Are Your Signed Books Authentic?

Are Our Signed Books Real?

We sell more Signed or Autographed Mountaineering Books than any bookseller in the history of mountaineering literature. Customers often ask us, 'How do I know that these signatures are authentic?'

Well, for starters, how does this look? This is Michael Chessler with Edmund and June Hillary in Auckland New Zealand in 2005, where Ed is signing books for us!

Here as recent photo (2009) of Stephen Venables signing books on my dining room table.

Chessler Books has been the world's leading bookseller of Mountaineering Books since 1984, and has a world-wide reputation for excellent products and service. However, due to the reach of the Internet, we meet new customers every day who do not know about us, and desire more than word of mouth to know that what they are getting is the real thing.

We have always liked authors to sign our books personally, and now try to get as many books as possible signed as it enhances their value, and allows us to offer a book that is worth more than what other on-line booksellers are offering, thus allowing us to make a profit and stay in business. In many cases, we charge just the normal cover price for a new book that is signed, and only charge extra if it was expensive to get the book signed, or if the book is scarce anyway. Yes, in some cases we have paid the authors, or we have donated to their favorite charity if they do not need the money.

We have made many trips to see the world's greatest climbers, Sir Edmund Hillary, Heinrich Harrer, Anderl Heckmair, Maurice Herzog, Reinhold Messner, Sir Chris Bonington, Jim Whittaker, Tom Hornbein, Royal Robbins, Charles Houston, Bob Bates, Bradford Washburn, Layton Kor, plus newer climbers such as Conrad Anker, Lynn Hill, John Gill, Steve Roper, Allen Steck, Pete Takeda, Steve House, Pat Ament, Jim Bridwell, plus dozens more. In many cases, the climbers visit us when they are in Colorado.

Just the enormity of the task of getting books signed should tell you that it is real. We do not know of any other bookseller in the world who has gone to the effort to get as many books signed as we do, in any field.

Certificates of Authenticity

We live in two worlds, the climbing world and the book world. In neither is the use of a 'Certificate of Authenticity' a common practice. Our feeling is that COA's are used to sell cheap massed produced fake collectibles such as you buy on a TV shopping channel or eBay, and their use would actually debase what we do. If you want a fake Newspaper Page of the moon landing signed by Buzz Aldrin, get a COA. If you want a real first edition of Heinrich Harrer's White Spider, which he signed for us in his Museum in Huttenberg Austria, or a real first edition of Annapurna that Maurice Herzog signed for us in his living room in Paris, please buy from us.

In 2010 we saw a guitar signed by five rock legends in the Sharper Image Catalog signed by some second tier 1970s and 1980s rock and roll artists, for $6000. It had a COA. We sell the equivalent of guitars signed by John Lennon and Mick Jagger.

Some customers have told us they want a COA so that when they or their descendants sell the book sometime in the future, they can provide proof that the signatures are real. Our only reply can be, they are asking us to help make a sale between two people, neither of whom are our customers, and both of whom may not even be born yet! I am afraid that is not part of our job description.

You may see Signed Books similar to ours on other Book Dealer's websites on the Internet, but at higher prices. Does that mean that their copies are somehow better than ours? Not really, as many of them bought their copies from us!