 Book Collectors and Oxfam
For many years everyone was agreed that Oxfam was a good thing. But for the past 18 months we at BMC have been hearing rumblings of discontent. Other high street bookdealers, who had to pay rates and taxes as well as buy their own stock, felt aggrieved that they were not playing Oxfam on a level pitch. Then one dealer in Salisbury claimed that he had had to close down because of competition from a nearby Oxfam bookshop. Then we reported in the January 2010 issue that the chairman of the Provincial Book Fair Association had sat down and hammered out a deal with Oxfam in November 2009, which allowed local book dealers to have first look at Oxfam’s unsorted book stock and make an offer for rare and collectable items.
We then began getting letters from the public saying that they could not find bargains in Oxfam anymore. And also an increasing number of letters from former volunteers, most of them negative. We ran a cogent feature from our regular “betweenthelines” taking Oxfam to task for all of this, and suggesting how they might proceed in future. And now for the first time in this saga, we have had a reply from Oxfam, which, among many other points, flatly contradicts the PBFA’s assertion that dealers have access to the unsorted books.
If you want to read Oxfam’s letter and our reply to it, they are both in the latest September issue, out now. I think we may well sit “betweenthelines” down with Oxfam’s Trading Director, and see what emerges from a smoke-filled room at the end of the day. Come out fighting at the bell, no foul play, and whoever is last man standing, we will be keeping you informed.
You will also want to look at the September BMC for a roundup of books to mark the 70th anniversary of the most important battle of the 20th century, The Battle of Britain.
Christopher Peachment - Editor
More info >> | 
