A Swell-Looking Book Used & Rare Books - Book Selling

Adventures of a Book Dealer
Among the Savages

A Collection of Humorous (and Perhaps Some Not-So)
Anecdotes on Book Selling, Collecting,
Bibliophily, Bibliogony, and More
continued

book.

Buying is a fine art. As is fairly standard in the trade (except for those
few guys who will try to low ball everyone, all the time) I offer between
30% to 50% of my retail price for good books. The percentage depends
upon a number of factors, but most importantly among these are rarity,
condition, and how long I believe it will take to turn the item(s) around.
It's important here to have good instincts. I always tell the potential
seller all of this up front. I think it generally helps to share as much
information as possible.

It's always satisfying when I buy a collection and it works out to have
been a good deal for myself and for the seller. I know I am doing things
right. Example: last year I bought a good sized collection of 19th century
stuff - literature and more. There were some terrific books (3rd printing
of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 2nd printing of Cooper's The Spy), some not so
great. I paid a fairly hefty sum, but I was confident that I had done my
homework on the books and used my instincts to full advantage. In a
little over a year, with just about all of the best books sold, I have about
doubled my investment. This was a good deal for both myself and the
seller (who happened to be a very nice, intelligent, reasonable, elderly
woman, with a fine eye for literature, art, and more).

I have some people that bring me books regularly, who just can't be
discouraged. One woman finally did stop coming. The sad thing is that
she was a nice person, too. I enjoyed talking with her, but she never
brought me a single decent book in probably twenty visits. She'd lug in
several bags every few weeks or so. I bought a few things out of
sympathy (mistake!) and she kept coming. Finally, I was buying nothing,
and she still kept coming. I'm sorry, but it was always dreck. One day
she was here, I may have been a little rude with her, rushing out the
door to go to a library sale. She has only been back once since, I think,
and I didn't buy from her then. Sometimes you have to be rude. I guess
this is what every book dealer learns. As a part-time model
railroader/toy train collector, as well (yeah, I know, how many hobbies
can one guy have??), I can tell you that Hobby shop owners are almost
just as cranky and crabby as book dealers, too, but that's a story for
another time.

                         Condition and Age

Some people trying to sell you their books will think that a book is in
good condition if it is presently not on fire. If it's currently burning,
yeah, the condition is a little rough, but if it's been extinguished and has
only a few charred pages, well, it's in pretty good shape . . . for it's age,
often comes next.

There was this one knucklehead one time, at whose home I was making
a house call. I just knew he was going to be trouble from the beginning
. . . I can't put my finger on it, but I could tell (instincts). He had a small
collection of railroading books, maybe 50 books. There were some decent
books, but nothing real rare. They would have been much better, but
condition was a problem. Jackets were taped with scotch tape, wrinkled,
creased, soiled. Some books had slanted spines, etc., etc. I could do
something with them, but not too much. He was an older man, walking
with a cane, obviously with some health issues. Again, out of sympathy, I
made him a very good offer considering the condition of the books. He
was very deluded. He was insulted by my offer, thinking they were worth
thousands more. He told me he'd rather burn the books than sell them
to me. If it wasn't so sad, I'd have laughed. I tried to explain that the
overall condition of the collection was a problem. He'd have none of it.
They were in great shape, like new, almost never read - I think my
mouth was hanging open at his assessment. Of course, someone who'd
treated their books so roughly and poorly to begin with, wouldn't
understand that this was a problem. To him, these abused books were
just fine. I made a hasty retreat, and learned some more about the
business. Like it will never pay to try to be nice when buying books. I
really hope someone really hope someone eventually was able to set him
straight.

          A Great Book for the Beginning Collector

While I'm talking condition, I'm reminded of one of the all-time best
ebay listings for a book. I wish I'd saved the photo and exact description,
but it went something like this . . .

It was for an old copy of Hemingway's, Farewell to Arms. I believe the
seller advertised it as a first edition, but from the photos it was obviously
not. There were several pictures and a fairly lengthy description, all for a
book that should have been tossed out with the morning trash a long
time ago. The book didn't have a dust jacket, the cloth was missing or
frayed at all corners and the crown and heel of the spine. The hinges
were completely broken, there were a few missing pages up front, the
cloth was faded, there were grease stains, and best of all right in the
middle on the front cover was a white paint ring. It had been used to set
a paint can on, to keep someone's work bench clean! The seller admitted
that it had a few flaws, but would make a great book for the beginning
first edition collector!

You couldn't even consider this book a reading copy. I wouldn't wanted
to have touched it without rubber gloves. If someone were given this and
told, okay here start a first edition collection with this, they'd be turned
off of book collecting permanently.

Okay, here's a piece of Tiffany, it's been cracked and super-glued in
twenty places, but it makes a fine starter piece . . .

                        Nigerian Email Scams

Here's something that makes you sit back and say, "Isn't the internet
great!" I've recently been receiving, along with many other small book
sellers, bogus emails from people purporting to be starting used book
stores in Nigeria and wanting to buy lots of stock with a credit card
number. I received five differently worded emails in one week! At this
rate, there'll be more used book stores in Lagos than in New York City.
Apparently, the cc numbers are stolen. If the book dealer ships and the
card is found to be stolen, he's out the money. My question is: What are
they doing with the books? If they're actually getting some? Are used
books in English that hot a commodity in Nigeria? Do they rope you into
some other scam if they hook you with the book thing? Have they found
that book dealers are a more gullible lot than most? It's fascinating.
Here I am, trying to sell a few books, sitting in my little shop in uptown
Park Ridge, the heartland of America and all that, and here's this guy
half a world away, trying to pick my pocket! Beautiful! What better
example of the power of this technology can you find? I realize it's a poor
country, and thus people turn to crime, but can't they target someone
bigger than myself. Can't they find some way of ripping off large
multi-national corporations? Why must the weak and disenfranchised
always prey on the weak and disenfranchised?