when Ellis says "rare" he means "first edition of modern books". There is only a hint of discussion on antiquarian books, and that is primarily to say that he's not going to discuss them. I was completely disappointed for my purposes, and had I seen the book in a brick-and-mortar shop, I would not have bought it. That said, there is a fair amount of information on used and modern first edition books. Especially good is the material on what a used bookseller is going to be looking for in the material you bring him. As others have said, what is absent is information on bookselling over the internet and through companies like Amazon Marketplace. In my own experience, I've done MUCH better though Amazon Marketplace than through selling to any used bookstore. I can set my own prices, sell more merchandise (including much that a used bookstore would not take) and cut out the middleman almost entirely. (Although Amazon takes a bite, it's not nearly as big as the one taken by my local bookseller; on the minus side, going to him in person costs little in transportation and nothing in postage and handling.) Ellis would have you believe that an annotated book cannot be sold, but at Amazon Marketplace you can fully disclose the condition of the book to the buyer and still have people interested. There is valuable information in the book, especially the guide to the most collectable books. This is important, as just because a book is a first edition doesn't mean there's a market for it. Demand sets the price, and where there's no demand, any claimed value is artificial. I've had a first edition that I was told was worth $100; I couldn't sell it at $15 because it was an obscure poet who no one cares much about. Buyer beware, and Seller beware, too.
Rating:
Summary: great Place to Start
Review: If one is new to collecting books of any kind, this is the book to start off with. It takes the reader on a wonderful journey of what a book actually is comprised of and the history of books in general. This book gives a great foundation while all the time the reader is learning apt and required terminology to continue the journey into actually identifying and buying good collectible books, and then how to repair and care for them, ultimately storing or selling them.
Rating:
Summary: Do You Have A Fortune Sitting On Your Bookshelf?
Review: If you love to buy and collect new or used books, then chances are you have some very collectible books just lying around. Some may be worth a fortune. A book doesn't have to be old or a first edition Hemingway to be worth money. There are thousands of highly collectible modern first editions. It's easy to find them, too . . . often at prices far below market value. The secret: Learn which books are in demand (many are more common than you may think), and then try to find them in first editions. Some may be sitting on your shelf right now. Often, publishers state "First Edition" on a title page, but far from always. And even if you know you have a first edition, how do you know if it's collectible? Ellis gives detailed information on how to identify first editions and books worth collecting. You'll learn about how later editions can be collectible, too. There's tons of solid, money making advice on how to become a book collector, even if you're on a limited budget, including tips on "avoiding costly mistakes that many beginners make." Bonus: A section that lists "Over 1,000 Most Collectible Books and Authors." Best of all: It's fun. You'll learn how to scout for books at major book stores, used book sales, remainder bins, tag sales and more. If you already enjoy buying books, why not turn it into a hobby that pays?
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