Monday, October 31, 2011

the routine

I go out, I buy books. If the kids are sick, like today, I don't. I process the books that are here or I go through them and look for dupes, gather together lots. I check my accounts. I wander up the hill to the shed and spend a few minutes up there, going through on-hand inventory. Or I write to dealers I know. Collectors who are looking for that one elusive book to complete their collection. I might have it too, I have a good number of books around. More than my wife will ever know.

Fortunately, I find new places and open up new mining operations, you know? New veins of "gold". A Pocket Book paperback that I pay .35 cents for and sell for $5.00. I don't go to any one place more than twice a week. Things don't change too often, well, except for the donations at the library. That's a treasure trove. And I treat it respectfully, I mean, when I see a book that will sell - I do put it aside and leave a note for the head of the Friends. I just don't put everything book like that aside. Like the ARC of Kerouac's first novel. That one I kept. The Heritage Press books? I bought them, $3.00 for 6 of them. Don Quitoxe, illustrated by Salvador Dali? Yeah, that made it's way home with me too.

Some sit for awhile, warm up on chilly days. Ideally, I would buy a book on a Thursday, post it on Friday and it would sell over the weekend. On-line sales. I don't have a booth, I don't sit at a table - I don't do street sales - I don't own a shop - I don't sit, except in the comforts of my house, anywhere. I have kids to tend and books to mend.

Friday, October 7, 2011

used as bookmark #1


I have so many of these it's a side project of a side project itself. Not that I would sell any of them but I think it's interesting as hell.
Here is the bookmark from the copy of The Persuader by Robert Pollock that I found recently. It's a polaroid photo of a poster from the late 1960s (or so, I am guessing). Kind of goes with the suggestive cover image. Don'cha think? Anyway, the book isn't as near porn as the cover but it does raise the point that I have made in the past that covers sell and that sexy covers sell more - making up, usually, for crappy writing.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

one way to kill a book value

Went outside the city over the weekend to a recycling center I know about and they have a metal trailer on site that is used for books and clothes. I found a handful of things including an 1800's copy of two books in one volume of J. Fenimore Cooper's work. Lionel Lincoln and The Wept of Wish-ton-wish.. The volume had been part of a set of collected novels by Cooper that had been published by Belford, Clarke, and Co. I haven't been able to get an exact read on the publication date but it seems to be 1850's.

To my great disappointment, however, the book has been taped together using clear packing tape. It's "together" but the value of the book is almost nil. There are no markings inside the book. It's an otherwise beautiful object. Otherwise, com'on, be serious, the binding must have broken and the idiot owner or whatever had the genius idea of using packing tape to hold it together. Repaired on the cheap. Christ, why did they bother? I am glad to have it in my possession but I won't expect to make a dime off of it. It's an orphan, a stray, a lost "soul". It's my job to save it.