Above is a bookplate of extreme cuteness for a library probably long since dispersed. I like the quote from Kit Marlowe: 'Infinite riches in a little room.' The other quotation you see on bookplates of this period is Shakespeare's ".....find tonques in trees,/books in babbling brooks,/sermons in stone,/ and good in everything....." The background behind the two kids looks like the Cotwolds for some reason. More real than these two sonnenkinder are the four fine persons running a library sale in our pic below.
I try to hit a library sale or two whenever I am in the States. Judging by a recent report from the excellent Americana Exchange they have become quite regimented. It used to be about joining a long boring queue ('line') as early as you could bear it and then on opening time ruthlessly rushing in - every man/woman for themselves. However at a sale at Palo Alto (a rich Silicon Valley town once renowned as the home of America's finest acid/ LSD) they did it thus:
...at 9 a.m. they whet your appetite by having an outside tent book sale with all books priced at $1.00 ..some very nice books, ephemera, prints...At 10 a.m. they send you a half block down the nearby driveway to another classroomLibrary sale goers in California are apparently a pliant and unquestioning bunch, such marshalling would not work in Europe (with the possible exception of Germany) and in England it would lead to fights and possible hospitalization of some library staff and a handful of dealers.full of the next best books at $1 each - shelves and shelves of them on every possible subject. About 10:45 you stagger back, laden with bags and boxes of books, towards the main room and get in line according to number. At 11:00 sharp, the first 150 people, who by now are revved and ready to bolt, get in (we were 146 and 147) and have an hour to shop, with a limit of twelve books each...
The thing about library sales is to have a plan. It helps to know what they have in there and info can sometimes be garnered in the line. You have to know where to head first and it is useful to have a mate or two so that you can be omni-present (divide spoils later.) In my experience they tend to make mistakes in the area of funny older novels, slim vols of poetry and funky or kitsch artbooks, photobooks, manuals and trashy paperbacks. They overrate Children's books, leather bound books, Americana etc., Many dealers scoop up anything that looks sellable and then go through it more carefully at leisure, possibly checking prices on Iphone devices or phoning a friend. This is slightly disapproved of but universal; even now libraries are probably working out ways of banning it.
If possible avoid library books at library sales, you will see them priced up on the net but they look and feel unpleasant and with a few exceptions are slow to sell. Most library sales are disposing of unwanted donations so library books are not so common. It is good to arrive with some sort of shopping bag or a capacious and slightly naff trolley bag. You cannot make deals and you cannot take stuff back. You will see 'civilians' (non dealers) buying tons of utter rubbish that they would never look at in a bookstore. Bargains are known-- a dealer in Berkeley who seldom pays more than a buck a book recently found the true 1908 first (it's green) of Anne of Green Gables at a library sale and turned it round for $10K. I found a proof copy of Hemingway's 'Fiesta' - so long ago that I cannot remember what I got for it.
Below is a library sale at Singapore Expo Hall --the ad proclaimed 'Book lovers have much to cheer this August as the National Library Board holds its 10th Library Book Sale. Books and magazines in all four official languages will be on sale from $1-$5, with each customer allowed to buy up to 60 items. Payment can only be made by cash, Nets or CashCard.'
Was there anything in English, any sleepers? Will check it out in 2010 ...It's now 2010 and August is coming up. Must check flights. Meanwhile libraries have started to have book sales online and so far they appear damned dull. You cannot replicate the excitement and the insanity on a paltry website. Check out the library at London Borough of Richmond effort. This is not Oklahoma or Arizona library sale nirvana with 500,000 books in a stadium with 2000 hyped up dealers barely containing their sanity in pursuit of treasure...
Just a quick comment to say how much I enjoy your blog and how true your comments are on library sales. A similar phenomenon in Australia are the charity bookfairs, and the best ones are the Lifeline bookfairs. Here in Canberra Lifeline holds two fairs every year, in Autumn and Spring. I've been living in Canberra for 15 years and I haven't missed one yet. Over the years I've picked up some nice things - as you say, usually in the form of vintage paperbacks and older books, which they're a bit sniffy about. Gates open at 10am but I'm usually there just after 8am after dropping the kids off at school. Already, by that time, there are 100 people ahead of me, mostly dealers from Canberra and New South Wales. Apart from the main hall, in which about 150,000 books are sold on trellis tables, they have a rare book room, which opens at 12 midday. In recent years Lifeline has released a catalogue of the rare books - here is a link to the catalogue of the Spring Fair: http://www.act.lifeline.org.au/rarebooks.htm My eye fell on Wilkie Collins' Poor Miss Finch - not one of his better novels, but still the Bentley triple-decker 1st, 1872 - and the price was $30. Ray Russell prices it as 750 quid in his guide, and Richard Dalby in the B&MC said 800-1000 quid back in 2005. So, I lined up for the usual two hours, looked around the main hall for an hour (nothing really good - back in February someone had donated their science fiction collection, built up over 50 years, so I landed a couple of hundred 1950s and '60s paperbacks), and then joined the queue for the rare book room. Already there were 20 people in front of me and I thought I was stuffed. Fortunately, they had other books on their minds - the children's books and the Australiana. I made a bee-line for the lit section, and after some frantic searching found Poor Miss Finch. That was me for the day and happily retreated home to look at my pickings. But there is a postscript - when I got home I opened opened up the title page. At the top was the signature, "Wilkie Collins February 1872". A Google search revealed that this was Collins' own copy of the novel, sold at an auction of his library in 1890. Not a bad purchase for $30.
ReplyDeleteJames
Not so 'Poor Miss Finch' --it's great to hear that a three decker doesn't get grabbed in nanoseconds--what a find! Thanks for your notes from the front line and good hunting in future...Nigel
ReplyDeleteYour blog is always interesting reading :) So will you be coming to Singapore? :D
ReplyDeleteThanks Readymade---From what I hear about Aussie book sales I should get down there and Singapore is a good stop off point although I bet it's very hot in August. Nigel
ReplyDeleteNot in the same class for rarities, perhaps, but Amnesty International regularly have £1 books ales (going down to 50p towards the end) ar Conway Hall in London. They attract quite a few dealers as well as members of the public.
ReplyDeleteNot in the same class for rarities, perhaps, but Amnesty International regularly have £1 books ales (going down to 50p towards the end) ar Conway Hall in London. They attract quite a few dealers as well as members of the public.
ReplyDeleteSingapore is hot any time, Nigel. It has two seasons: hot and wet and hotter and wetter.
hi from a former california library sale goer! I have done Palo Alto twice and last week did the biggest in San Francisco. These sales are a waste of time compared to other sources. The donators and organizers are hip to the resale value of books and you are unlikely to find things that haven't been checked and re-checked. To keep people coming, they will leave crumbs worth up to a certain amount (say $20) but the margins are poor when they are pricing up to $5 a book and you factor in the time it takes to sort through junk. The big sales are best suited for hobbyists and sellers with scanners who want to churn large amounts at low profits- or sellers who think they might get lucky from "mistakes". Rule of thumb, when it's well publicised around here it's not worth going. There are other ways to do well, you just have to be crafty.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning Nigel,
ReplyDeleteI have found the following American booksale site most useful.
www.booksalefinder.com
Best Regards,
Lew Jaffe
Thanks Lew - I vaguely knew about booksalefinder but have checked it (Bay Area where I am going soon) out and it is full of useful sales. All the best. Nigel
ReplyDeleteThersites is right! Though many places here overcompensate with freezing air-conditioning :p Still, dress lightly. Light colours are good. You MUST also check out Bras Basah Complex while you're here for lots of 2nd hand books! Leon
ReplyDeleteThe book sale in Singapore this year is in July:)
ReplyDeletebook sales drive me crazy. I am always torn between going and not going though at the moment with the shop stuffed to the rafters and two storage lockers stuffed to the rafters and my house, well, dripping books out of the windows the offspring have threatened death and dismemberment if I go near any book sales
ReplyDelete