From the Editor by Craig Stark #13, 1 March 2004

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - understanding collector mentality is crucial if you intend to move up the ladder in bookselling. The more you understand how collectors think, the better able you'll be to put yourself in their shoes and thereby spot collectible items and market them for profit.

As most of you probably know, there's a dark side to collecting. Some collectors have questionable motives. They may purchase things for uses they were not intended. Others may have the best of intentions but be engaged in collecting things that probably shouldn't be collected. For some reason, the bones of holocaust victims come to mind, and while the very thought of this would be repelling to most of us, an active, underground network of collectors does exist for this very thing. I wasn't aware of this until recently. It's chilling.

I'm not going to discuss anything quite as morbid today, but still, the fraternal niche market, which I am going to get into, does have its dark side, and this may raise some ethical questions for sellers who peddle fraternity and sorority memorabilia, books or otherwise.

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