It’s 6:30 a.m. and I am waiting for Eric to get up to help me finish the packaging of a set of six volumes off to Slovakia today. The postal rates just went up Monday, so the only way I can keep the cost down for this buyer is to use a crazy, weird 23” long box the postal service devised for international priority shipping of large items. We didn’t have one, so I had to have him pick one up yesterday on the way home to see if it would even work. As it turns out, it will with three packages of two volumes each laid flat inside and separated with packing. I have everything bubble wrapped, but this box seems flimsier to me than the regular priority boxes, so I want him to cut some cardboard to line it – sort of a box within a box. I would do it myself except the only cardboard I have that’s long enough is not lined so you can easily score it with a box cutter. No matter what I do I can NOT cut though this stuff! I know it sounds like overkill to even try, but this box costs an astonishing $61.00! Anyone willing to pay such a staggering sum to ship a $65 set of books deserves first class treatment.
Today, in fact, I have TWO sets to wrap, but the other one will be departing media mail to a town in Ohio. Even so, it will cost an astonishing $9.60. Every time the postal rates flip it seems to sound a death knell to our sales and yet buyers adjust. But I do believe that even though there are clear signs of adaptation there are also equal signs of resistance. Eventually, as the rates continue to shoot for the stratosphere, which they WILL, we might hit a brick wall on overseas orders. I was talking to a seller last fall at a book sale and he said he never gets European orders anymore. Obviously, I do, but they’re certainly not what they used to be.
Enough of that though. Today is a whirlwind, already gathering momentum. Once the mail is out I have to get books ready for the antiques mall, then drop them off, and head out to an auction. Though they’re advertising books,it looks like it’s more of a paper seller’s heaven, so I am hoping to at least acquire some of that. The last time I was at this auction (it’s been a long time – a year I think) I did great, but that’s not the usual course of events. People go bonkers here, especially with paper as many, if not most, of the buyers are collectors who will pay whatever it takes. I also can only stay three hours, as we have to get back to Akron by seven for the NOBs book fair committee meeting. By ten I should be a sleepwalker, as I got up at 4:30 this morning!
As I mentioned, I have been buying a lot of books on ebay these days. It’s a time consuming job with mixed results – many sellers don’t have a clue what to even TELL you about a book – but when it works it’s been known to send me whirling and twirling around my office. Yesterday, for example, I bought a $90 book on a Buy it Now for $24 with free shipping and a $200 book for $15.00 INCLUDING shipping, on auction. How I managed that last one I have no idea. I had a big bid hidden, as I was sure there were a couple lurkers ready to pounce in the last few minutes, but I guess they wandered off to dinner while I sat staring at the screen balancing a plate of tuna noodle casserole and spinach salad on my lap while Eric dined by himself at the kitchen island.
I promised to show you some of my recent ebay purchases, so check out my favorite below – a beautiful set by John Fiske from 1902 entitled Essays: Historical and Literary. A lot of people have cloth bound sets, but these are half leather with beautiful spines sporting raised bands, gilt top edges, marbled endpapers, and pages as white as snowdrifts. For these I paid $38.00, plus $4.00 shipping. Not only do they delight the eye, but I also rather like old Fiske for some odd reason. I remember once having had a four volume set of his magnum opus, Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, which sought to reconcile orthodox religious beliefs with the Darwinian theory of evolution as filtered through the mind of Herbert Spencer, with whom he was most enamored. That was a long time ago though and this is the first Fiske I’ve even seen since then.
So now, having checked in with you guys and fulfilled my promise to play show and tell, I’m off to the basement to saw cardboard by myself. The only thing Eric appears interested in sawing is logs!
4 comments:
Those are some gorgeous books! Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy -- something Flannery O'Connor might have read.
I never would hsve thought of Flannery! But they ARE gorgeous. I love them, so much so that I have them on our personal shelves, but they are also listed. If they sell there will be a cry of anguish -- just ignore it. That, too, will pass.
I love the photo of them. The beautiful books with the backdrop of the window displaying winter's bare trees.
Thanks, Hilda. I took this very early in the morning with a flash. Normally I use natural light later in the day. The bay window in my living room has become my staging area because the light is very good without a lot of glare.
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