About
Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer, author, and appraiser.
She is the co-founder of Type Punch Matrix, a Washington DC-area rare book firm specializing in pivotal works from every field.
The author of several books, her latest is Jane Austen’s Bookshelf.
Rebecca is active on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
Photograph by Donnamaria R. Jones.
Type Punch Matrix
Over the course of her career, Rebecca has sold Shakespeare Folios, first editions of Newton's Principia Mathematica and Darwin's Origin of Species, and individual leaves from the Gutenberg Bible.
She offers consultations for her clients at Type Punch Matrix, where book collectors can find rare, collectible, vintage and deluxe editions of a wide range of books.
Expertise In Rare Books
Rebecca has been in the rare book trade since 2007, when she was hired by Bauman Rare Books for their new location in Las Vegas. In 2010, she became manager of that gallery. She eventually moved to Philadelphia to manage the central operations of the firm, where she also handled the acquisition of libraries and oversaw catalogue production. After a stint at the Brooklyn-based Honey & Wax Booksellers (where she co-founded a book collecting prize), she founded her own rare book firm, Type Punch Matrix.
Rebecca is on the board of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the Council of the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA), and on the board and faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminars. She is a member of the Grolier Club, the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie (AIB), the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), and the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI).
Pawn Stars
Rebecca began appearing on the HISTORY Channel’s television show Pawn Stars as the rare book specialist in 2011. Despite the distance, she still films for the show when she visits Las Vegas, making her one of the longest running specialists (and the only regular woman specialist) on the show.
Watch a compilation of her appearances in Season 14:
The Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize
Rebecca is the co-founder and one of the judges the Honey & Wax Prize, an annual award for an outstanding book collection built by a woman, age 30 or younger, living in the US.
Rebecca was featured in The Booksellers, a documentary with executive producer Parker Posey about the rare book trade in New York that premiered at New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.
Variety's review of the film called her a "cockeyed optimist of bibliophilia" with terrifying accuracy.
As a researcher & collector, Rebecca's personal interests lie in genre fiction, especially science fiction, fantasy, & romance.
In 2020, she edited an anthology of speculative fiction stories first published as early as 1838 that capture some aspect of life today:
Collecting Romance Novels
Rebecca is one of the nation’s leading rare book dealers with a specialty in romance novels. Learn more about why collecting in this genre is important and to join the burgeoning movement to preserve romance history.
Those interested in casual appraisals will find more information on the Appraisals page.
Rebecca is represented by Michelle Brower at Trellis Literary Management. All other media and business inquiries should correspond through Rebecca’s company, Type Punch Matrix.