The photo book research - a special offer from Cafe Lehmitz Photobooks

For about 25 years I have been dealing with photobooks, have seen photobooks come and go and not seldom thought at the publication of the last copy: will I ever see this book again? Especially with self-published titles, the odds are around 50% that the book won't show up or will show up (usually on the www) at a high price. 
In 2021, I was increasingly asked to research and obtain titles. What happened to many of my clients was that the due decision to acquire a title came at an inopportune time for you, then the publication was sold out and didn't turn up or turned up at an unaffordable price. As examples, the titles 'Afronauts' by Cristina de MIDDEL and 'Dildo' by Momo OKABE come to mind. These are extreme examples, gladly with four-figure prices, but there are also titles with prices in the low double digits, which are hard to find.

Expertise

As a humanities scholar - Art History, German Studies & Urbanism, Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn - I am used to studying printed literature like books or magazines as well as the internet to find biographical details about photographers or information about older photo books for the texts in my WebStore. Thanks to my many years of experience in the photo book market with photographers, publishers, collectors and other photo book dealers, I have also built up an extensive network. This gives me the opportunity to contact very different sources for research and procurement, even at short notice. 
In this way, I have been able to help numerous new and regular customers cross long-sought titles off their search lists, for which they had spent many hours without success. 

My offer

The described experience of my customers as well as the increase of requests from all over the world gave me the idea to offer this service officially as well as to price it transparently. 
If you also maintain such lists, which do not become shorter, I make you the following offer: The first five research orders I do for you free of charge. After the first five searches, I will charge a flat rate of € 10.00 per search until further notice. Should the effort and the return not be in harmony, i.e. become uneconomical, I reserve the right to adjust the amount of the flat rate upwards. For institutions such as city or university libraries or similar, I currently charge an hourly rate of € 60.00 for research, which I charge by the minute from the second hour onwards.

Procedure
To get started, I need the following information, but you can also add details such as first edition or reprint if you are interested:

  1. Title and author of the title you are looking for
  2. Description of the desired condition (new, used, also damaged (for example without dust jacket, if available)
  3. Your asking price with upper limit

With this information I will start the search after accepting the order placed via e-mail and will usually inform you about the result within one working day. If your asking price differs from the result, I will make you a non-binding offer, which is subject to change in case the title can no longer be ordered after the acceptance of my offer because someone was faster.

Invoice
On the immediately due preliminary invoice for the title to be purchased, the research is shown as an extra item with 19% VAT. 
The invoice amount is due even if the research ends without procurement. For the rest, I refer to my valid general terms and conditions.

Have I aroused your interest? Then do not hesitate to contact me with the necessary information and create an order for the research.

Your's
Richard G. Sporleder


Your first research assignment for up to five photo book titles.
0,00 € *
'New York to Nova Scotia' evoked the career of Robert FRANK with letters, pictures, reviews and essays as well as 18 images by him. With letters written by W. Eugene SMITH, Louis FAURER, Gotthard SCHUH, as well as curators Hugh Edwards and Robert Delpire.
65,00 € * Weight 0.7 kg