Greetings from London and Loeb Classical Library Question

[Sunshinetats]

Good afternoon and hello from London

I am new to the site and am looking at collecting the Loeb Classical Library. I would love some guidance as to where to start with this as there are over 500 books. The books are a gift so I am somewhat out of my depth with knowing where to start with this search. Any recommended places in London or online sites to purchase these books from and whether there is a good/bad place to start collecting or if it doesn't matter? I'm guessing you probably collect whichever books you successfully get hold of?

Any assistance gratefully received,

Kind regards,
Sunshinetats

[seneca2008]

On line you might try http://www.classicsbookshop.co.uk/

In Kentish Town you can find the Hellenic Bookservice which has a large second hand section. http://www.hellenicbookservice.com/

Waterstones in Gower street (Dillons to most of us) has a selection of second hand books now integrated into their new classics section.

Just make sure you dont buy the older unrevised loebs unless you really want those specific editions. Generally the newer the Loeb the better the text and the more readable the translation.

[Paul Derouda]

Online, I mostly use Abebooks for second hand books and Amazon for both new and second hand.

If you want a good text for reading (both the Greek/Latin and the translation), the editions from the last decades are a LOT better than older ones. But I suppose that the older texts might have collectible value, even if the translations in some are almost unreadable.

[Timothée]

Sorry to be offtopic, but isn't it depressing that 50 % of all the books sold in the world are sold by Amazon? Whensoever there's an option, I do urge you to use your local bookshop and other channels. But hélas—often there isn't.

[swtwentyman]

I buy almost everything from the Amazon site but very, very rarely do I ever buy anything from them; rather, I buy from individual sellers and smaller stores that Amazon hosts (under the "new and used from..."). Amazon takes a cut but you're still supporting mom-and-pop businesses, or Goodwill outlets, or whatever, even if they may not be local. Sometimes there are problems (a Lysias book I ordered turned out to have writing all in the first selection's margins even though it was sold as "very good") but usually it's both faster and cheaper than Amazon itself. I've also sold on Amazon and there were no problems; the cut they take is hardly confiscatory (they overcharge for shipping, actually, which increases the seller's yield. This is how people make money by selling things for $0.01).