After over 30 years full time in the business of buying and selling used and rare books, graphics, maps, broadsides, autographs and other ephemeral items, the owners are interested in selling their business, inventory, goodwill and home to an interested party or parties. Located on a tree-lined main thoroughfare in one of Lancaster County's several charming boroughs, the opportunity includes a 3500 square foot, 10-room and 1 &1/2 bath 1904 Arts & Crafts-style brick 2-story home with wrap-around porch fronting on Marietta Avenue in Rohrerstown, located on Route 23, 2 & 1/2 miles west of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the village of Rohrerstown. Lancaster County is in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country, and is rich with the food, culture and lifestyle of the Amish and Mennonite communities within it's borders, and as such, is one of the top tourist destinations on the Eastern Seaboard. One of the earliest inland towns in America, and a printing center since the early 1700's, the area offers an abundance of opportunities to purchase both early and later books. The area is also blessed with several institutions of higher education, and many a library of retired professors have found their way onto our shelves. The area is also the unofficial Auction Capital of the U.S., with as many as 20-30 estates going up on the auction block every week. Lancaster is located within a 1-2 hour drive from major metropolitan areas including Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore and Washington. The business operates out of a 3-story, 2500 square foot carriage house with heat and air conditioning and powder room located directly behind the home. Alongside the carriage house are 9 pull-in parking spaces for the convenience of customers. Behind the carriage house is a 4-vehicle garage built in the 1970's, handy for keeping personal vehicles, supplies and inventory overflow sheltered from the elements. In addition, there is approximately 500 square feet of storage in the basement of the house, with a new cement floor, where additional inventory can be stored/processed. Both the carriage house and home have slate roofs, and the 3rd floor/attic area of the main house is unfinished. A brand new kitchen & powder room have just been installed in the house, with other upgrades to be performed in the next 1-2 years including a floor-to-ceiling wall of shelves with cupboards below in the library, and refinished floors and carpeting thru-out the 2 floors of living space. The property is pleasantly landscaped, and has several mature Norway spruces, hemlock hedges and other evergreens. Marietta Avenue has been a major artery in & out of Lancaster since the colonial days, and the house/business is located less than a mile from the nearest highway. This block in particular, is lined with turn-of-the-century brick homes, all of which are zoned residential/commercial, and many of which have cottage industries in or behind the homes, making the block particularly interesting, not to mention neighborly. Rear access to the property is readily available, with a public alley running between Rt. 741 and Marietta Ave. We are located in one of the best school districts in the county!
The book store fills all 3 floors of the carriage house, the front room/reception area being filled with antique Victorian and "barrister" glass-door book & display cases and an office area that accomodates 2 employee work stations. Also on the first floor is a room for processing in/mailing out internet and other orders, taking photographs, and with equipment for matting, shrink-wrapping and framing prints, paintings, maps broadsides, etc. The rest of the first floor and both the 2nd. & 3rd. floors have mostly utilitarian wood, metal and/or glass shelving and some stacking glass-door and revolving bookcases, with books neatly organized, classified and labeled into over 250 catagories/sub-catagories. A second work station is on the 2nd. floor, and high-speed internet connections run to all 3 stations. All 3 floors are covered with wall-to-wall carpeting. The inventory is comprised of approximately 50,000 hardback books, trade paperbacks(mostly non-fiction), some "collectible" pre-1960 science fiction/mystery pbs., along with thousands of prints, paintings, broadsides, maps, postcards, trade cards & catalogs, historical, political and celebrity autographs, and other ephemeral items. Over 20,000 items are cataloged in our database and appear on 5 book websites, and are linked to our website for those internet buyers who wish to buy directly from us. Although we stock a number of items in the $5-10 range, walk-in & internet sales average $30/item. Also of note: Effective the 1st of January, 2008, we had 7711 items valued at $25-100 on line, 1461 items valued at $100-500, 94 items in the $500-1000 range, and 28 items valued at over $1000. Up to 1/2 of the books on our shelves are NOT in our on-line database, and almost none of our non-book inventory is on our database. Included in the purchase price is our approximately 600-volume reference library, which includes all the standards and many of the scarcer bibliographical and other references.
Goodwill, the most difficult intangible to assess, includes 30+ years of doing business in the community and establishing an impeccable reputation as a fair & honest purveyor of used and rare books, whether buying selling or appraising, and aiding in collection development for private customers and institutions, both local and worldwide. This would include access & use of files, mailing lists and all other contacts presently utilized in the day-to-day conduct of business. Also a part of the selling price is a willingness on the part of the owners to spend up to 6 months training and educating any interested party in the formula utilized by this firm to maintain and/or expand a healthy, lucrative, successful business for decades to come. It is our intention to continue to upgrade and expand the inventory and our on-line presence until the date of sale.
In the last ten years, the bookstore has supported 2 partners, 2 full-time employees and 2 part-time employees. There certainly is the opportunity to expand the staff and periodically our part-time staff expands and contracts as needed. THis is a lucrative business and if managed well, offers a great deal of opportunity for success.
Interested parties should contact the owners directly at kkbooks@comcast.net or 717-393-0920. Thank you for your interest.