Ethics Statement

For years, I have built my collection with simple, old-fashioned principles:

• By paying you the highest market prices to attract the finest objects

• By traveling to see you, so you do not have to travel to see me

• By providing you accurate price records as written proof about significance and value

• By always paying you in advance

• By always paying you in cash or certified funds (such as a cashier’s check or wire transfer)

• By offering you an optional written contract with 30 days to change your mind and buy your book back

• By keeping your name confidential except with your permission

• By adding value to objects through expensive restoration and conservation

• By being socially responsible in the eventual placement of important materials

My ethical standards are rigidly based on the Scriptures:

• I believe in the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” That commandment is expanded to include “neither shalt thou overreach him by cunning, nor by stratagem, to take his substance from thy neighbour.” I believe that any deception or fraud is the same as stealing.
   

  • I will tell you anything that you want to know about the attributes or value of your books. However, if you would rather use a popular price guide, I will give you at least one thousand dollars above the highest estimated price for any early scripture or hymn book.
    
    

• I believe that “all those speculative transactions, by which one man obtains from another anything valuable, without making what is esteemed by both parties a just and full equivalent,” is theft.
   

  • I will not buy your books if you have any hint of uncertainty that my price was generous, for it is useless for me to be generous and have you still dissatisfied.
    
    

• I believe in the commandment “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” That commandment is expanded to include “thou shalt not abate the price of what thou buyest of him, for his necessity; nor shalt thou exact of him, because he leaneth upon thee.”
   

  • You tell me what you really need for the book, and I will not try to talk your price down.
    
    

• I believe that a “legitimate commercial transaction” is one where “a real difference in the value of property is produced by transportation, transmutation, or timely retention.”
   

  • If I ever resell your book for more than I paid you, it will be because the value has actually changed (time has passed, demand has increased, or I did conservation and restoration to the book, or I specially packaged the book as part of a greater collection).

My clean record and reputation

I have been purchasing books at top prices for 25 years, and people are 99% happy with the price I paid.  I am also well-liked by other serious collectors.  Keep in mind, though, I am trying to buy your books at fair-market (generally full-retail) prices; whereas dealers want them at profitable bargains, and libraries want them donated for free—I am an indirect competitor. Not coincidentally, I have had librarians write that to have so many Mormon books, I must be taking books from libraries; and conversely I have had dealers write that I have been unfairly competitive when I paid too much money for Mormon books—exactly opposite perspectives.

I buy books with a high profile.  I have certainly never stolen a book; never been tried for any type of crime, not even a misdemeanor, ever in my life; and never even been in a jail.  As to the suggestion that I pay too much—I do, but that is generosity and integrity, not unfairly competitive. The only person in my state to be convicted of anything related to books was a former university police sergeant who confessed to framing a historical society member years ago.

I keep the highest possible standard of principles and integrity.  You will not find anyone else buying Mormon books that will make the promises that I have made above.