Certificates of Authenticity

In 100 years, I'd love to hear book collectors wondering why they can find so many climbing books signed by Hillary, Messner, Robbins and Kor. Because Chessler Books spent three decades traveling the world to get them for collectors, and we didn't start until the 1980s.

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 massed produced fake collectibles such as you buy on a TV shopping channel or eBay, and their use would actually debase what we do. Gold plated coins. Pens made from the wood of the house where Lincoln finished writing the Gettysburg Address. Pictures of the Titanic with a lump of coal from the ship.

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.

Some customers have told us they trust us, but that 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 in other bookseller's websites or book shops, but at higher prices. Some may even offer a Certificate of Authenticity.

Does that mean that their copies are somehow better than ours? Not usually, as many of them bought their copies from us!

In 100 years, I'd love to hear book collectors wondering why they can find so many climbing books signed by Hillary, Messner, Robbins and Kor. Because Chessler Books spent three decades traveling the world to get them for collectors, and we didn't start until the 1980s.