RARE BOOK GUIDE - THE RUNNERS, THE RIDERS & THE ODDS

25 July 2008

Where do you get these books? 2



THE SOURCES OF OLD BOOKS (continued).
Auctions are a good source and a place of learning. You see what books sell for, what sort of books sell best and who is buying them. Amazingly, despite the incursions of the behemoth Ebay there are still as many sales as before. Online auctions are a dodgier source and authenticiy and ambitious descriptions are a problem. One can keep a weather eye on top flight sales at Ebay at Rare Book Finder - where I note that the loony with the upside down Harry Potter now has it as a 'Buy it Now' at $19000, about a thousand times its true value. Do not click that button.

3. Bookshops. Second hand bookshops, although an endangered species, still exist and can be found in side streets of many sizable towns. People still sell their books to the owners in house calls (see 4) or by bringing them into the shop (1.) Most shops have too much stock to look everything up, so bargains can be found--also they are anxious to shift the stuff in a lousy economy - so deals can be made. Bookshops are a great source. We have punters who come in three times a day, so it must be true.

4. House calls. These are mostly only available to dealers and have been covered extensively in previous posts. Occasionally collectors sell to other collectors in the mistaken idea that they are paying less to one another than from a dealer -sometimes large collections. This is a parallel market and one hears of collectors paying one another mind boggling sums. Occasionally collectors buy or are given large collections. They usually devolve down to the trade in the end. Conversely one of the mysteries of the trade is that a dealer will often buy a book for more than a collector. In our shop we say 'if a dealer won't buy it the public certainly won't.' In a house in Barnes we bought a large collection of books that had been left (along with the mansion) to a local librarian. So keen as collectors were they that there was evidence that they had bought three substantial collections of books from other collectors. The librarian retired and proceeded to lead his life according to Riley.

5. Garage sales. Yard sales. Less common in the UK but a great source for our American cohorts. A friend in California scans the local paper and presents himself at selected sales at crack of dawn Saturdays and Sundays 51 weeks a year. He has made incredible finds including many boxes of superb pulps (Black Mask etc.,) also the tail end of the library of Robert Heinlein. He goes to the flea market before the yard sales open sometimes with a torch. These sales are also the source of an incredible amount of utter crap - some days he returns empty handed or has to make money on non book items such as records, art, posters and vintage Levi's.

6. Book Fairs. Plenty of these, especially in the UK, and a great source of books for collectors. Resellers are less well catered for although a good deal of cross trading always goes on before fairs start. It was at a book fair in London that someone found Melville's 'The Whale" (UK first 3 vols 1851) for £5, about a thousandth of its true value. Bargains known.

7. Boot Fairs, flea markets, jumble sales, library sales. Plenty of these for the active punter. Often disappointing but as before - 'bargains known.' The general idea is that books for sale should be devastatingly cheap and those charging ambitious prices should be ignored, unless their prices are not ambitious enough. Library sales are more common in America and are the main source of stock for many dealers. Some sales have as many as 500,000 books and dealers come in from surrounding states and fight to the death for the best stuff, a sort of clash of the tight ones.

They are also populated with a new kind of dealer, mostly listing on Amazon, who check their prices with handheld devices such as Neatoscan, ScoutPal and SellerFusion. Fascinating stuff, so far tied to ISBN books but watch that space. These devices work very fast, some old geezer checking ABE on his Blackberry would be left way behind. One good tip with these sales is to watch out for the books that dealers decide to put back on the tables in their final cull- many a bargain there. to be continued

10 comments:

Tim Mayer said...

I love BLACK BOOKS. Netflixed it a few years ago and spent the evening laughing my head off. Every time I go to see my accountant I think of the opening episode with the "Bird has flown the nest!" sketch.
And so many times I've wanted to slap the "On Phone!" postit to my head...

Tim Mayer said...

Ah, garage and yard sales. This is where I've found my best ones. My kids scream "Nooooo" every time the see a Yard Sale sign knowing dad will want to stop.

Steve Bodio said...

Yard sales! I once got a copoy of Abel Chapman's Savage Sudan-- a desirable sporting title and a handsome book- for 25 cents at a sale in my small New Mexico town. It was worth plenty last I looked.

Fnarf said...

All I ever find at estate and yard sales in Seattle is odd volumes of the Collected Sermons of Billy Graham in fake leather with fake gold stamping for twenty dollars each. I suppose I could count the fortune I've saved by not buying these.

Or else the house with almost good books that are sadly composed of 50% cat dander (my wife is supremely allergic). And books laid out on the damp lawn in the morning. Maybe some late-1980s engineering textbooks. Picture books featuring New Kids on the Block or Ninja Turtles. Clive Cussler and Danielle Steele novels in hardback, sans jacket, that have been stacked on top of the furnace for twenty years. You know.

Tim Mayer said...

Two blocks from where I live a retired and reclusive engineer passed away leaving an entire house full of mint condition books. I never knew the gentleman and I only found out what happened when the men remodeling the house for the new owner told me about him. They claimed all the books were trucked away to a used book store.
I just wish I'd have known. Perhaps behind the walls will be found Gnome Press editions.

Anonymous said...

I once found a book on early mills from about 1700, each page a copperplate engraving. Rebound in late-1800s wraps it appears. Only other known copy is in the British Library.

$1 at a charity book sale.

Anonymous said...

I found a first edition of the novel "The Hunters" by Salter for $0.11 at a thrift store. No dust jacket ,alas, but still worth $50.

Ahava Jora said...

I'm curious, does library marking, such as identifying stamps and shelving stickers, devalue a book greatly? How should I take this into account when pricing a book?

Bookride said...

Yes Ahava it does--it should reduce the price by about a half or even more but effectively on the web it's only about a third. Library markings are not so significant if you merely want to read a book but for collectable books library markings are terrible and look bad on the shelf. I personally hate them and avoid bookshops that are full of ex lib books, but a new kind of collector has arisen who is more comfortable with them so things may change...

Anonymous said...

Second hand books are the good choice. The cost less than new book, while the content is the same. It is a pity that a book stay in the shelf. It is better to sell it or give it to somebody.