Valley Books
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Valley Books is now closed. Our last day was Sat., July 18th. Thanks to everyone who supported the shop over the past 34 years. We will continue to sell online, as we have been doing since 1998. We will still buy books from individuals and libraries, small or large quantities. Please call 256-1508 or email valleybooks@comcast.net

 

We are a general used and antiquarian online only shop featuring approximately 6,000 books on all subjects. We are the oldest bookshop in Amherst and one of the oldest Used and Antiquarian shops in New England, now in our 35th year of operation.  We carry old books, used books and discount new books. We carry first editions and collectible books as well as academic and popular books and a large selection of half-price audio books on cd. We also carry ephemera, including old postards, postage stamps, advertising, sheet music. Our books are listed on the internet at four sites: Abebooks.com, Alibris.com, Biblio.com, Choosebooks.com Books can be ordered through those sites or directly from us by sending an email to valleybooks@comcast.net or calling 413-256-1508. Our mailing address is Valley Books P.O. Box 2127, Amherst, MA 01002. We have no business hours and visitors are not welcome except by strict prior arrangement. We accept checks from known or established parties, all major credit cards and paypal. Books mailed anywhere.





The bookshop is now closed. We will continue our online business and will maintain our website. Thanks to all those many patrons we have had over the years. There just aren't enough of you left to support a shop. Ellen, Charmagne and Larry

Feather Fountain Pen

Why Valley Books is closing

The long and the short of it is declining in-store sales, which began with the rise of book buying on the internet in the early 2000s. It continued to steadily decline right up to the present time. We began selling on the internet in 1998, when the online bookselling sites began. They have grown into huge megasites with offerings over 100 million listings. Online sales have been carrying the shop for at least the past 5 years. Our move from 199 No. Pleasant St. to our present location was made in the midst of declining foot traffic and continually decreasing in-store sales. A substantial reduction in rent and the chance to have all our stock on one floor weighed heavily in the decision to move. While the new location did offer special challenges, we did have a window display on the street and two visible signs facing the sidewalk and the road. Winter conditions around the shop were a deterrent to business on many days and apparently convenient parking was not always so easy to come by. A 4 day flood in early 2008 left the store in a weakened state and the moldy, musty aftermath took months to fully dissipate, affecting many customers and staff adversely. 

Other important factors in declining sales include the decreasing reliance on books as a source of information, being replaced by information available on the internet. Electronic reading devices have been around for 10 years and the latest generation of kindle and other readers have drawn traditional book buyers away from bookshops. Library usage is up nationally by 10-30% and the year-long economic crisis has intensified and accelerated many of the trends already affecting the traditional book trade. 

Simply put, a shop like Valley Books, that has existed for 34 years, is no longer viable and the economic strain to stay open became too much to bear. We will continue to sell books on the internet and will continue to special order new and used books. And, we will continue to buy books from individuals. 

 

I would like to thank the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Amherst Bulletin for covering the closing of Valley Books with front page stories soon after I sent press releases to all the local media. I could have used that kind of publicity when I moved my shop in Jan. of 2007, after 20 years at 199 N. Pleasant St. The moved was barely mentioned, and only after several weeks had gone by.  Unfortunately, much of what was written about the closing by the Gazette reporter was  misinformation, the reporter's slant and angle on the closing, and quotes attributed to me which were approximations of what I said during a phone conversations with the reporter 30 minutes before his deadline, while he frantically typed notes of my answers to his questions. I couldn't understand why this reporter would be calling so soon before his deadline when the story was hardly the kind of news that couldn't wait another day. Then it dawned on me that the Gazette had read the piece about the closing in the Springfield Republican, which had appeared the day before. They had discovered the Springfield piece that morning and were trying to save some face by getting the story in the next edition of the Gazette and Bulletin.   The Republican actually sent a reporter to the shop, who conducted a relaxed and pleasant interview. The story and quotes that appeared in their paper were accurate and reflected the essence of what I wanted to convey in the interview. It's just as easy to get it right as it is to get it wrong, unless you have an agenda and don't really care about getting it right.