If you'd like to reach out to us, you can do so by sending us an email at mapsbooks@comcast.net. I'm mostly retired and find that being in a rush over old maps and books often creates resistance from the universe. Please allow me a business day to reply. I am often away busy outside on weekends and do not return/ respond until Monday afternoon, when I return to work.

I no longer live my life through my phone 24/7 because I'm trying to make my life feel less urgent and rushed, not more. It's my belief that everything connected to whatever we're discussing at any point along the way will all work out well in the near future. There is no need for creating anxiety, false sense of urgency or self-created stress over anything related to antiquarian material and it's delivery, because from my perspective of approx. 500+ transactions or so a month over the past 40 years, we can say virtually every single one works out absolutely beautifully in the end for everyone involved. All problems of any nature can and will be solved here. No problem escapes our ability to resolve it in a manner which leaves everyone feeling happy inside. Thanks to Louise Hay, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Sam Harris (Waking Up) and Eckhart Tolle for their daily ongoing guidance in these and all related matters.

We receive a steady influx of emails throughout the day, and below are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions:

  • Is this a reproduction? No, no it is not. Trying to sell fakes and cheat people is probably one of the worst business models imaginable for countless reasons, so we'll just completely banish that idea now. Everything we handle is original and old! Our listings state the date of production (or our best estimate based on 40+ years of first hand up close daily experience).
  • In over 40 years, no antiquarian items I've ever sold has been returned to me (and returnable it would be) as a fake, copy or repro. It really isn't all that hard to gain the level of expertise which would qualify someone as lets say "quite knowledgeable". It just takes paying attention mindfully and with intention to actually seeing what the eye is inspecting, plus studying about the history of printed images and how they're made, while looking at hundreds and often thousands of printed images all day long, for weeks, months, years and decades at a time.
  • Suddenly, presto, the extensive depth and range of exposure produces a type of intuitive expertise. This intuitive type of knowing is impossible to describe or acquire in any other fashion or manner than directly hands -on, and certainly not by sitting in front of a computer screen and inspecting digital images of printed images of any age or type.
  • On a screen, almost everything has the same visual surface patina- the computer pixel glow imparts a subtle visual uniformity to everything. In person however, every single old sheet of paper of any kind is somewhat unique, and looks quite visibly different from all other printed material around it. As in very different, which is very different from how it looks on a screen. And almost always it looks much better and more interesting in person because of this invisible digital aspect. It's this internal glow of age patina that each item possesses that is as important as the item itself. Virtually everything we offer looks nice in person, you'd be happy to have it around you and look at it when you wanted.
  • Do you offer appraisals? We do not offer appraisals for material we do not own and cannot see in person. We also do not have time for them any more since I have retired and my time continues to be full to overflowing.
  • Do you have a map showing "X", or more maps like this one, or one that's larger, or smaller, older, newer, etc? We have a fairly large inventory that is in constant motion, and although we try and keep up to date with what all we have, it is simply impossible for us to know what is on hand given the number of new things we catalog and the manner in which our inventory is spread out between dozens of flat file drawers across multiple locations. Our best answer is to search our website for some limited key words: the computer remembers and finds much faster than we do!
  • Do you offer discounts for purchasing multiple items? Yes. Please see our discount page for more information on what discounts we offer for multiple item purchases and inquire via email for a customized response. We strive to supply the trade at wholesale levels not frequently seen in the trade and larger quantity buyers (over $500) will be pleased by the generous terms. I am actually a genuine business man in addition to being a bibliophile and antiquarian, and my pleasure derives from the ongoing flow of material always moving by me, not from the hoarding of or holding onto it and trying to extract every last bit of value from it. I'm always happy to move things along and leave monetary value in items so another dealer can buy it for resale profit. 

  • I have several questions, can I give you a phone call?  We have moved our business entirely online to the digital realm, and we no longer have an in-house telephone (plus, we're not in the shop much these days anyway, maybe an hour or two a day?).
  • We truly greatly prefer to conduct antiquarian item conversations via email [mapsbooks@comcast.net], so we can create a digital trail for easy clear mutual future reference. Trying to handle an internet business via a personal cell phone is simply onerous and inherently wildly inefficient and mistake-prone given that everything discussed verbally then needs to be transcribed by hand and then data entry transferred back onto screen forms to proceed. Can you imagine trying to run your own business like this? Handling all your internet orders one at a time over the telephone, and then having to go sit in front of your computer and type it all in, like the shipping address with zip code, cc #, exp. code, item name, number, price etc. for each one? This 19th century method of digital merchant hood invites endless points for mistakes and a need to circle back for clarification, etc. If we're dealing on the internet and you can read this, let's just keep it on the internet. To do otherwise is virtually always just unnecessary. 

  • Do you have an open shop, can I come visit you to look around, inspect other things like this, etc? As much as we would enjoy being able to host customers in a physical shop, the demands of the pandemic have forced us to move the entire business model online. We recommend having a nice cup of coffee or tea and getting cozy while browsing on the biggest screen you can find! We may return to in person visits by appointment in the future, we will post here when / if we do. If the photos and description don't tell you what you need to know, it's almost certainly not the right item for you and you should just forget it.

  • I'm looking to sell some books and or maps; are you currently buying?  We no longer purchase from private sellers. We already have far too much to catalog as is, most of it printed pre-1945. We have been constantly buying antiquarian material over the past 40 years and 75% or more of it is still sitting on shelves, in piles, stacks of boxes, rooms full, all uncatalogued. This huge backlog literally fills an entire house near the one we operate out of, plus currently a two-bay garage.

  • Why is International or heavy shipping so expensive?  What isn't expensive today? We're constantly stunned as well by the cost. It's incredible. Much shipping is simply expensive, and we don't have a secret way to make it cheap like it used to be. My advice is to either forget it and don't buy it, or simply pay the shipping cost and forget it. Either way you should probably just forget it since thinking about it won't help make it go down nor make you feel better. 
  • I am shipping internationally. Can you declare a lower value so I can avoid customs fees? Please, this is 2025, we're all in the digital net. We cannot, for several reasons. First, this is a type of customs fraud. Second, declaring a lower value on an item means that we can no longer insure the shipment for its true value. So if the item is lost or damaged, we have no way to recoup the loss. Even if customers are willing to take the risk, we are not since ultimately we are responsible. I'll stop here, but could go on.
  • My honest advice for buyers outside the USA as of 2025 is to mostly forget about international transactions coming into your countries worth over $100 -unless you really want the item a lot and are willing to endure unforeseen transit obstacles and unfair/ incorrect fees to get it. Our experience shipping internationally is deep, based on countless hundreds (thousands) of parcels sent over 25+ years and we have now lost all interest in even trying to send parcels worth more than $100 outside the US. Endless red tape, unexpected delays for weeks at hubs, inane Customs or paperwork problems, delivery hand-off complications, lost parcels, parcels taking months, parcels being returned to sender for no reason, various universal global Meganet issues that affect everyone everywhere all the time, etc. 

  • Can I get a certificate of authenticity? Sure. We don't usually include them, but CoA's are available on request. Please reach out to us prior to purchase or drop us a message quickly afterward so we can include it in your parcel.
  • Thank you for your support! We're on your side once you place an order with us. Every single transaction we engage in has happy parties on all sides when it is complete.