I thought I’d be back sooner than this, but we had the big book sale on Tuesday, followed by another big book sale on Wednesday and I had a cold throughout the whole thing. I also absolutely HAD to upload some new books to keep Abe from going as dormant as a tulip bulb in the dead of winter. For me ABE is crucial, as a good seventy-five per cent of our sales derive from there. I know people argue that other sites are better for them, but I think it’s a matter of what you have. When I had my once-a-year picker and his 28 boxes of brand new books alibris and affiliates snapped up the majority, but when I choose books myself the golden goose is ABE – hands down.
I’m happy to report that the sales were fun. In fact, the five-hour-wait -sale Tuesday was as peaceful as the Dali Lama’s bedroom. Only one of the crazies showed up and I think he was on meds given the lack of theatrics. The books were so-so, but I did get a lot for the antiques mall and maybe a half dozen nice things for online, including a 1905 A Child’s Garden of Verses with Jessie Wilcox Smith illustrations and 38 – count ‘em! -- Lakeside Press annual Christmas issue books from the 40’s through the 60’s. I want to do a blog post about these separately very soon, but I thought I’d mention them because they were a great buy at $40 for the lot.
The next morning, sniffling and sneezing all the way, I showed up at the Wayne County Fairgrounds at seven a.m. for the Wooster AAUW sale.The crowd was down, but word had leaked (ha-ha) that a day of torrential rain had damaged 300 boxes of their donations. There were still a LOT of books, but no specials table which means the best of what they took in in donations got an unwelcome bath. But, even so, I found a lot of books for the antiques mall and some great stuff for online too. The award for most expensive book goes to Eric who unearthed The Tombs of the Doges of Venice by Debra Pincus for a paltry $2. My favorite finds include a 1920's book in superb condition about the Phillipines with a fold-out map (see picture below)and LOTS of magazines. At fifty cents a copy I got 13 complete years, four issues per year of Antiquity, A Quarterly Review of Archaeology spanning the 50’s and 60’s, plus two stand-alone fat issues with fold-outs from the 1920’s and 13 miscellaneous other issues. I also bought at $1 each a box of Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians so heavy if would make a sumo wrestler tipsy. I know there are many full year runs there – I’m just not sure yet HOW many. Okay, I can hear it already -- she’s nuts! I AM nuts -- about magazines. Love ‘em and they know it so they always go happily off to their new homes for me. Add to all of the above breakfast with our friend Paul from Archer’s Books and the sale was great fun.
This morning I finally got over to the mall loaded up with 15 new books. When I buy mall books I never take everything at once, as it’s better to have something new every weekend. It also took me all of yesterday morning to clean, ticket, and mylar the ones I did take which is another reason I’ve been MIA here. From there we headed to the local library where we met with the new volunteers for the FOL sale. No, no – it’s NOT what you’re thinking. I am NOT going to pre-pick sales. My role was only to advise.They had quite a number of old books that had been around since Noah built the Ark but, sadly, all it took was one glance to understand why. Except for a 1937 University of Akron yearbook and two of those cute art instruction books for kids with the killer color art published by Prang at the turn-of-the-century (their's were mint) the rest was literally landfill.
But the fun part was the stash hidden in a cupboard. They actually had five really nice volumes which is a lot considering that this is not a book town One I recognized immediately as a $50 book because I sold it twice this year. The others I had never had but I knew they were good, so I showed them how to look things up on bookfinder comparing “apples to apples” and, sure enough, they hit the jackpot every time. I know they would have sold them to me on the spot, and I must say it was tempting, but I have ranted about that like a fishwife here for the past year so it would be hypocritical to even THINK it. So, sadly, I refrained and am glad I did because it truly is a conflict of interest. This library has had a bad rep with dealers and now things are rockin’ and rollin’ under new management so they need those books to lure back the former faithful.
Anyway, it’s been a booky week and there’s an estate sale tomorrow morning which promises “antique books.” Given the fact that we will have to be there at 6:30 in the morning I’m trusting the book gods to smile on us one more time.
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