Everything old is new again in Estes Park

Internet extends reach of businesses

ESTES PARK – All of us have had the same dream. Retire young enough to enjoy it. Move to a beautiful place that most people are lucky to visit on vacation once a year. Open a business and continue to earn a living indulging your particular passion. Be happy.

Kelly Bradford is living that dream as owner of The Book Cat. The store takes its name from Molly, the 2-year-old, smoke-gray Scottish Fold cat usually found curled up contentedly near her owner. The Book Cat is Estes Park’s largest retail source of used, rare and antique books.

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At one time, the dream of operating a bookstore in a seasonal resort community is one that would be frozen stiff by winter weather and washed away by spring in a sea of red ink. But Bradford is a reference librarian by trade who is using the cataloging and reference capabilities of the Internet to help make a success of his new calling.

“The Internet is first and foremost an information medium,” Bradford said. “I have been reading it on a daily basis for years as a professional reference librarian. I would find it very difficult to operate The Book Cat without a Web presence. The Internet is a fabulous resource because it gives a bookseller the ability to describe and catalog certain books that could not be made available to their limited audience any other way. A book can be posted and on its way around the world in a matter of a few hours.”

It can be an especially useful tool when you operate a bookstore in a location that cannot be easily accessed during several months of the year. It also helps to move that turn-of-the-century textbook on methods of dental extraction, though there is no one kind of book that is a predictable seller on the Web.

“What sells from our Web site is babbling and perplexing,” Bradford said. “Sometimes the most plain and plentiful-looking little book finds its way to untold places worldwide via the Web. It is also a very good venue for books of interest to a more-selective audience: doctors, lawyers, university professors.”

Of the more than 17,000 books in stock at The Book Cat, about 3,300 are cataloged on the store’s Web-site presence. Store items are listed on two primary sites: the Advanced Book Exchange (www.abebooks.com/home/book

cat) and Bibliofind (www.bibliofind.com).

“There is a fairly even distribution between the two sites in terms of sales,” Bradford said. “There are, however, some differences on the type of books that sell best on the Web sites.”

Science fiction is The Book Cat’s biggest Internet seller in terms of number of volumes sold. General fiction and specialized technical manuals, antique children’s books and Western Americana follow it.

Books are not the only traditional wares finding their way to new and appreciative owners via The Internet. At Serendipity Trading Co., owners John and Karen Ericson are establishing a Web site (www.serendipity.com) that will showcase their fine collection of Native American jewelry, pottery, kachinas and artwork.

“It is a definite part of our plan to attract new customers and appeal to old customers in a new way,” John Ericson said. “It will be an especially helpful way to offer our higher-end pieces, especially pottery and jewelry by certain artisans who are in high demand.”

Ericson expects the Web site to be up and running before the winter snows, the traditional slow season for walk-in business throughout Estes Park.

Even the Estes Park Chamber Resort Association has gotten into the act, establishing a Web site designed to help in planning details of a vacation to Estes Park.

“The Chamber Resort Association needed to have a gateway Web site,´ said Peter Marsh, consultant for the Web-site project. “But they also wanted something that would be much broader.”

The resulting site (www.estesparkresort.com) gives browsers the opportunity to take a mini tour of Estes Park and to plan details of a vacation there.

“We recognize that visiting here is a major financial commitment for a family,” Marsh said. “We wanted to sell folks on the idea that this will be money well-spent. We compete for the same leisure dollar with places like Vail and Breckenridge. Providing a how-to-do-it manual is an edge.”

Used books, traditional artwork and a century-old vacation haven are among the many old things that are finding new and exciting life, thanks to their presence on the Internet.