Our friends and colleagues Vin & Amy - I prefer Amy & Vin - have a retail operation that is unique in the Las Vegas Valley: Amy, who is the one with exquisite taste owns a vintage clothing business that's quartered in one of the collectible malls; Vin, who has an excellent eye for and knowledge of books, sells, strangely enough, books in the same mall. He also sells and buys books on the Internet. Here's one of his recent electronic exchanges with an II:
Hi, "Benjamin's Book Nook"
--
We spotted your listing, on Biblio,
for:
The Wild Wheel by Garet Garrett
Book condition: Like New
Book Description: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007. Paperback.
Like New. Signed by Author. This is a new-looking 2007 softcover. AUTOGRAPHED
by the author inside the front cover.
As Garet Garrett lived 1878-1954, can
you explain how this 2007 paperback came to be "AUTOGRAPHED by the
author inside the front cover"?
Best Wishes,
-- V.S .Cat's Curiosities
But Vin adds:
The guy in Japan who sold me a "
'Save Me The Waltz,' Scribner's 1932" (no other details provided)
was probably better. He sent me a 1970 Signet paperback with a number line
987654, and ended up eating the $15 postage plus the $5 purchase price.
The unread paperback is actually worth a few bucks, but it sure ain't "Scribner's
1932." (Is this "the tyranny of the bar code"?)
What's most wonderful/terrible about them is that when you point out to these Internet "bookmen" that they're listing books that don't exist, they don't seem to think they've done anything wrong. The other day it was a fairly early Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novel, listed as "Harper 1973." I wrote to the fellow pointing out the HarperCollins edition is a 1998 reprint, that if he has a 1973 printing it has to be either a Lippincott (U.S.) or a Collins (G.B.) He cheerily writes back,"Oh, not to worry; that's just the way my ISBN lookup device filled in those fields." He'd never LOOKED INSIDE THE BOOK.
ReplyDeleteWe really ought to offer a monthly "goofiest" prize. For October I nominate this listing, from a fellow whose books I've had to return before: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=5909001744 .
For those who don't know, the Arkham House first edition of A.E. Van Vogt's classic novel "Slan," which may have launched the "We're the new species; thanks for giving us birth, homo sapiens, now get lost" genre, printed in a limited run of about 3,000, is copyright 1946, NOT 1940. The only source of a 1940 copyright date would be the original pulp magazine serialization. But there is NO Arkham House book club edition, either in 1940 OR in 1946. The book club edition is almost certainly Doubleday 1968 -- a $4 book, compared to a nice Arkham 1946 in dust jacket for, say, $500.
There are some complicated "points" in book sales/collecting. Knowing that the true first state of an early Laurie King detective novel has the Hebrew verse on the title page printed upside down; knowing that the true first of the Nancy Drew adventure "Quest of the Missing Map" (yes, "of," not "for") differs from the second only by the number of Dana Girls mystery stories advertised on the rear DJ flap (know that it's 10; pick up a $250 book for lunch money.)
But being able to list publisher and print date, usually to be found on the back of the title page? You think you can sell books without figuring out how to do THAT?
-- V.S.