A dearth of numismatic books at the big book sale in my town, but fruitful nonetheless…
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
So I woke up Saturday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, waiting for the 9 AM opening of the BIG book sale in my town to support the library (referenced in this thread). This sale was big, and supposedly included 125,000 or so used books.
Just before I was leaving, Mrs. Longacre said to me, “hey Longacre, pick me up a copy of The Joy of ….”. Now Longacre’s ears perked up at that point, because I assumed she was going to ask me to get a particular book with a certain title. However, to my dismay, she asked me to get “The Joy of Cooking”. Now why she would want this book is beyond me, because Mrs. L wouldn’t know the stove if it bit her on the a$$.
Anyway, I got there just before 9 AM, and there were already about 300 people standing in line. The line moved quickly when they opened the doors, and I entered the gymnasicafetorium like a crazed dog.
Now no one loves the book dealers more than Longacre, but their clothing choices make coin dealers look like GQ models by comparison. And I was shocked at the stampede of dealers who had no qualms muscling you out of the way to get at the books first. I was also intrigued at the little hand held scanners that they had and they were zapping the bar codes on books as they picked them up. I assume it compared the books to the ones that they already had in inventory, but I am not sure.
I made a beeline for the reference section, and quickly scooped up the following: (a) a Rand McNally world atlas from 2004, for the princely sum of $3, and (b) a recent unabridged Webster dictionary (deluxe edition) for $2. After a quick jaunt over to the cookbook section, I was able to secure the only copy of the Joy of Cooking for $3, but only after hip checking some old lady in the aisle.
Finally, I was able to peruse the history section, and picked up the following: (a) “The Dred Scott Case: Its History in Law and Politics” for $2; (b) The Dumas Malone 5 volume set about Thomas Jefferson in hardcover for $3 each (I have a few of the soft cover books, but I could not bring myself to break up the set so I bought them all), (c) “Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller”, by Ron Chernow, for $2, (d) “The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy”, by Bruce Ackerman, for $3, (e) a book about the Constitution, whose title I cannot recall right now for $2, and (f) a Pilates book for $2.
As far as numismatic books, there were not many. They had two Redbooks—one from the 1990’s, and one from 1986. I briefly considered buying the 1986 version because it had a different cover. It had a picture of a Continental dollar on it, and I thought it was the excessively rare Anniversary Edition. Why I didn’t just spend the 50 cents and get it, I don’t know, but I put it back and figured I would check my Redbook at home and see if this was the rare volume or not. Come to find out, it wasn’t, but I would have been annoyed if the book was worth $300 and I didn’t shell out the 50 cents while I had it in my hand.
There were tons of auction catalogs there, which hailed from the Longacre Collection™, but they did not seem to be selling. I was also personally insulted that my catalogs did not even make it to the top of the folding tables. Rather, they were in the boxes beneath the table in the Collectibles Section and priced at $1 each. I guess the Longacre pedigree belongs in the bargain bin and cannot even make it to the top of the table Other than that, there was a Krause World Catalog book from the early 1990’s, and someone else donated a bunch of world coin catalogs. In all, it was not a place to find numismatic literature treasures, but the visit was fun nonetheless.
The next day Mrs. L and the kiddies came to the sale with me, and we picked up enough Thomas the Tank Engine books to choke a horse.
It was a great experience, and I have enough reading material to last me a while.
Just before I was leaving, Mrs. Longacre said to me, “hey Longacre, pick me up a copy of The Joy of ….”. Now Longacre’s ears perked up at that point, because I assumed she was going to ask me to get a particular book with a certain title. However, to my dismay, she asked me to get “The Joy of Cooking”. Now why she would want this book is beyond me, because Mrs. L wouldn’t know the stove if it bit her on the a$$.
Anyway, I got there just before 9 AM, and there were already about 300 people standing in line. The line moved quickly when they opened the doors, and I entered the gymnasicafetorium like a crazed dog.
Now no one loves the book dealers more than Longacre, but their clothing choices make coin dealers look like GQ models by comparison. And I was shocked at the stampede of dealers who had no qualms muscling you out of the way to get at the books first. I was also intrigued at the little hand held scanners that they had and they were zapping the bar codes on books as they picked them up. I assume it compared the books to the ones that they already had in inventory, but I am not sure.
I made a beeline for the reference section, and quickly scooped up the following: (a) a Rand McNally world atlas from 2004, for the princely sum of $3, and (b) a recent unabridged Webster dictionary (deluxe edition) for $2. After a quick jaunt over to the cookbook section, I was able to secure the only copy of the Joy of Cooking for $3, but only after hip checking some old lady in the aisle.
Finally, I was able to peruse the history section, and picked up the following: (a) “The Dred Scott Case: Its History in Law and Politics” for $2; (b) The Dumas Malone 5 volume set about Thomas Jefferson in hardcover for $3 each (I have a few of the soft cover books, but I could not bring myself to break up the set so I bought them all), (c) “Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller”, by Ron Chernow, for $2, (d) “The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy”, by Bruce Ackerman, for $3, (e) a book about the Constitution, whose title I cannot recall right now for $2, and (f) a Pilates book for $2.
As far as numismatic books, there were not many. They had two Redbooks—one from the 1990’s, and one from 1986. I briefly considered buying the 1986 version because it had a different cover. It had a picture of a Continental dollar on it, and I thought it was the excessively rare Anniversary Edition. Why I didn’t just spend the 50 cents and get it, I don’t know, but I put it back and figured I would check my Redbook at home and see if this was the rare volume or not. Come to find out, it wasn’t, but I would have been annoyed if the book was worth $300 and I didn’t shell out the 50 cents while I had it in my hand.
There were tons of auction catalogs there, which hailed from the Longacre Collection™, but they did not seem to be selling. I was also personally insulted that my catalogs did not even make it to the top of the folding tables. Rather, they were in the boxes beneath the table in the Collectibles Section and priced at $1 each. I guess the Longacre pedigree belongs in the bargain bin and cannot even make it to the top of the table
Other than that, there was a Krause World Catalog book from the early 1990’s, and someone else donated a bunch of world coin catalogs. In all, it was not a place to find numismatic literature treasures, but the visit was fun nonetheless. The next day Mrs. L and the kiddies came to the sale with me, and we picked up enough Thomas the Tank Engine books to choke a horse.
It was a great experience, and I have enough reading material to last me a while.
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
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Comments
I went to one of these by me once several years ago and vowed never to go back. Your description of the book dealers, if they were anything like mine, was extremely charitable.
merse
Is it true your secretary files your posts here...after she types it on a typewriter, and you proofread it?
There has been a rumor going around. I must admit I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the prominent numismatist who brought this to our attention.
Glad to hear you had a good time at the big book sale
That was indeed a good buy, but the complete set consists of six volumes, so you need to go back next time for the last remaining volume.
<< <i>"The Dumas Malone 5 volume set about Thomas Jefferson in hardcover for $3 each"
That was indeed a good buy, but the complete set consists of six volumes, so you need to go back next time for the last remaining volume. >>
Correct! I got all 6.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>I was also intrigued at the little hand held scanners that they had and they were zapping the bar codes on books as they picked them up. I assume it compared the books to the ones that they already had in inventory, but I am not sure. >>
Actually, it's more like a "Is this book worth buying?" scanner. Instead of memorizing which books are worth more, they have these scanners. They download a database from a service into the scanner and when they scan a book, it tells them what the book is worth.
It would be like if you had a scanner and sat down with a box of slabs at a show and started scanning barcodes to quickly go through and see if there's anything that's worth extra without actually knowing anything.
42/92
> see if there's anything that's worth extra without actually knowing anything
Very impressive! Sounds like something they might talk about in the first week of the wannabe 101 class
Or... perhaps your secretary is the one who had me laughing out loud, if the rumors about one of your Executive Assistants being the actual author of your posts are true.
And it is good to know that there is at least one occupation that has hygene and dressing habits worse than we coin dealers.
Coin Rarities Online
http://www.richuhrichcoins.com/books.shtml
Rich is too proud to participate in such a shameless promotion, but I know how hard this book is to find.