Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Sale-ing Along ...

Michigan was fun, but it’s nice to be back at work. Today we are off to a book sale and I am looking forward to breaking in that new L.L. Bean bag. It’s even a library sale which, as you know, I place in the same category as a root canal. Oh, the crazies will be there swarming like gnats, but I’m still jazzed (though that could change when I see them). But even the downside has an upside today because I also have a meeting with the publicist hired by NOBS (Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society) to plan strategy for the 2012 antiquarian book and paper show. Yes, this year the 30th anniversary fair has been expanded to include paper which is very exciting because I’m crazy for paper and have sold it for years.

The bad/good part of the book sale is the way it’s handled. It starts at five, but due to the behavior of the aforementioned crazies, the Friends of the Library have found it infinitely more peaceful to hand out numbers at two. While this is great in theory, and actually IS great in a way, because you can leave, have a late lunch or early dinner and come back shortly before the doors open, it also means you need to be there initially at NOON. Yes, noon – and even then you will not be at the front of the line. So we’ll stand around for two hours, grab a number, go off to meet the publicist, and come back around 4:30. The pre-sale publicity doesn’t exactly have me buzzing like a lightning rod, as it seems much too hyped over cookbooks, but I’m counting on liking something they didn’t deem worthy of mention. At any rate, we need books so we will go and hope for the best.

But enough of that. I had the coolest thing happen Friday and haven’t had time to tell you about it. A man called from New England saying that he had stumbled across my blog post from last year about the Chinese autograph book from the 1870’s which contained photos and entries by both American and Chinese teenagers (see Monday, June 14, 2010 &Thursday, July 8, 2010) in the archive. With the help of my oldest daughter we had determined that very likely the book was a relic from the Chinese American educational mission which took place in New England. It’s very difficult to set a price for something like this and I was not entirely hot to sell it anyway, so I tucked it away with our private collection and decided we’d keep it. The caller indicated straight up that he wanted it and I responded immediately with tepid interest. My fear with one-of- a-kind items such as this is that the buyer has only a passing interest and will ultimately not take care of it. In a world increasingly dependent on technological storage (often solely on technological storage) I hang on to items like this with both hands. I guess you might be thinking I’m out of my mind, but I actually can, and have, turned down sales for such reasons. At last year’s antiquarian show we talked a woman out of buying a set of children’s books only to break it up and disperse it amongst her grandchildren across the country!

So, with that in mind, I listened to what he had to say, though doubted greatly that the little black book was about to depart my company. But guess what? If ever a book belonged to someone this one belongs to him. Not only was he a smart guy who knows his way around a bookstore, but also a collector who is incredibly well versed on this little known aspect of American history. He told me so much about it that I actually sat down (and I NEVER sit down to talk on the phone) and listened raptly. Though I knew that the Chinese boys boarded with American families (which is truly incredible) I did not know that many boarded with unmarried Christian women! I also didn’t know that when they returned to China with their shiny new American educations they were not honored at all and ,in fact, paid for it for a time with lessened career opportunities. Ultimately this changed and they became superstars, but first they had to pay their dues for swimming against the tide.

By then I knew I’d found my made-to-order most perfect buyer ever, I told him outright that I’d harbored concerns, but he’d talked his way past them. I also said that Eric and I would think over the weekend about selling it and I’d call him back Monday. I did, he did, and I shipped it this morning priority mail insured.

How cool is THAT?

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