Anyway, we left there and made it back to Medina by 9:30. There was an auction down the street and around the corner from my house, so I decided to wander down and see if they had anything good. I knew about it and, in fact, had looked it up online, but it was mostly a Disneyana sale and failed to get me too worked up. But since it was THERE, and the sun was shining, a little exercise and some vitamin D rays seemed like a good idea. I think in all there were maybe 15 people -- okay, maybe twenty-five -- gathered in the front yard. I took a look around, but if you weren't into Cinderella wedding cake toppers, rusty Mickey Mouse lunchboxes etc. this was a five minute operation. To be fair, they did have some really fine older toys in their original boxes and got a lot of money for them. One wind-up Donald Duck alone fetched $300. Sadly, I am not charmed by Disney, so it was all pretty much lost on me.
BUT they did have two flats of paper I wanted and some aviation magazines. I wasn't willing to wait all afternoon for them to come up on the block, but I didn't have to. Within twenty minutes I had spent $140 on the two flats, paid the bill, and was strolling home in the sun carrying them, happy as a bookseller can be in these crazy times. I quickly made some coffee, sat down on the kitchen floor and had a look at the goodies. I didn't buy the aviation magaines because they ultimately went to $100 a flat for six issues each. As it turned out, I got a couple anyway in one of the flats, as well as a 19th century Anti-Saloon League leaflet, and several excellent manufacturer's catalogs -- one for Hotpoint Servants, which turned out to be small appliances, and a killer one for stoves which actually made me jump up and twirl around the kitchen. I also got a very nice 1929 Standard Oil Ohio road map, two little magazines from the Alexander Aircraft Company with gorgeous graphic covers and a superb strereopticon card showing African American workers on a train at the west portal of the Hoosac Tunnel. There's some nice Golden Age of Travel pieces too, plus a 1917 WWI entertainment program for the Second Officer's Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Of all the items it's the only one that has real condition issues, but it's solid and clean (now that I cleaned it), though stainned, and will be great for the antiques mall.
The last thing I did before it was officially noon was to call a woman who had left me a message at the antiques mall about wanting to sell some books. I will go see them this week sometime, but I don't think they're good. I think SHE was pretty good though. Turns out, she had met my frend Cheryl this summer on a trip to Chicago, so we wound up laughing and talking like we'd known each forever.
Oh! Speaking of the antiques mall, yesterday I found a great bookcase on Craigslist and actually GOT it, which is rare, as most of the time the stuff's already sold and the seller forgot to remove it. It was sort of a comedy of errors as it turned out, but I'll spare you that story. Suffice it to say it's very nice, matches the ones I have, and only cost $50. We installed it yesterday which means that the booth is officially one hundred percent done unless we sell the furniture. If we add anything other than books we NEED a second booth.
Okay then, you're up-to-date on the happenings here. I took an array of photos for your pleasure, so scroll down and see some of what I got today.
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