FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

Q. When will I get my order?

A. In a few days usually. You have two choices, Priority Mail and Media Mail. Priority Mail takes 2-4 days, Media Mail takes 1-2 weeks. We don't use UPS or FedEx. We generally ship Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If you need overnight service, please call before 3 PM Rocky Mountain Time, do not use the website order form. 800 654-8502 or 303 670-0093.

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Q. Can I visit your bookshop?

A. We don't maintain an open bookshop anymore, we closed it in 2001. But you can visit us to browse if you call ahead, 303 670-0093. If you e-mail us, we can e-mail you directions

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Q. Can I get a catalog?

A. We issued paper catalogs from 1984 to 2003. We now issue a virtual catalog almost every week, by e-mail. Please send us your e-mail address and we will notify you when we have new items, when things go on sale, etc. When the world went digital, so did we. This website has 10 times as many books as our old catalogs did, plus almost 10,000 color photos and much longer descriptions. Plus it is much easier to search for items by author, title or keyword.

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Q. Do you buy books?

A. Yes. We buy mountaineering book collections, or individual titles all the time! If you have mountaineering books to sell, please call us at 800 654-8502 or e-mail us at

. If your books are good enough, we will even travel to your home, pack the books, and leave you with a nice check!

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Q. Can you tell me how much my old book is worth?

A. Yes, if it is an simple answer.

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Q. Are books are a good investment? Will my book collection appreciate in value?

A. Books go up and down in price. In the 1980s and 1990s, books tended to increase in value. In the 2000s the pressure of the market and economy has been lowering prices. No matter what you collect, do it for the love of it, the pleasure the items give you, and not for some hoped for profit. Mountaineering books are at the low end of the price range of collectible books. A signed Hemingway can be worth over $100,000, and there is nothing in mountaineering to rival that. If investment is your game, collect great literature, not non-fiction. Having said that, I have seen mountaineering books that sold for $35 in the 1980s become $350 books in 25 years. But there are surer, and more liquid investments than books. Remember, you are buying at retail and may be selling at wholesale.

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Q. How should I store my books to protect them? Should I put my name in my books?

A. The good news is that the best way to store books is upright on a bookshelf, the way they were designed to be displayed. The only thing that normally damages books is water. Keep them off the floor, away from little children and pets, and not in a room that can get flooded from a broken pipe, hurricane or a leaky roof, and you will be okay. Book dust jackets can be worth more than the books, so put clear plastic book jacket covers on all your dust jackets, and do it when the books are still new and perfect. Never lend a book that you want to see again. Don't use a bookplate or write your name in your books unless you are famous, and don't ask Chris Bonington to inscribe a book to you if you expect to ever sell it, or unless you climb as well as he does. Don't inscribe a book you give as a gift, enclose a gift card instead.

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Q. Can you give me advice on writing or publishing my book? Can you give me Jon Krakauer's E-mail address so I can ask him for advice? Can I send you my book to get it signed by Reinhold Messner for me? Can you give me Messner's address so I can send it to him for an autograph?

A. No, it is not my field of expertise. No, I have to respect his privacy. No, I tried doing that and its too difficult to keep track of. No, authors have told me that they really hate getting books in the mail to sign.

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Q.    What to the words and abbreviations Fine, VG, DJ, Ex Lib, Remainder Mark, mean?

A.     Booksellers have come up with a set of words to described the condition of used books, which varies from book to book. As we sell both New and Used books, we usually say 'New' for new books, but if we do not say anything, you can presume the book is New, not used. Once a book as been owned, read and then sold, it often starts showing its age, and its condition has a great effect on its value. Many books are desirable both by readers and collectors, so if collectors have driven up the price of Fine copies, a lesser condition copy may be a good choice for a reader, or a recent paperback reprint may be available.

     New or As New - A brand new, unused, unread book in fresh condition. If we do not specify a condition, it is usually a New book. Half our books are New Books.
   Fine - A used book with no significant flaws, but not as fresh as a New book. We actually have many books that we bought new from the 1980s to 2000s in stock, and still call them New, or Fine if they have been rubbed against other books.

    Very Good or VG - A nice used book with minor flaws. The cover may have shelf wear, the corners may be bumped, it may have a torn or chipped dust jacket, It may have a previous owner's name or bookplate in the book. Most used books are Very Good or Fine.
    Good - A not so nice used book, with more wear or appearance problems than a VG book. It may have extensive wear, the DJ may have pieces missing, or display other flaws such as water stains.
  Ex Lib. A book with marks on the spine and a pocket, labels or rubber stamp marks (RSM) inside from a library. Some library books may still be in Fine condition, while some are rebound and trashed, which are described.
    Dust Jacket or DJ - Most hardcover books since 1920 have dust jackets, which are paper covers designed to help sell the book. On many books they have helped preserve the condition of the book as well. Many collectors prize Fine Dust Jackets, and as it was once common to discard them, the value of the DJ can exceed that of the book. A Chipped DJ has small edge pieces missing, a torn DJ has closed tears that may be invisibile under a clear book jacket cover. If we describe a book as DJ, Fine, it is understood that the book is a hardcover. Some paperbacks have DJs, usually from France, where they are also called Wrappers. Some hardcover books have pictorial covers, with a color photo on the book itself, and no DJ came with the book. Wikipedia has a good essay on Dust Jackets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_jacket
Remainder mark - A small mark on the bottom edge of the pages. Publishers use remainder marks to prevent book returns. Some of our Sale books have remainder marks.

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Q. How do I know that the signatures on the books or Ice Axes that Chessler Books sells are real, and not fake? Does Chessler offer a 'Certificate of Authenticity?'

A. 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 the 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.

In several places in this website, we describe our many visits to see the world's greatest climbers, Sir Edmund Hillary, Heinrich Harrer, Maurice Herzog, Reinhold Messner, Sir Chris Bonington, Jim Whittaker, Royal Robbins, Charles Houston, Bob Bates, Bradford Washburn, plus newer climbers such as Conrad Anker, Lynn Hill, John Gill, Steve Roper, Pete Takeda, Steve House, Pat Ament, plus dozens more. Just the enormity of the task of getting books signed should tell you that it is real. Many of the younger climbers have websites or Facebook Pages, and you can simply e-mail them and ask them if the books of theirs we are selling are really signed by them. 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.

We live in two worlds, the climbing world and the book world. In neither world is the use of a 'Certificates of Authenticity' a common practice. Our personal 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 true first edition of Heinrich Harrer's White Spider, which he signed for us in his Museum in Huttenberg Austria, and by Anderl Heckmair that he signed for us in his kitchen in Oberstdorf German, just a few years before they passed away, buy from us.

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 bteween 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!

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Q. Who is Michael Chessler?

A. This is a reasonable likeness:

See the 'About Us' link on any page for more information about Michael Chessler.

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