YSaC, Vol. 1147: Is that the best that you can do?
1919 Charles Dickens – $700
I have a VERY old Charles Dickens book copy right 1919 the title is David Copperfield. The book is in fair condition some would say good condition for the age. All the pages are still intack and the spine is still holding the book togther very well. Its not a first Addition but its still a very old delicate book by a well known Arthur. Its the Readers classic im
asking $700 OBO. PHONE xxx-xxx-xxxx I CAN TEXT OR EMAIL PICTURES IF INTRESTED.
The book is by a well-known Arthur? Well, let’s see … who can I think of who is a well-known Arthur?
Hmmm. Probably not. How about this Arthur?
Attention must be paid to the Arthurs.
He would have been four years old. He was good, but not that good.
How about this Arthur?
He was way better than Russell Brand. There, I said it.
But no. There’s only one well-known Arthur it could possibly Bea.
All hail the hypno-Arthur.
Thanks, Shawn!
Dear Sparky: Please send a pic, as I want to envision how it would look when displayed on a round table.
It was the best of tries, it was the worst of tries…
“It was the best of tries, it was the wurst of ties…”
fify <G>
Well, Sparky….
If I get caught between the moon and New York City I’d certainly like a copy of “David Copperfield” to read.
I know it’s crazy, but it’s true.
If I get caught between the moon and New York City…
The best that I can do, the best that I can do is 200 oboes.
And something tells me, in all the generations it’s been in the family, it’s never been used either. (Save for propping up said round tablets)
Well, let’s see … I could pay Sparky seven hundred dollars for his copy from 1919, or I could buy this copy printed in 1900 I found in five minutes on eBay for $11.95.
Wow, that is a tough decision.
Yes, but you’re negating the fact it is not a first Addition. There is a lot of secondary and tertiary additions going into the price of this delicate book.
[used book Corey] In my checkered past, I spent three years selling stuff on eBay full time, including books. It amazed me how many people, including otherwise intelligent members of my family, believed that all old books are rare and valuable. Books that have long been out of print can be valuable (if someone wants to read them. Some books are out of print for a reason). But in general, a book you can pick up a paperback copy of at Barnes & Noble is NOT rare or valuable unless it’s a first edition, and/or signed by the author, and/or has a really nice leather binding, and/or has some other reason to be valuable (e.g., a famous person owned it and made annotations in the margin). My sister-in-law once sent me a box of old, clothbound, very common books to sell on eBay – they weren’t even worth hauling to the thrift store, much less mailing across the country. [/Corey]
My Mom has started selling full-time on eBay and has come across the same thing – people will give her things like books with the assumption that because they are old, they must be valuable. Sometimes old things are just that – old.
*shakes cane at Ghostie*
I am valuable! Why my replacement hip alone cost 125K, and let’s not forget the electronics in my arm, legs and ears. I’m sure it came close to …. 6 Million dollars! Just because I’m old, don’t think I can’t still crush those evil ninjas. Sure, I could use a new binding, but shoot, ya gotta expect a few wrinkles after all those intense battles.
Lime Lolly: So what you’re saying is you’re the Six Million Dollar Gecko! Love it!
Course, just like a 1988 Chevy pickup, our value might be higher if we’re broken down and sold for parts rather than as a whole. This is respectfully from one middle aged critter to another.
‘Course, I’m making assumptions here. Which I shouldn’t do. Cause I don’t like that when it’s done to me.
I better just hush now.
*trips as she backpedals*
Speaking of eBay….during a recent cleaning spree hubby came across an “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack CD. Now, being the good conservative he is he decided that since the movie had one liberal George Clooney in it that the soundtrack needed to go in the trash. He threw it away. I really didn’t care as I had downloaded the songs to my iPod a long time ago. However, I began to think that someone else might like to have the CD so I put it up for sale on eBay. It’s on there, now, and will sell. Proving again that a CD in the hand is worth more than one in the trash.
Sadly, not all vendors on eBay are equal.
It’s one thing if a person is seeking a 49-star US flag and must use “(flag, falg, flga)” to include the misspellings of “flag” in a logical-OR boolean search.
It’s quite another when some one offering up “raire olde bookes[sic]” is, in fact, selling “decorator books.” For the unaware, they make ‘books’ which are only the covers and binding with either blank pages, or a cardboard box spacer. These are given titles on the spines, but are only intended to fill empty bookshelves “for show.”
So, there are collections of these critters, all with notable titles on the binding, but no contents at all. The more-expensive of these have differing sizes and bindings, to have a natural sort of one-at-a-time library look to them. The majority, though and bound the same, but with differing titles.
The fact that the cardboard box these deliver in has more literary content is all too often refused to be believed by such sparkii-sellers.
[sigh]
People actually buy fake books just to use as decorations? Is it to make themselves look more intelligent and well-read?
That’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
I’ve seen the fake books for sale in stores. I’ve also read about used-book stores that sell real books in bulk by spine color; guess who buys them and for what purpose.
It used to be possible to buy books by the foot or yard to put in the libraries of stately homes, allegedly.
Books are for reading? I thought they were for propping up furniture with broken legs or to be used as doorstops. I learn something new every time I come here.
If you’re a set designer/decorator for the theater or movies, those fake books come in handy.
My guess is that most people don’t decorate their homes with fake books anymore. Frankly, and sadly, books aren’t really much of a status symbol these days. People would rather wow their friends and neighbors with a ginormous flat-screen TV.
I think this post may need some tags, but I can’t decide if I’m a Matt or a Corey.
Not just allegedly.
I’ve done home remodeling in houses with entire libraries of “fake” books.
I’ve also been muscled out of the way trying to bid on a batch of books, for a particular book, by decorators in a rush for spines-by-appearance, not by content.
I’ve been about 40-50% successful in plucking the desired tome out by direct sale. At least among the experienced buyers. if I was after only the one book, I’d usually turn around and offer the rest to the second-place bidder, ofter for their last bid. It works unless the other person wanted the same tome as I.
A friend of mine has parents who’ve always been very concerned with appearances. When I went to their place for the first time, I was super excited by their wall-o’-books and asked if I could borrow some. The mother seemed genuinely confused as to why I would want to read the pretty shelf-fillers. Some years later they chucked most of them and now have that ghastly empty-shelves-with-sparse-random-ornaments thing going on. So. Gutted.
[True story] When I was young, we didn’t have any bookshelves in the public spaces of the house and my mother couldn’t stand the idea of any books or magazines left out on tables as she thought it looked messy. Drove my father crazy.
My younger brother was put into a special ed class and the school sent someone out to do a home interview. On the report that they gave my parents, it was noted that there appeared to be no reading materials available/reading wasn’t encouraged. My dad made sure my mom saw that and, ever since, he has kept at least his current book next to his chair and the magazines they get are neatly stacked on the coffee table. [/True story]
First Edition? Does it have my favorite, “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)?” I love when Kenny Rogers pretended to be a rock singer.
Remember when Pat Boone tried to go punk? That’s what really got my panties all a pucker.
I was watching the Beverly Hillbillies the other day while I was getting ready and this youngish guy appeared on the screen and he looked very familiar but I couldn’t place him until they mentioned his name, Pat Boone. At the end of the episode he “sang” and attempted to dance. It was very creepy.
Says the girl whose avatar looks like an Ood with a glowing stomach standing on a dimly lit street street accosting passersby…
Says the mother of the girl dressed as a Zombie Ood holding her orb close to her stomach.
Adore you and your daughter right now. Zombified Ood = new nightmare fuel.
If you don’t buy the book you’ll be late.
It’s a sort of threat, as in you’ll be having a literary Dickens of books.
I thought the Dickens’ Readers classic im was “Hey baby, u looked hawt 2day. Want to get 2gether and see my dickens?”
I other words it’s still a book as opposed to a pile of pages. Assume nothing, Arthur.
I did a Taco there. I meant in other words. Pffffft.
No! Don’t do a Taco! Remember what happened last time! It was all haz mat suits and runway foam! For days and days!
I thought only Tacoma’am was allowed to do Taco.
More happens in the pm in Tacoma.
There is probably a distinction between doing “a” Taco, and “the” Taco. Either of which might incur the wrath of taco-ma’m.
“The Taco” sounds like some kind of dance move – I bet it involves coffee slices.
My late father-in-law always assumed that old = valuable. When he died we had to unbind dozens of boxes of mouldy books that no one would ever want to read again (“Pictorial Oshawa”? Really?) so they could be recycled.
If only someone had told me that these books – in good condition for the age, some would say – could be sold for many hundreds of shiny dollars. I’m pretty sure some of them may even have been written by guys named Arthur.
The more you know…
Kitty!! *squee overload ensues*
CJ,
You may be interested to know that this morning a secret admirer (that’s what it said on the tag) left a christmas ornament on my desk. It’s a cat wearing a serape and sombrero. He has maracas. I have no idea why this cat is thusly adorned, but it is one of those things that is too outrageously cheesy not to love.
In other news, this Sparky is an asshat. That is all.
:seriously contemplates a trip to Tanker’s office, dressed as a ninja:
What?
I’m happy that Ninja Claus got my letter, but why did he deliver my sombrero cat to Tanker?
Want me to upload pics to the YSAC friends FB page?
I’m compelled to make an authorial inclusion here, Arthur C. Clarke, especially for his proven capacity as a visionary.
Slightly OT – I was saddened when Marc Brown changed his titular aardvark’s nose and reissued all the books written before the change including Arthur’s Nose. Not only did Arthur not only no longer look like an aardvark, but the teasing about his proboscis in Arthur’s Nose made absolutely no sense.
I think I remember David Copperfield from 7th grade: Well-known Arthur finally beat the dickens out of Guinevere. She ran off to Lancelot anyway, intack on a fine horse, to say: “Please, Sir, can I have some more?” He had the spine to resist Arthur, and sent her off to his holding in France, where he built a new suite of rooms for her. It was not the first addition to the castle, but it was designed so she couldn’t fool around with anyone else, a good condition for the age. Uriah Heep and Mr. Micawber had bit parts in the soap opera somewhere, but I don’t remember that part very well, and I may be putting the book togther with some works by other Arthurs,
It still isn’t worth $700, and if you want to attract modern readers, it needs to be updated with Kardashians.
*sneaks up on Evil Spud Boy* Punchity Punch Punch! Oooo, that was fun! I am the ninja of punches!
Good Morning, Hookham’s!