One of the good things about selling through www.abebooks.com is that you can put your listings on vacation when you are going to be out of town. That is where our listings our right now, because we are on our way to California. Our listings will be open on Thursday morning.
We will be back in Washington on Saturday. The blog will resume then.
The news of the day in the book biz seems to be the lawsuit filed by the Flatsigned book people in Tennessee against Don Imus and his flagship radio station. It seems that Flatsigned took out advertising on the show, and the Imus ad-libbed the copy, and deprecated his sponsor. Particularly offensive to Imus was his having to promote the sale of a book signed by Gerald Ford shortly after the ex-president had died. He made the signed book business seem unseemly.
Well, I think that Imus had a point, although as usual, he didn’t express it very well (in fact, he should not have expressed it at all, except perhaps not to have agreed to the ad).
The point goes to the entire autograph business, however, and not to the signed book business in particular. And Imus points at himself, as he has written a few books, and signed numerous copies of them at book store signings, which I have heard him promote on the air.
So perhaps he was complaining because it appears that Flatsigned was capitalizing on the president’s death. And in a way they were (although I am not sure that Ford’s death increased the value of his signature appreciably).
I don’t know how Flatsigned operates. It appears that for the most part they solicit the signatures of many of the books they sell, and that they mark up the prices and advertise them on their website and elsewhere.
That is quite different from what we do. We scrounge around for the books. We go to library sales, charity sales, estate sales and second hand book stores. We cull through what exists to see what we can find. The books we find are generally one of a kind – some are flatsigned (no inscription, just a signature), some are book sale inscribed (to Tammy, best wishes, _________), and some have long presentation paragraphs (“To my mistress and best friend, in the hope that my wife never finds out about you, love ______”). These are books that might otherwise be thrown out, but (we believe) to someone (a collector, a relative, the author’s wife’s lawyer) may turn out to be of some value.
And another thing: I don’t think we would ever advertise on Imus. Although we do have two copies of God’s Other Son and one copy of Four Corners for sale. All signed, thank you.
Adriana Groisman is an Argentine born photographer, who has apparently long been interested in the tango. She published a unique photo book about the lonely people who go to late night clubs to dance the tango, and who don’t get home until the sun has already risen. The book was published in Argentina in 2004 in both Spanish and English editions. It is hard to find, with only two or three copies available on abebooks.
My copy is in English. It is signed by Groisman. The subject matter and the formatting of the book itself are both of interest.
It will be listed shortly.
We were rushed for time when we returned the car to the Ft. Lauderdale airport yesterday, and left a bag in the car containing books in excellent condition signed by Israeli president Shimon Peres, and by host Don Imus (and sidekick Charles McCord). I did not have time to retrieve it at the airport, but left word with Hertz in case they found it. They called this morning; it is there; and soon will be here. Thanks to Hertz.
We have been in Florida for the past five days, returning tomorrow. We are bringing with us a nice copy of “Alone” (a presentation copy signed by Admiral Richard Byrd), a photography book of beautiful portraits taken by Snowdon (and signed by him), a signed copy of Burt Reynolds’ autobiography, and several others. A more substantial report will follow our return.
When you acquire books, you tend to acquire bookmarks. When you acquire used books, you tend to acquire bookmarks from places where you have never been.
Here are some of my favorites from my box of foreign bookmarks:
El Lector, Asuncion, Paraguay (cloth)
Harrods, Knightsbridge (leather)
Euler, Nivel Lagoa
Felix Meiner, Leipzig
Culzean, Edinburgh, Scotland
Faqir Chand & Sons, New Delhi
Wicklow Street Bookshop, Dublin
L’espace Loisirs, Cannes
Gateway Bookshop, Clonmel
Waterstones, London
Tropismes, Brussels
Eric T. Moore Books, Hitchin, Hertsford
James Thin, Edinburgh
Watkins Books, London
Prestige Book-Sellers, Nairobi
Steinmatzky, Tel Aviv
Ivor Nicholson, London
Peter Wenzel, Charlottenburg
The Bookshop, Tring
The Book Cellar, Toronto
Quest, Oakville, ONT
Bladwijzer, Groningen
Elke Shriver, ’s Gravenhage
Octopus Books, Ottawa
We purchased two new signed books today.
One is a book I had never seen before, entitled My Father, Uncle Miltie, written by William Berle, Milton Berle’s son, along with a writer named Brad Lewis. Berle had “no affinity for show business” and wound up a pilot, while Lewis, who graduated from the medical school at Columbia University, became a playwright, actor and biographer. The book is in as-new condition (it was published in1999). On Abebooks.com, there are only 18 copies of this book for sale. None are signed.
The second book is about Watergate and one of its perpetrators and victims, Jeb Stuart Magruder, vice president of the Committee to Re-elect the President, who was involved in the burglary at the offices of the Democratic Party. I have seen numerous copies of this book, but never one that was signed. Beyond that, however, is the mystery that surrounds this copy. It is an over-sized paperback, in extremely good condition. It is a stated first edition.
I have never seen this book in paperback before, and don’t understand how this can be a first. There are many hard back first editions for sale, and the only two listed paperbacks on Abebooks.com are a later Pocket Book edition (this is an Atheneum), which I am sure if much smaller in size, and an Advance Reader’s Copy. So what is this one?
I am looking at a book entitled The Conspiracy Trial, and subtitled “The extended edited transcript of the trial of the Chicago Eight, complete with motions, rulings, contempt citations, sentences and photographs”. It is a large size paperback books 7″ by 10″ and over 600 pages. It is in very good condition (not ‘as new’, but clearly ‘very good’). On the inside of the first page, the following has been handwritten: “Best wishes, Abbie”. The question is whether or not this is a book signed by Abbie Hoffman.
I think it is. Why? Two reasons (and, unfortunately, only two reasons):
1. I have a picture of Abbie Hoffman’s signature on a copy of his book Free. It is a full signature, first and last name, but there is a great deal of similarity between the “Abbie” on Free and my “Abbie”.
2. There is advertised on Abebooks a hardback copy of The Conspiracy Trial, signed by Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale. (No picture) Interestingly, Abbie Hoffman, as opposed to the other two, has signed this book “Abbie”, just like mine, with no last name. It is for sale for $750.
I have not listed this book for sale yet. If I do, I assume it will be in the $200 range. There are 24 books signed by Hoffman for sale, ranging from about $50 for small paperbacks, to several hundred dollars. The $200 would be in the middle, I think.
But I want to do some additional scouting first, before I go further. You can’t be too careful, and sometimes, you just can’t tell.
We have sold 24 books, and I have had conversations about a dozen others.
Each of those conversations started with someone thinking that they wanted the book. Some are ongoing. Others ended with the prospective buyers turning away.
Here are the situations:
One inquiry was about Henry Beston’s The Outermost House, a 1933 book about a year spent on the beach in Cape Cod. A signed copy is rare, and priced accordingly. I received a tentative order, but looking at the book more closely, I noted some flaws. On several pages, there were vertical lines drawn in the margins, as if the reader was emphasizing certain paragraphs. They were neat lines, but they were on about ten pages. There was also a prior owner signature as well as the author’s. And the spine was beginning to give a hint of loosening in the rear. If you were buying this as a used book to read, no problem at all. But it is not an expensive collector’s copy. I explained the condition of the book to the prospective buyer yesterday, told him if he was interested, I would discount the price. I have not heard back.
Similarly, on another book, not nearly as valuable, listed for $25 (less than 1/10 the Beston book), the signature is “to mark from ed”, without anyway to tell whether or not “ed” is the “edward” who wrote the book, although I am sure he is. I have asked the buyer what he thinks. the same issue arose on a third book, and I sent a photo of the signature to the purchaser, who has not responded.
On a fourth book, I was asked whether the signature was just a name, or whether it was inscribed to someone. I said the latter; I have heard nothing more.
On a fifth book, a novel in perfect condition (I thought), the fact that the dust jacket had the price clipped off was enough to dissuade a purchaser.
On a sixth book, although I described the condition of the book in the listing, the purchaser asked me if the book was in perfect condition. I repeated what was in the listing but reminded her that this was a special copy (signed by an astronaut and inscribed to a former Secretary of State), but have heard nothing more.
So, as we are new to this business, we live and learn.
On a
Well, this business is more complicated than I thought. By my count, we have 17 books ready to ship. Most going to places within the USA, but we have one going to France and a couple to Switzerland. Edie is in charge of packing and shipping, and working very hard. Tomorrow, she will figure out the best way to get everything where they need to go (she will make her second trip to the post office and to the UPS store), and will see if our shipping pricing ($3 in the US and $9 to Europe, as recommended by abebooks) works.
Packing is also a challenge. Some buyers request boxes as being more protective than envelopes, although I think we will use good quality bubble envelopes for smaller pieces, and less expensive ones. Again, we will have to see how this works.
But we can’t do anything until we know that the buyers’ funds have been wired to our account. We tried for the first time to get into our new arichard bank account on-line, but couldn’t do it (PNC said “this function is currently unavailable”, “this function” being the set up function). If it is not available tomorrow, I will have to go to the bank and figure it out.
Once we confirm receipt and ship, I have to go back into my listings, and de-list the books we have sold. Can’t forget to do that.
I had a fair amount of email correspondence with buyers over the past several days. I emailed a prospective purchaser in Australia (Andy), who asked some questions, but by the time he responded to my answers, the book had been sold to someone in Massachusetts. Would you think that two people would be looking for Thesinger’s “Life of My Choice” at the same time?
I had another buyer cancel an order for a Vince Flynn novel, because it was not a first edition with a dust jacket with an unclipped price. I had another cancel an order for an old Irish travel book (old like 100 years or so), without giving a reason. I may go back to them and inquire.
We have had some other confusion, with two buyers requesting Ward Moore’s book, “Breathe the Air Again”. This one, I will figure out tomorrow.
And we have the four missing books, not yet located. One is Henry Beston’s “Outermost Island”, which I believe is in the basement, and another Norman Podhoretz’s “Present Danger”, which I think is also there. I will re-search in the morning. Our problem, as previously stated, is that our books are all piled up in wobbly alphabetical piles, as we await painting. We really put the cart before the horse.
One other book, in French, Malgre les Temptes, by a Theosophist named de Naglowska, is also missing. This one is not in the basement, and I just don’t know where it is. It is a very rare piece, is not in good condition, and is printed on yellow, crumply large sheets of paper. I put it somewhere to protect it after buying it several years ago at a bookstore in Culpeper. I have no idea where that somewhere is. Hopefully, it will turn up. I have not yet gone back to the buyer on this one. He/she is Japanese and lives in Tokyo.
