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Absurd Book Prices

hile there is nothing wrong with doing your homework because it was not worth what she thought it was, that could come
before you sell old books (or really anything) to a dealer, back and bite me later if she had seller’s remorse and went around
Wif you don’t have any experience and/or don’t know what bad-mouthing me for it, as she might think that I had cheated her.
you are doing, it can be counterproductive at best. This is not generally And it would just have been a waste of my time telling her that the
true when I am buying books from collectors of certain subjects who, one for $2,000 wasn’t the exact edition that she had as it was a 1730
because they concentrate on that particular author or subject matter, printing bound with three other books.
may well know more than I do about them. Just easier and safer to decline it with thanks.
But more often than not, when a non-book collector inherits books Now this morning, virtually the same thing happened again!
from a parent or someone else in the family who was a collector, and Someone came in with a milk
they know nothing about them other than they are carton of books that he had
old books, that could go inherited that he wanted to
either way as to whether or sell. So I said, sure I’d like to
not I can buy them. look because you never know.
Just yesterday, someone Unfortunately, they were early
called from a nearby town 1900s school books of the
with older books to sell that type that have little value to
were her mother’s. Most me even if they were in good
sounded like typical older condition, which these
not very interesting books weren’t. And even worse, he
from when her mother had looked up every single
was growing up, but one one and had what he
possible gem was a copy of thought were their values
William Cheselden’s Human written on slips of paper
Anatomy, seventh edition, stuck in each book.
printed in 1756 and illustrated Usually, when I see
with copperplates of various paper slips fluttering out of
views of anatomy. Now, this each book, this is a deal
was genuinely interesting and killer for all the reasons I
certainly an unexpected find in have mentioned. I already
boxes of dross. had several shelves of these
So, sure, I expressed interest types of not-so-interesting
in her books, especially that one school books. Now to be
and the others as well because fair, the prices he had on these (mostly
you never know what else might under ten dollars) were actually about right.
be in there. But the most egregious example (I don’t think that I’ve ever used
But that said, I was certainly looking forward to seeing the anatomy that word before!) was a 1901 copy of The Complete Life of William
book which my preliminary research had the value in the $500-$750 McKinley by Everett in poor condition with a detached frontispiece and
range and maybe half that or less if there were condition problems. worn binding. I’ve seen these McKinley books before and a spate of
Remember that this was a 7th edition of a book that had about a them were published after McKinley was assassinated in 1901, so I
dozen printings and which had originally come out in the 1720s, so knew they weren’t scarce, plus I knew I had one or two similar ones in
while it was a most interesting book, it was not super scarce, even for stock already so they weren’t exactly hot sellers, and definitely not
something printed in 1756, because of the multiple printings and also worth the $990 that he thought it was worth even if it was in good
the fact that it was a smaller 8vo size (8”-10” tall) which had shape, which it was not.
small plates, and not the nicer, larger folio size which had larger more Well, just to be sure when I looked it up, it was just as I expected, I
desirable plates. found literally DOZENS of copies for sale for under $20 each. I have
Anyway, later in the day, I got a follow-up email from the lady no idea where he found the $990 price, but that’s the internet for you!
sending me a link to the Human Anatomy book where a dealer had it
priced for over $2,000. This is the flip side of non-book people trying James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop
to research rare books on the internet where anyone can try to sell in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he decided that it would be
anything for any price. When selling books, owners usually go for the more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to get a
most expensive copy for sale online and ignore dozens of similar copies “real” job. For a born collector like Jim, having a shop just
might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about
for sale at a fraction of that high price. 30,000 second hand and rare books on the shelves, and just
So I was very disappointed as far as I was concerned – it was now about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted at P.O.
impossible for me to buy the book because of the owner’s inflated Box 154; Trappe, MD 21673; 410-476-3838;
expectations. Even if I convinced her to sell it to me for a lesser price unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com;
www.unicornbookshop.com

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