Bibliomaniacs: A Day at the PBFA Fair in London

Arriving at the fair, we unloaded our boxes with books and after that they were quickly whisked away by a whole team of porters with trolleys. After they had literally “dumped” the boxes by stall 092, we got straight to unpacking with Mr Cooper helping and ordering the books. A fellow dealer was rummaging through our stock before we even unpacked. We were overwhelmed by the number of rival sellers that there were. Our first customer (a fellow dealer) came. And do you know what he bought? It was none other than V.M Meek’s book in six volumes on how to become a professional detective! Meanwhile the other two groups were having some lunch. After that, group A and Gaidai and Mr Cooper had their lunch. Then group B were on shift while the others were wondering about, looking at other stalls and “the competition” ... 

Then came the flow. At 13:00 all the customers from outside and that was when the most intense and exciting time was. We got off to a good start by making our first sale almost instantly. With this confidence boost, we continued to work hard to sell as many books as we could. Group A (Jake, Arty, Eric) made many sales to start and group B (Michael, Hector and Henry) and Group C (Theo, Josh, Ewan, Giles) were able to keep it going. with many customers buying many different books. It was in the first hour, that was when most of our sales were made. When our shifts ended we had a quick refreshment and went out to scout. I ended up in the far corner of the room where I found the stall of Forum Auctions, the sponsors of the whole fair. And even though they weren’t selling anything, they were giving out catalogues and showing their stock for an upcoming auction.  

We received valuable advice from other stalls. We were also able to look around at our competition and we saw books worth as much as £25,000 being sold. We saw many well-known books such as a First Edition signed Matilda and a signed Autobiography of Pele.