books: Surprise!

Fishing around in the bins today I came across this Henry Miller book: 

It's the kind of book I can find even after everyone else has sorted through the bins.
If you don't recognize the importance of Henry Miller it looks pretty much like any other junky, oversized, unsaleable 70's picture book out there.  The sales appeal is obvious to anyone who's spent time behind the counter of a real bookstore, invisible to the binary vision of the scanner trolls.

It's a book we can sell briskly for ten bucks or a bit slower for fifteen- not particularly valuable, but the sort of thing you like to pick up for your shop.

Then I opened it up for my patented Ten Point Quality Inspection.  The jacket was price clipped, which was annoying....then I flipped the page, my jaw fell open and I made a sound guaranteed to amuse any stray customers within hearing range:

Which takes it from about a ten dollar book to about a two hundred dollar book.

This is the kind of unexpected find that keeps me digging through bins, scouring thrift stores and haunting junk shops and garage sales.