"Mommy, what's a book?" I can hear future generations' children asking their parents this. I think printed books have become an endangered species on a path to obsolescence. Literature on the other hand marches on albeit taking on another form thanks to technology's advances. As long as we can power devices, we will have access to written works preserved digitally for untold generations. With the advent of the internet, now anyone with a keyboard can express their thoughts and opinions without first establishing credibility such as I am doing here. Quite the difference from having to get professionally published.
What you are seeing in the picture above is a collection of books that had meaning to the owner. This particular individual's life was shortened unexpectedly leaving his possessions fate to those that did not share his value for the library he had collected his entire life. Without direction, they had begun to burn the books rather than taking the effort to at least find them a new owner. When this event was discovered by my well read Uncle, he requested that rather than destroying them would they stack them into an old barn on the premises that he had purchased. As you can plainly see, the books either were not fully stacked, or were scattered as other readers hunted for interesting topics. Still wanting to preserve what value remained, I was brought in to see if they could sold online.
At first I wondered if they could be sold in the condition that I found them in but after perceiving that my Uncle couldn't stand to throw away a book and really just wanted to have his barn cleaned out, I agreed to take them all. I justified it to myself by thinking there may be some sought after title in the mix that could fetch enough to make the whole effort worthwhile. So began my archeological dig into what became not only a book recovery effort, but also a look into the life of a man that valued the knowledge that could be gleaned from a book.
The barn itself is aged and has long been unused as it was originally purposed. Instead of farm animals, it now housed birds, bats, and rats. I soon learned that book piles make wonderful places to build a nest and raise some little rats. The covers make nice little snacks and the pages soak up any messes from birthing. Underneath several layers of books makes a nice hiding place from the birds nesting in rafters and the dirt that falls from above.
My first job was to find the book on top that was not stuck under others and work my way down. Each book needed to be handled individually so the dirt could be toweled off from the cover and the page edges. Sometimes it needed to be opened up so the dirt could be knocked of the pages inside the covers. When the dust in the air built up too much inside the barn, I would have to step outside and shake the towel out. The books were stacked by size for easier handling with anything looking really old or collectible set off the side. As the light inside the barn became dim from the setting sun, I would load them into my SUV and hit the freeway home.
Once home, the books were carried to the basement where they would get a second sorting again by size and also by topic so I could easily identify anything that became more sought after than the others. During this sorting process I began to see some patterns. Besides society's transformation of values through the decades from 1900 through 1990, I could see various stages in the life of their previous owner who kept every book that was ever placed in his hands. I could see his hobbies, his adventures, his occupations, and his desires. His interests were both varied and also ran along common themes. I could visualize his military career where he worked as a mechanic during the second world war. I could see his devotion to teaching where he studied perform to best of his ability. I learned of his love for autos, bicycling, backpacking and even what his wife's interests were. I got to see pictures of his family that had been tucked inside where he marked pages worth returning to. But beyond what I learned about the individual who had amassed this library, I learned the value of knowledge. The majority of the books I was preserving were complete instructional sources in themselves. I began to think if we were all suddenly thrust into the dark ages, we could practically survive and rebuild from just the information contained here. I learned the value of a book.
The next daunting task in the process was to figure out how to offer them to collectors. After researching the possibility of listing them all on Amazon, I decided their business model did not agree with my own. Since these books had been stored in virtually an outdoor environment, they had adopted a certain odor I'm sure you have all experienced when finding a forgotten book that has been exposed to moisture. The last thing I wanted to do was create an online store and wait for someone to buy one not to mention try to locate it once they did. So my next logical choice was to list them on eBay. I have been listing items in auction format off and on for the last decade ever since I discovered someone was willing to pay three bucks for an Atari Frogger cartridge. This seemed like the answer to me. The only problem was not knowing which book was worth something and which one should just be tossed. So after a little thought, I decided the best move would be to give each one a fair shot at the same price. I would list each for week and then re-list for an additional week if not sold the first time around. Any book not selling after this would be donated to goodwill for one last chance of surviving. This method would guarantee I would not be stuck with a pile of books in my basement come Spring when I plan on remodeling the basement. The beauty of using the auction format is letting the market decide the value of an item. It's also fun when you get multiple bidders all fighting for the same treasure. By listing books at auction they can be listed seven days for ten cents and if sold after re-listing, the second week's listing is free.
Selling the books turned out to be just as interesting as sorting them was. I was left humbled by the tremendous effort authors would put into some of the titles. Many were collaborative works by academic professionals. Some appeared to contain life long collections of authoritative research. Out of respect to these forgotten authors, I began to list all of their names and titles in the ad descriptions whether it made a difference in the sale or not. Much of my descriptions were basic not wanting to spend much time on each and contained simply the title, authors, publisher and anything interesting written on the cover or introduction that could turn up while someone searched for topics. It's not only a tedious process to clean each each book, but also to take a picture, write an ad and then package and ship them each individually. Where it finally became purposeful and justified the entire effort was when I started getting positive feedback from the buyers, some of which I've shared below.
Excellent seller, fast shipping, thanks for a great book!!
Just what I wanted, brings back memories -
Thank you for the really great deal on tihs historic pamphlet from the AEC days.
love this book thankyou fast shipping and book just as described
Turns out, people are looking for these recovered titles and are willing to pay inflated shipping charges to get them. Again, not knowing what any of them are worth, I decided to start the bidding low at just seventy-five cents. To me, it's not an amount that says I'm trying to squeeze everything but one cent out of a dollar but enough to cover the listing, final value, and PayPal fees if that's all it sells for. Where I make a little for my effort is crafting the custom box from salvaged cardboard and walking it across the street to the post office. For this mindless service I require a couple bucks and four if I have to fill out the little international shipping form. But remarkedly, not every book that gets a bid only attracts a single bidder. I have had titles that were obviously collectible as bidders tripped over each other to get the higher bid. While I haven't found the prized antique that I'm hoping for yet, I have had worn ex library books go for as much as twenty dollars. Not bad for free inventory but always makes me wonder what they will think when they actually receive the item. I try to manage all expectations when I write the ads by stating the cover is worn, stained, shelf cocked, written in, and has torn pages but always wonder if instead I should be showing them that picture of where they really came from...
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