About Booook-Makers

Mostly the slow way. Dusty shelves of antique bookstores, the back tables of flea markets, afternoons spent rummaging through boxes nobody else seems to care about. Online too, sometimes, on AbeBooks or eBay, but that’s the exception.

Very good, unless I say otherwise. If a book has any noticeable damage worth flagging, you’ll find it described on its page along with a close-up photograph of the detail.

I start by checking what similar copies are going for elsewhere, mostly on AbeBooks and eBay, alongside the market estimates aggregators like find-more-books.com pull together. From there, I adjust based on what I paid and on the book’s condition.

Designer books have quietly become collectibles, the way designer chairs or rare sneakers have. Once a book goes out of print and disappears from regular shelves, its price tends to drift: sometimes climbing fast, sometimes dropping back, depending on who’s looking and what’s catching attention that year. I try not to chase only the books with skyrocketing prices, like limited or signed editions. Plenty of titles in the catalog stay affordable, and I’d rather keep adding modest, overlooked objects than build a shelf of trophies.

The collection mirrors what I’ve been drawn to over the last ten years, which means it leans heavily on French, Swiss and Dutch designers. That’s a limitation I’m aware of. I want to keep widening the selection over time, especially toward editorial work by female designers, non-Western designers, and designers from LGBTQI+ and BIPOC communities whose work hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

If you’re passing through Amsterdam, I’d love to show you the collection, including a few books that haven’t made it onto the website yet. Just send an email beforehand so we can plan something. Showing up unannounced won’t really work.

Always. If there’s something on a shelf at home that you think might fit the collection, drop me an email and tell me about it. I might want to make an offer.

Yes, with one warning: don’t be in a rush. Tracking down a rare book takes patience, sometimes months, sometimes longer, especially if you’d like to keep the price reasonable. But with a bit of perseverance and the right places to look, I’m happy to go hunting with you.

I ship from Amsterdam, anywhere in the world. Within Europe, delivery usually takes a few days; further afield, it’s more like a couple of weeks, sometimes longer if customs feels in the mood for paperwork. Tracking is included.

There’s a small newsletter that goes out whenever I add a batch of books, usually once a month or so. No marketing, no spam. Just a short email with a few photos and a few words on each title.

Honestly… Because book-makers.com wasn’t available.

I usually make websites as one half of F451. This one I designed and developed myself. The typeface is LL Supreme Black, by Lineto.