Finding Rare Books

[Extollager]

This is a pleasant and brief read:

The Delirious, Addictive Hunt for Rare Books

I liked the bit about ephemera. One of the nicest items in my bookmark collection had been left in a book kept in the stacks of the graduate library at the University of Illinois.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

If you aren't a book guru, you might have a Victorian or Edwardian book that's rare (from home or charity shop) and not know it's rare? The binding may be unremarkable etc.

I bought and restored a quite rare 1929 portable suitcase radio (still costs less to run in batteries than some modern ones as the LT is rechargable) and was amazed later to get the missing user manual on ebay a year later, in pristine condition. Amazingly the original purchase did have the g'tee card and I even found Radio Licence for UK for same year scanned online, I downloaded both sides, got paper similar to original and replicated a facsimile after editing out the spilled ink and dirt.

I've bought some original pages of adverts of old things I have, that sellers cut from issues of Punch.

I restored a 1935 radiogram and then spent months scouring local charity shops for 78s. I even found some 12" ones as well as 10". You can look up the pressing numbers and I was surprised to find about 1/4 of them from first year of radio (1921-1922) or earlier (Many from year 1, 1898 I think, still survive, though the oldest I have is 1911).

 

[J Riff]

Starting about, oh, 1960 or earlier it was comics, then a decade later into the book trade via the family, scouting away like mad. Golden Age, ten cent comics were already being collected by 1960, primarily Superman I think. Scouted ten thousand sales after that, often in teams. There were want-lists of books, no internet of corset, so bookdealers had to care, and had to dun places like Universities for their wantlists. Often an ex-student would have a published work, or a poetry folio, or whatever, that was signifigant. If you went to a yard sale and found this item, it may well have been bypassed by a hundred people in a row because it looked like nuttin'. They would buy anything, useless science or school books from the 1800s - and leave any fifties stuff that had no famous name on it.
Curiously the internet sent the price of a lot of rare books down, by emptying the basements of the world all at once. I still look, but the odds are against anything really great sneaking through anymore. Only when someone estate comes up is there a chance... and even then they have to be rich enough to not even care about typing book titles into eBay, and sell you the lot, the basement full of boxes, the whole shebang - then you may find a Tarzan in dustjacket. Not! *
SF hardcovers? Way beyond my price range. But paperbacks, well... my collection (now GORN) was... it was .... I'm sorry I can't continue talking about it.... it .... >>>> (tearstains HERE).