Bookseller Profile

Abebooks' uniqueness is our network of independent booksellers who work with us to provide the most diverse selection of rare, used and out-of-print books on the Internet. Take a moment and meet our member booksellers from around the globe. It is these sellers, with their experience, commitment and love of the used and out-of-print book business who help all our buyers find that treasure they've been looking for.

Ventura Pacific Ltd

Bookselling is not the easiest way to make a living. What keeps you doing it?
I THINK IT IS EASY....and there is nothing like the satisfaction of an elated customer who finds the book he or she has been searching for.....especially when reuniting an adult with a childhood story.

How did you choose your specialty?
In 1994 I happened upon the bookselling world quite by accident. I didn't intend to be a bookseller. My sister and I were partners in the thrift store business and we were developing a website where we could sell a variety of items. Nothing much sold...EXCEPT books! Then a friend, the infamous John Miller of the Phantom Bookshop of historic San Buenaventura, told me about ABE. He said, "Get on ABE, you'll sell lots of books!" I took his advice..... the rest is history.

I left the thrift store business intending to further pursue bookselling on my own. My husband was moved out of his den -- me, my computer and 150 books moved in....Hence, Ventura Pacific Ltd. was born.. John Miller had always convinced me that when seeking books, the obscurer, the weirder, the better. And so it became a perpetual treasure hunt to find those elusive books. Our inventory is made up of the unusual, small print run items, privately published, as well as the just plain hard-to-find.

In a few short months, I had run out of space in the den-- not to mention every other nook and cranny in the house, which forced my husband to build a small building out back for me and the books. It was only a few more months before the new place was bursting at the seams and the overflow was filling our garage. But I couldn't stop buying books. It became a passion as it is to this day, always certain another gem was just around the corner in that next box. When the new building and the garage could hold no more, the books were moved into rented garages and then an empty 2-bedroom house until once again full to capacity. By this time, the little company was becoming more than my husband and I could handle, so I hired someone to file books and go to the post office.

By summer of 1999, there was NO room left anywhere and the kids complained mom was working too much. The hunt was no longer for unique books --but for a place large enough to store the thousands of books. After months of searching, we finally found our current home: 1/3 acre in the older section Ventura. We occupy 7,000 square feet of warehouse and offices, with an ocean breeze and a mountain view.

We took great care in designing our workspace so that everyone would be comfortable. We knocked out walls, built miles of bookcases, and even made special space for mothers who bring their children to work. We pride ourselves in having a paperless office and of selling and/or donating our discards rather than sending them to the landfills.

We have a great crew of book lovers. We spend as much time laughing as we do typing and filing the books. We're also a great support group for each other, as we all have REAL lives. But in the end, there's still the books. We are buried in books, up to our eyebrows in books, knee-deep in books..., and we love it! A prerequisite for hire is that you MUST love books. Our goal is a million out of print books...... All of us hope to be doing this forever.

What do you collect? Anything besides books?
Since a girl I have been collecting the railroad art of R. Atkinson Fox, handmade musical instruments, and most recently, bookends.

Lots of people have "shop pets". Do you have one? Several?
No shop animals, but lots of shop "kids" as most of us are mothers with school-aged children who bring the kids with them when school is out.

What is the most unusual book you ever bought?
At a yard sale, I once purchased an early 1800's leather-bound edition of the Biography of Lord Viscount Nelson. More interesting than the book itself were the endpaper notes, wherein it told the history of a family, as the book had been passed from generation, to generation, to generation, including one endpaper note which stated "I just received notice that President McKinley had been assassinated". It's so neat that you could see the difference in the writing styles/instruments used over the centuries; the latest owner used a rubber stamp.

Do you have any legendary stories you tell about incidents in your store?
We do not have a store....we are strictly an internet bookselling business........supplying the planet with out-of-print books !

- Sandra Stone, Ventura Pacific Ltd

The views of the author, expressed above, are not necessarily those of the Advanced Book Exchange