Rare Book Valuation. How I Do That. Part Five. "Wait A Minute".

Rare Book Valuation

How I Do That

Part Five

"Wait A Minute"

            It would seem I could wrap things up?  I’ve assembled the components for a formula projecting a ‘valuation’.  Haven’t I?  IF... one copy is for sale on eBay for $575.00 and a second copy was at auction estimated a $1500. – $2500 but did not sell and a third copy actually sold at auction for $2128.00 and I cannot find any other actual copies of the actual original first edition of the actual old book BUT TOO... notice is noted that a ‘fish print’ is in the book with, too, a menu... whatever that’s about... and... apparently... numerous “nice old” (original to the original book) illustrations all within an attractive 1869 ‘publisher’s cloth with title in gilt gold’ original binding and... notice is noted too to... PAY ATTENTION TO THE condition OF THE BOOK and... THE condition OF MY COPY of the book and, of course, I never forget ‘divide by four’ (Part Three).

            The formula is actually suggesting we need to do a bit more... rare book seller... work... “before we get there” (have a valuation that ...SELLS the book.  A couple of dibs and dabs of “Wait a minute”).

            Oh... your just gonna keep your copy “anyway”?  No your not.  Why?  Because you do not have a copy of this book.  Why?  Because this book is ...in actual fact.... a RARE BOOK.  You’s gonna be rare book hunter along time before you “FIND” a copy of Allerton... ‘on the loose’ that you may choose to “keep”.  All rare book hunters will tell you that one will find a ‘rare book’ but it probably won’t be the old rare book you aspire to ‘keep’.  Anyway and again, the old rare books I find I aspire TO SELL...  You can ...and may... “buy mine”?

            So I go back over the ‘its’ again. Let me start with the eBay copy.  I remember reading the condition description ‘very carefully’ (Part Four).  I read it again.  SURE ENOUGH what I recalled reading is still reading the same:  At $575.00 this eBay copy for sale notices in minimal text that this copy lacks (is missing) the folding fish print.  An imperfect copy... to say the least.  “The least?”  Yeah... every info bit I’ve found on the Allerton notices the beautiful fish print of a Brook Trout.  So... like... if... YOUR copy lacks this plate... your copy of this old rare book (Allerton) IS an imperfect copy missing the most featured item and what does that mean for valuation to collectors?  IT MEANS “NO”.  Would you buy a car without its engine?  “NO”.  Got it?  It is “NO” no matter what.  Collectors do not want an Allerton missing the fish print.  Not even for a ‘divide by four’ $125.00.  It is... to a rare book hunter/seller like I... a... “NO!”.  No matter what including it now being obvious why this copy of Allerton is still sitting around on eBay “at five seventy-five”.

            My copy has the fish print in PERFECT CONDITION.  It has to have the fish print and I want it to be ‘perfect condition’ too... for a ...collector grade... valuation.  And, again, I know you ‘don’t have one’ (a copy).

            Skipping over the old ‘unsold’ auction listing because it is vague in its details and I... have the ...very detailed (including the fish print) descriptions (note plural) and illustrated... Thompson Sale catalog listing... I... very carefully purposely slowly patiently and with my actual copy at ...and in... hand I... yeah I even have a magnify glass too for that is so ‘tweed jacket mustachioed pipe smoking old school rare book seller...

            Here within that catalog entry are all the noted tid-bits I need to know of and find ALL of the features of a collector grade copy... including the menu... and

            “Condition”

            This last I’ll get back to as a stand alone valuation issue.  Right now I spend my time ‘checking out’ the proper completeness of my copy “compared to Thompson (the Thompson copy)”.  It (my copy) does compare ‘complete as issued’ so mine (my copy) may be ‘seller offered’ as ‘being identical to the Thompson copy’, a seller to collector assurance that is VERY... GOOD to be able to amend to MY COPY.  This sort of full bore comparison quickly makes ‘good sense’ to any full bore rare book hunter because it makes... good cents... too.

            Let me make a strong suggestion at this moment:  READ THE BOOK.  Reminding again that all of this rare book realm is about books and reading... why not now that one has actually purloined to be at hand an actual rare book... READ IT?  Question mark.  Before that... task... one must accept, acknowledge and ...actually do...; inspect the ‘your rare book’ PAGE by PAGE to be, well, at a ‘least’, sure that ALL of the book is... ahhhh.... “There”.  This is called ‘collating it’ and means that, as an owner/seller.... YOU have looked at (INSPECTED) every page ‘to be sure’ “MY COPY” is “all there”.  The way this ends in rare book seller land is a purchasing collector will ask... ME... “did you (I) collate it?”

            “Yes.”  That’s a barrelhead top guarantee that the book is ‘all there’.  It is never mentioned again... in professional settings.  Now... on the wait a minute... a collation “done by you” is considered worthless and a “I have to do that myself (before I’d buy the crummy rare book you found)  Nothing personal:  Just a professional ‘must’ and you ‘can’t be trusted at that’ (collation of anything).

            While I am looking at each page... the suggestion of actually reading the book is denoted and as this rare book... like so many rare books, has a ‘very thin’ amount of text, the... to actually read the book is NOT difficult to do.  Actually it is most often FUN to do.  For example... a first edition of Robert Burns’ first book of poetry... is a rare book that is too a (actually not that) thin book so if one has one of those, likes Burns and likes all the rare book banter about Burns too... to actually read, yourself, the actual first edition copy of this “your rare book I found”... IS FUN.  Unless you are a really greedy rare book seller who feels this is all about money and not about reading books and... in most cases... these types cannot read ‘anyway’.

            Stepping back a moment here I call attention to the ‘very thin’ above.  The economics of the first edition – first book... at the moment of creation commonly was done with very small budget so... to no surprise a great many ‘rare books’ were published (and self published) on very skimpy budgets so that the resulting rare book today is very often a very thin rare book.  That’s a hint for you:  Many, many true rare books are truly thin books too.  It is okay to not embrace this hint because you’ll ‘find out anyway’ if you ever go anywhere ‘in rare books’.  When I look at the spine ends on your book case... I am looking for very thin spine ends.  The more thin books I see, PROBABLY the better collection “I am looking at” and... I have not even touched the ‘your books’ yet.  I won’t be touching your books ...if they are too thick.  But, of course, this has nothing to do with rare book valuation.  Or does it?

            The Allerton... IS a thin book.  To no surprise to me.  So as I am ...reading it... (a possible two thousand dollar book I own and will be selling)... I am looking at ALL the details that ‘make’ up the book.  “Make up the book” is not ‘valuation’ of the book.  Make ups are different critters than value.  I will note some ‘make ups’ in the Allerton but I will not explain them:

            Cover with title in gold

            Spine end.

            Title page

            Preliminaries

            Imprint

            Published (here published by the author}

            And ‘sold’ by the author

            WHERE (New York)

            Dates (of occurrence and publication)

            Copyright

            Full page prints

            Printed textual illustrations

            The text; titles and subtitles

            The fish print

            The menu

            Additional leaves (pages) of ‘advertising at the end

            Rear cover blind stamped with title.

            And more.

            While I am reading the book (Allerton) I am also very carefully ‘looking at every page’.  Just for me.  “This is fun”.  Remember Rat and Mole: ‘Nothing is so much fun as messing around with...’ Old Books.  If one is not a ‘totally there’ with this old books – reading them... the ‘I want to be a rare book hunter’ and ‘make a lot of money doing that’ is going to have a perpetual crass or trashy taint to your actions with it (old rare books) and... the most professional ones (rare book people) WILL quickly note this ...without noting it to you... and... then you will be professionally qualified ‘evermore’.

            Let us touch this point.  I do not ever talk about any of this... to anyone... for any reason.  That I am a rare book seller prowling to purloin the finest rare books I may find... is never spoken of or shown... off.  No.  Never.  You’d never know.  Never ever know.  A playing dumb is the least of it.  I prefer to play ‘not even there’.  Most rare books I find are found by I in the hands of a great ‘don’t know’ and I assuredly follow through by making sure their transactions with me never ever suggests in anyway that an ‘old’ ish book is ever in anyway a true old rare book ‘I found’ and “valuable’.  And:  If you are a rare book hunter I prefer that YOU feel that I ‘don’t know’.  ANYTHING.

The Secrets of the Old Rare Books Collector's Secrets - Part Seven - "Piece of Mind"

The Secrets of the Old Rare Books Collector's Secrets

Part Seven

"Piece of Mind"

            What I do the most of, these days... as an old rare books dealer (one who finds and sells old rare books) is... ‘leave behind’.  Once, before the transition of the bibliomania borderlands to the fore declared bibliomania state of Bibliobooklessness, I took away all the rare books I found and ‘sold them’.  Generally this took place “right along” with little “touch” from I, the old rare books vender.  The old rare books I found (find) “sold themselves” to the bevies... gaggles and gathers of the Old Rare Books Collectors.  Back then... I would purvey the found old rare book and... it “sells”.  Now... of days... it is easier for I to... buy the rhubarb pie... and eat it. (Part Six)

            Of course it was always easier to do that (eat the rhubarb pie) than find and sell the old rare books... all along ‘anyway’.  It is actually (and always was) ‘pretty hard to do that’ (find and sell old rare books).  Some... deep within the trade... titled doing that “a special calling”.  After fifty years of ‘doing it’... I suppose I agree that “IT”... “IS”.  It is just... that now... I have added the ‘leave behind’ the old rare book I found as a very major part of what I do... do...

            The ratio (one to one) is that the old rare book now found... cannot be easily sold because... “no one wants it” (or even “knows what it is”) (with that including a substantive admonition; a bibliographically correct annotational ‘promotional puff’, from I ...not asked for).  That is the odd duck of this... these days:  I, over there, ‘find one’; “a copy of that” and... having a “nowhere to go with that”... leave it behind.  It is not just books.  Decorative Arts now have black holes in their universes too.  But... old rare books are a special calling.  Right?

            Yes they are.  It is a very faintly heard calling.  And it is not calling to you.  No.  You... with your ear buds and phone charger “I LEFT IT OH MY GOD (o-M-GEE).  And.  Well...  THAT... IS the end of the old rare book I found... right there...  then...

            NOW.

            One day I offered about forty bird watcher identification books including  regional USA and international sites... for two dollars each.  No one purchased ‘any’ and only a few looked.  I put them out on a dollar table for a week and then... threw them out.  Last week I offered a group of twenty hardcover ‘antique’ editions Herman Melville books for between six and twenty dollars each.  The group was never looked over by anyone.  One man asked “What was his first book”.  “Typee “ I said... and nothing more.  I was eating a breaded roll stuffed with broccoli ... homemade by a vendor down the flea market “lane” from me.  She was ‘selling them’ “I think” meaning that she’d actually been “giving them away” “to friends”.  Doing that is a flea market science... and has nothing to do with Bibliobooklessness.  In fact, she herself is a self declared ‘book less’... “ness”.  “I HAD HIS BOOKS IN BOXES DOWN CELLAR (in her basement) BUT I GAVE THEM AWAY”.  Those were her father’s ...father’s... old rare books.  “HE BUILT RAILROADS” in Maine... she says... fairly often to me.  IS THAT MAN’S ghost trying to contact me... about that ‘horror show’ of the destruction of his “library”?  It doesn’t matter.  IF the books were “anything”... a “somebody got them” and they are “OUT THERE FOR SALE SOMEWHERE”.  With no one... buying them... “TOO”. (Bibliobooklessness).

            Are you okay with this?  Or do you think your going to do something about it (Bibliobooklessness).  What are you going to do?  Pick up what looks like an old rare book to you and look at it?  Fumble with it?  Ponder it and its shelved companions?  Tell your friends that you saw one (an old rare book) and it... seems to be... speaking to you?

            “Speaking volumes” they say.  Yes.  That... is that... ‘so stupid’.  Just go away from ‘treating’ this subject.  Put the old ...not... rare book down and ... no you didn’t buy the rhubarb pie either (“too sour”) and NO:

            The black hole in the universe calling Bibliobooklessness is “low battery” “Dismiss?” 

            The Faithful Healers of Bibliobooklessness?  Yes they are around.  I started this essay with one; her books in boxes in her basement; they are the overflow from her shelves.  The shelves are the bookcases in the cool dark room.  The doggie in there is Benjamin.  The ‘accident’ on the floor in the dark is Benjamin’s.  The books ARE a collection.  This is not Bibliobooklessness.  It is not Bibliomania.  It is... a... biblio accumulation... ‘sort of pretty much’.

            A good job?  Yes, these days.  She’s stuck at it for forty years.  “At it” “Since I can remember.  “Always her hand; a pink puffy hand, holding an old book.  “What do you think of this she regularly asks.  I stop, look and biblio concise and polite state... my world view of her ‘of this’ old rare book.  I stop, drop and roll.  I enjoy that; seeing someone else’s old rare book they ‘found’.

            She has a cell phone.  I do too.  Neither of us can ‘use them’.  Even answering them is a technical challenge.  Benjamin is in the car.  Left there until the boundaries are clear for his “walk”.  The table is set out with cookies and, again (Part Two), shortbread.  The shortbreads have been broken.  When the book collector takes the book she showed me back to her car, she returns with Benjamin on his leash.  She brought the book to show me; to show me alone.  That is a very high compliment.  I know this at the time.  And treat it so.  The book is nothing.  But it is better than it could be.  I compliment it... in an effort to ‘get it shelved’.  Otherwise it goes in to a box.  Which box... “I can’t remember”.  I’ll bring that book up with her again.  When I visit her home.  To try and sell her an old rare book I found.  The point of that bringing up would be to get us to move into the cool dark bookroom (including ‘watch where you step’).  Once we are in the room of her old rare books... maybe something may come of it.  A flirt.  Intercourse.  Nothing sexual you reading fool.  A flirt of old rare books perhaps becoming old rare books commercial... intercourse.

            In a cool dark room.  With Benjamin her doggie and his ‘got to be one around here somewhere’ accident.

            What happens... “now”... “from here”?  “IS” (there must be) a secret to a secret that is a causation that brings Bibliobooklessness to a shuddered stop?  With a hand on an old book; an old book in my hand, do I... can I... does it, will it, can it and... out of the biblio black hole the old rare books... a... ‘walks back’?

            I do find myself in the cool dark book room of the old rare books collector and I do hold an old rare book but I do, too, carry a skeleton key

            Of a book...

            Another

            Bibliography.

            Another secret of the secret of the information of the secrets

            From an old rare book collector’s secrets

            Of secrets

            From another ‘long ago’.

Maine Critters. After the Fourth of July

Maine Critters

After the Fourth of July

            Maine Critters:

            You don’t know what I mean by that and you don’t have any contact with them.  You could have seen one.  See one.  Think you see one.  Wonder if ‘that’s one’

            “There”

            “That Fella.”  You wouldn’t even say that.  Out loud.

            “You’ve been BY ‘em; been CLOSE to one?  You say?

            I don’t think so.  Mister.

            They don’t like July.  “Too hot”.  So they are ornery.  And circulate amongst themselves.  They don’t “do anything like that” (“put the boat in”) (“crap”).  They “GO UP TO CAMP.”  Mostly... if they have one.  A camp.  But MOST of the Maine Critters... do not have a ‘camp’ to ‘go to’ and

            LIVE IN a ‘camp like’.... NO IT AIN’T ‘camp like’:  Those are OTHER camps other people “OWN” that are... ‘camp like...’ sort of ...like a Maine Critter’s

            HOUSE (HOME).

            There we go:  NOW we are starting off the trail and into ‘the brush beside that trail.  NOT that you’d KNOW THAT (you going off the trail) even when

            YOU SMELL IT.

            So we’ll go back and walk through again.

            Maine Critters do not like July.  It is too hot.  They stay home at what fancy folk try to emulate and title their “camp”.  But Critter Camps are THEIR HOME.  What does that mean?  Well we start with “no power” (electricity) “except”.  That last word, when linked to “power” is a whole ‘on-going’ subject.  That I don’t have to touch.  Because it is JULY so

            A Maine Critter “doesn’t need it” (power) “Now”.

            Then there is “water” (at a Critter’s home).  Explanation words include “well”, “spring”, “carry in” and “don’t have it” (“running water”)

            No bathroom (in the B, B and Beyond) sense.  Or in your mind’s eye “camp” sense.

            Nope:  There is a ‘shit house’ (outhouse) that... in July... is not seeing the same usage it sees in January.  “IN JULY... I GOT THE WHOLE DAMN MAINE WOODS to SHIT IN so what do I want to USE (mess up) THAT (the outhouse) FOR?”.

            Food:  Crackers.  Peanut butter.  Cheese.  And:  “There IS a LOT of food around” for Critters... in Maine... in July.  They probably are not as “interested” in a salad dressing  you “I MADE” and would probably eat ALL the radishes on a “BUNCH” without your notice or comment until “AFTER” “THEY WERE GONE”.  YES they (Maine Critters) stew Dandelion greens but that was

            BACK IN THE SPRING.

            This is JULY.  “TOO HOT” to stew anything.  Or is it?

            When I know ‘critters’ are ‘about’ during the heat of July mornings I know because I am told.  They say to me, for an example...; a come forth from the mouth of a retired barber from ‘around Boston’ (a ‘Masshole’):  “YOUR MAKING ME HOT JUST LOOKING AT YOU”.  He means the wool cap I am wearing.  The cotton bandana (old Boy Scout neckerchief) I am wearing.  The wool “FILSON” shirt I am wearing.  The long leg ‘old chino’ (Bean’s) VERY LOOSE (“too big”) fit (and field use dirty) “pants” (Critters do not wear ‘blue jeans’) WITH SUSPENDERS... and a belt... (all critters wear them both) and... wear the, traditionally, tall  (full standard lace) Bean Boots... I am too... wearing.  For the record this is too... a... standard... ‘not worried about ticks’ outfit.

            HE (the barber from Masshole) is wearing... “camp moccasins” with no socks, faux Madras shorts, a shirt that suggests he plays polo and an up front belly the size of a small beer keg ‘hanging over’ “his balls”.  No hat.  That ‘this’, then, is the separation of church and state of...

            Maine Critters.

            I ain’t taking my shirt off to please that guy.  NO I am not taking my BOOTS off.  I don’t care if you ‘get bit’ from not wearing a bandana.  YOU can get the damn tick at your hair line off.  I don’t want to... and never do (find one) “ON ME”.

            So at five in the morning one critter confided to me that he’d “started a fire’ when he got up.  That morning.  It is a ‘hotter than Hell’ July ‘didn’t go below seventy last night’ morning in Maine and this guy (critter) ‘started a fire’ in his woodstove to KEEP WARM.  Okay now we’re getting somewhere.  RIGHT?

            How many layers is he wearing?

            NOW we’re getting somewhere.  RIGHT?  Five layers? (shirts).  DOWN from seven layers a “MONTH AGO”.  Oh you don’t think so?  Yeah well when you get to ‘peel off’ layer FOUR your gonna know by nostril your getting into ‘old’ territory.  His bare chest has, simply, NEVER seen daylight that ‘anyone can remember’.

            In July, Maine Critters... “come out from camp” (leave their remote home) and “of course” (as always, year round “anyway”) attend the flea markets.  July offers ‘outdoor’ flea markets in addition to the year round ‘indoor’ flea markets.  Critters attend both in July.  And.

            It’s the ‘and’ I nuance.  Foremost, understand that in July (and year round for that matter) a ‘flea market’ is not only considered a safe haven to appear in public for a Maine Critter but is also a sort of dock in the ‘out and about’ world of a Maine Critter that they may, at any time of need ...paddle over to and hold on to when paddling their canoe upon the lake of ‘out and about’.  NOW that may be of little consideration especially if one views the Maine Critter’s world as being socially misfit, miss begot and ...just simply (you) missed (it).  Maine Critters are very sensitive to NOT attracting your attention.  So a “beat ass back to the flea market” is the full blown game plan ‘emergency evacuation route’.  NOT that you’d notice.

            Until we get to the “It’s the ‘and’ I nuance”.

            The Maine Critter’s world view includes a heavy view value placed on ‘food’... notably ‘bear bait’ food such as cookies, donuts, breads, breads filled with anything, breads made by farmer’s daughters neatly wrapped with little handmade labels saying ‘what it is’ including the visual support of a big gob of homemade ‘her raspberry jam’...  And...:

            Pie.

            In July

            Rhubarb pie.

            No ‘Rhubarb and’ pie.  JUST

            RHUBARB

            PIE.

But the nuance is the source... of the bear bait offerings:  “Farmer’s Markets”, so called... and often found suspiciously (conveniently) close to a ‘flea market’.  This, applied to the ‘paddle to’ dock denoted above, allows the Maine Critter an irresistible ‘drawn to’ bear bait trap that forges, as a blacksmith hammers a horseshoe on an anvil, a singular world of Maine Critter notice.  These old critters and the farmer’s market farmer’s daughters have a mutual border world they share, inclusive of the ‘known-to-critters’ denotation that the critters “ogle” a bit too.  But the nuance

            Is the Rhubarb Pie

            In July. (“Is she still making ‘em?”)

            I won’t go so far as to say “I SEE” a whole rhubarb pie ‘set out’ in a truck cab for a “MISTER WILLARD WHEN HE COMES BY YOU KNOW HE (can talk with wild ducks he says)”.  Mr. Willard has five shirts on

            In July.

            But he also brought along a little ‘witch stick’ he whittled himself and that ends up sitting on the truck seat when he leaves.  His cash payment for the “He buys one from me every week” pie is always “put in her pocket I watch her do that”.  I said ‘ogle’ above.  “I’ve always liked milk maids” Mister Willard told me once.

            It’s a special relationship, now quite common in Maine... at flea markets and farmer’s markets:  Critters and local baked goods.  “Coffee” is another ‘plus’.  Yes, Mister Willard and his fellows know a ‘good cup’ of “her coffee”.  They retreat back to the flea market to “eat” and then

            “GO BACK”.

            Yep... the whole damn morning is filled with what I just... it is NOT a ‘five minute deal’.  The critters know who, what, why, how and ‘did she MAKE’ “THIS WEEK”.  They know.  They hunt.  They track.  They sight in.  And don’t get their belly too full for then they don’t shut-up.  And that includes the ‘ogle’.  You can see it coming.  Send in the tow truck and tow the critter away before he...:  “Time for you to go back to camp Mr. Willard.”

            It is a fine line

            But it is real human interaction.  It is not on the cyber space.  It is, too, a mutual fascination.  For example:  What starts as a suggestion that including a ‘strip of bacon’ to go with a broccoli / spinach stuffed “roll” (every baked good, excepting ‘cookie’, ‘donut’ and ‘pie’ is a “roll” to a critter.) ends in a ‘I know those bugs too mine had it I got rid of them with that LAVENDER dish soap the GAL sells down at the WATERFRONT (farmer’s) market”.  You don’t need to understand what they are talking about.  It’s just a couple of Maine Critters chatting at ‘the market’.