Now from a small storefront in a mall near Pedro Point, the two sell rare books, prints and maps to customers throughout the world.

"Collecting prints and maps has always been a passion," Hall said recently as he sorted through a pile of hand-lettered maps, some dating from the 1600s. "This is the best basis for starting a business."

The two started the collecting habit more than 25 years ago - she was a history teacher, he was interested primarily in maps.

Their first buy was an estate in Massachusetts, a lifetime of memorabilia collected by an executive whose family showed no interest in the goods after his death.

"The estate contained everything," Manning said. "Lots of Civil War items, all sorts of wonderful things."

Eventually, they parlayed their hobby into Prints Old and Rare, with a customer base of 7,000 ranging from the University of California's Bancroft Library in Berkeley to antique dealers in the Philippines to professors in Japan.

Behind two small storefronts furnished with a desk and a couple of chairs, huge storage rooms hold floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed with goodies.

There are layers of prints in scores of categories, boxes of books, piles of old sheet music, brochures on obscure topics, original posters, elegant first editions and all sorts of maps.

The walls are hung with 19th century engravings, hand-drawn maps of Europe, a bright red and black Chinese calendar. It's a browsers paradise.

But the store, set toward the back of Crespi Center off Highway 1, attracts almost no foot traffic. Most of the customers - dealers, universities, researchers, historical societies, individuals - order by mail. And the business can satisfy a diverse crowd of customers.

"Many people have a particular passion." Manning said. "Some collect pictures of people holding hands. Texans want maps of Texas as a republic. People from Virginia and West Virginia want pre-Civil War maps, when the two states were one.

"A rabbi from South Carolina collects anti-Semitic material from the turn of the century. Howard University and other mostly black universities in the South collect prints and material on the history of slavery."

Once, a group of women visiting from Kansas found a picture of their old high school. "They were thrilled," Manning said.

The women were looking under a category called "ephemera," defined in the dictionary as "something short-lived."

"These are things people throw away," Manning said, holding an old travel guide to West Virginia. "But they become valuable if they are kept long enough." The Chinese calendar from 1903, decorated with real hair and genuine, old Chinese coins, qualifies. So does a copy of sheet music for "The Hungarian Rag."

Manning and Hall moved the business to Pacifica from San Francisco eight years ago after doing shows in the area. "We love it here," they said.

"One of the criteria is they have to be dead." Manning said. Only female staffers participate.

This year honors Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy's national hero, and King Alfonso XII of Spain, among others. But for the millennium, they're considering very special hunks, such as author Jack London, who lived in Pedro Point briefly during his childhood, and his good friend poet George Sterling.

The business also carries original Beatles posters and movie memorabilia. Who knows what future calendars may bring?