books: perserverance

I'm buying books from a couple of guys with a pyramid of ratty, mildew-smelling boxes that look like they've been in someone's cellar for 40 years...not the most promising senario from my perspective.

But in keeping with the panning for gold analogy in a previous post, that's what the business is most of the time, sifting garbage looking for something usable.

This particular buy gets much worse...I prise the rotting tape away from one box and lift the warped, reeking lid to expose....a box full of moldy book club mysteries.

I'd have to pause a second to dredge up a less appealing discovery. Maybe a box full of series romances, Harlequins or Zebras. Or a box of old textbooks from the 60's. The book club mystery is such an archetype of the business John Dunning used a room full of them as the critical plot point in his excellent bibliomystery Bookman's Wake.


In situations like this, I repeat the book buyer's mantra: "it only takes one book to make a buy worthwhile".

So I forged on, digging through box after box of musty garbage. There were occasional signs of life, but every one of them ended up being molded and warped from moisture.

Finally, in the second to the last box, I was rewarded with an inexplicable wonderment- set in a bed of furry green book club mulch, three jewels: early Sue Grafton hardcovers, in seemingly pristine condition.

Disbelieving, I fished them gingerly out of the compost and gave them a closer inspection. D, E and F, all 1st editions, all in excellent shape. Thank God!


And this illustrates another truism of the business as well...even with happy endings like this you rarely find THE book (in this case, A is for Alibi). You find neat, uncommon books in the series, but not the ones that are worth real money.


Here's a book buying rule of thumb- it works best with popular series authors, but applies to most fiction: If you see a book by a famous author and their name is smaller than the title, it's an early book and likely to be uncommon (and thus potentially valuable).

This list of Grafton books nicely illustrates the point. Her name starts out microscopic, grows larger and eventually subsumes most of the cover...you can chart the arc of her sales growth by the covers of her books...her name grows like a tumor, eventually becoming more important than the book she's writing (note the 'flip' with H is for Homicide, where she gets top billing for the first time).

time for coffee!