News & Events

Bookmarx experiences rapid growth
Sunday, February 07, 2010

STEUBENVILLE - With some rearranging of shelving, acquisition of a collection and the continued shift of inventory, the BookMarx book store at 151 N. Fourth St. continues to grow and change, less than a year after it opened.

Owner Peter J. Marx explained the store, which offers high quality used books, hard-to-find, out-of-print and unusual books, as well as CDs and VHS videos, as well as special orders of newer books, recently acquired 5,000 books from the estate of George H. Thompson of Cadiz.

The books are in the out-of-print and hard-to-find category and are in nearly-new condition with protective sleeves on hardbound books.

Marx said Thompson was renowned among book collectors for having the largest collection of H.L. Mencken books. BookMarx acquisition is the non-Mencken part of the collection, featuring lots of military history, general history, biographies, literature and travel books. Most of the books are hardbacked first editions.

The collection includes full sets of Ballantine history books, that appear never to have been read. Marx usually will part-out collections and sell books individually, but the Ballantine books are among the few in the store he's selling as a collection. He said the series is a first-edition, first-printing of the series.

The addition of the collection only accelerated modifications to the small store to begin accommodating more of Marx inventory. Work is ongoing in another storefront on Fourth Street to catalog, price and decide on arrangements for thousands of additional titles, and the retail store has seen rearrangement of shelves and displays, including additional shelving in what had been the fairly open children's room, accommodating hundreds of fiction titles from recent years back through the early 20th century. The religious collection room also has seen additions, especially in non-Catholic theological titles.

There is now an outdoor and hobby section, a humor section and the history section is expanding heavily with the addition of the Thompson collection.

In addition, Marx said he's in the process of getting out of a book store partnership in Atlanta and has plans to bring many more titles to the Steubenville store.

Internet sales also take place from the store, with books being shipped around the world.

"I just shipped books to South Africa today," Marx said on a recent afternoon. The Web site is www.bookmarxbooks.com.

As customers filed among the shelves and asked for assistance from Marx and staff that includes workers from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Marx explained his plans include an eventual physical expansion of the store beyond just putting more titles in rearranged space in the current location.

"We've just maxed out the shelves we can have in this space," he said. "We're twice the size, in terms of the collection, than we were when we opened in July."

"I gave myself a year from opening for people to be aware that I'm here and we're a resource for the area and for the Franciscan University of Steubenville. We've received a lot of support from both," he said. "I feel like we're doing something they appreciate and if it continues to go the way it is, our intent is to take additional space in 12 to 18 months."

Marx emphasized the store currently can make special orders of new and recent releases, having done about 400 such orders since opening. Such orders generally are available to the reader within 48 hours and most of the time are below retail pricing.

Marx said his ultimate hope would be to be able to add new and recent titles to the shelves in an expanded store.

BookMarx also has access to book restoration services, including binding and odor removal.

(Giannamore's e-mail address is pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)

STEUBENVILLE - With some rearranging of shelving, acquisition of a collection and the continued shift of inventory, the BookMarx book store at 151 N. Fourth St. continues to grow and change, less than a year after it opened.

Owner Peter J. Marx explained the store, which offers high quality used books, hard-to-find, out-of-print and unusual books, as well as CDs and VHS videos, as well as special orders of newer books, recently acquired 5,000 books from the estate of George H. Thompson of Cadiz.

The books are in the out-of-print and hard-to-find category and are in nearly-new condition with protective sleeves on hardbound books.

Marx said Thompson was renowned among book collectors for having the largest collection of H.L. Mencken books. BookMarx acquisition is the non-Mencken part of the collection, featuring lots of military history, general history, biographies, literature and travel books. Most of the books are hardbacked first editions.

The collection includes full sets of Ballantine history books, that appear never to have been read. Marx usually will part-out collections and sell books individually, but the Ballantine books are among the few in the store he's selling as a collection. He said the series is a first-edition, first-printing of the series.

The addition of the collection only accelerated modifications to the small store to begin accommodating more of Marx inventory. Work is ongoing in another storefront on Fourth Street to catalog, price and decide on arrangements for thousands of additional titles, and the retail store has seen rearrangement of shelves and displays, including additional shelving in what had been the fairly open children's room, accommodating hundreds of fiction titles from recent years back through the early 20th century. The religious collection room also has seen additions, especially in non-Catholic theological titles.

There is now an outdoor and hobby section, a humor section and the history section is expanding heavily with the addition of the Thompson collection.

In addition, Marx said he's in the process of getting out of a book store partnership in Atlanta and has plans to bring many more titles to the Steubenville store.

Internet sales also take place from the store, with books being shipped around the world.

"I just shipped books to South Africa today," Marx said on a recent afternoon. The Web site is www.bookmarxbooks.com.

As customers filed among the shelves and asked for assistance from Marx and staff that includes workers from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Marx explained his plans include an eventual physical expansion of the store beyond just putting more titles in rearranged space in the current location.

"We've just maxed out the shelves we can have in this space," he said. "We're twice the size, in terms of the collection, than we were when we opened in July."

"I gave myself a year from opening for people to be aware that I'm here and we're a resource for the area and for the Franciscan University of Steubenville. We've received a lot of support from both," he said. "I feel like we're doing something they appreciate and if it continues to go the way it is, our intent is to take additional space in 12 to 18 months."

Marx emphasized the store currently can make special orders of new and recent releases, having done about 400 such orders since opening. Such orders generally are available to the reader within 48 hours and most of the time are below retail pricing.

Marx said his ultimate hope would be to be able to add new and recent titles to the shelves in an expanded store.

BookMarx also has access to book restoration services, including binding and odor removal.

(Giannamore's e-mail address is pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)