Meet Angus Robb. He finds rare books for rarefied clients.
From a piece on Bloomberg...
Angus Robb is a senior executive with a knack for turning mildew into money.
“I love nothing better than traipsing around smelly places to find the right book,” says Robb, who wears tailored suits and red-and-green gumball cufflinks. His official title is store director of Asprey’s flagship luxury-gift emporium on New Bond Street in London.
“I wouldn’t stay here if Asprey took the rare books away from my brief,” Robb says in a salon that since 1781 has been celebrated for offering the rich and royal polo-pony bridles, ostrich-skin satchels and walking sticks tipped with sterling- silver badger heads. “We’ve always had an odd, eccentric mix of products.”
For 700 of Asprey’s clients such as the Prince of Wales, investing in blue-chip books is top of that peculiar pile. Robb says the trade in ephemera is a meager $500 million-a-year global market that’s controlled by some 10 book brokers whose wares won’t be found on Amazon.com Inc.’s website.
“Most investors don’t see books as an investment,” Robb says. “But everything today must be monetized.”
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