First Edition Hunt: Below the Root - Zilpha Snyder

 

     I knew almost nothing about this author or book when I saw this at a thrift store indoor market a few weekends back. I've seen enough books to know when something stands out, so I move it from pile A, over to pile B. 50 cents and I was on my way, with no internet to speak of, it was a small risk to take at that price. 

    Zilpha Keatley was an award winning children's author, but branched out a few times to write some Fantasy. She wrote 46 books in her life, and this one and the trilogy it's in, spawned a pretty good video game by the same name.  Unique for the time, the video game was written by her because she did not like how the first book ended, and has some negative reaction with fans. She used the video game as a sequel to the first book, and she considered it canon, and a correction to the plot device she created. Below the Root is considered a very uncommon book, and the other two books in the trilogy, even more so in any condition. That I have been collecting for 20+ years and have not come across one, is really something. 

     This particular copy sold right away, and the images are from that eBay post. The sale price for this book in "good" condition was $35 + $5 shipping. In perfect condition could go up to $50 for a first Tor printing. In hardcover, you can almost use your imagination as very few copies come up for sale. 

Happy hunting. 

Reseller Retrospective 2: Books sold in the second month of the eBay store

 

The books are taking over.

     Well, it's month two of nearly continuous operation of the eBay store, with a few multi-day sanity breaks in-between. My wife and I have fallen into sync and found our cadence with finding books, listing them, shipping prep, and final shipping to the customer. For those following along, this is a follow up to the previous post, found here. I went out to find books three times in the Month of April, finding several books in the process. In one instance at a hospice thrift store, I found five first/first Stephen King books, including IT, in mint unread condition; those books have been listed but not sold yet. I have found more books to list and inventory than we sold, so overall, I think this could be very sustainable long term. The amount listed below is before shipping, (I charge $5 for PB and $6 for HC) and estimated eBay fees. 

• $12 - Brazen Gambit - Lynn Abbey - First Dark Sun PB 1994
• $15 - God Emperor Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
• $15 - Witch World - Andre Norton - First PB 1963
• $50 - Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert - First/First HC
• $46 - The Man Who Rode Thunder - Williams Rankin - 1965 PB
• $9 - Infernal Idol  - Henry Seymour - 1969 First PB
• $10 - A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay 1973 PB
• $13 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1984 PB
• $40 - Focus on Biology
• $35 - I, Robot - Isaac Asimov - BCE 1950 HC
• $10 - The Mousetrap - Agatha Christie - 1969 First PB
• $15 - The Belgariad Part Two - David Eddings - BCE HC
• $9 - The Abyss - Orson Scott Card - First PB
• $11 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester - First Timescape PB 1978
• $28 - Highlander - Garry Kilworth - First PB 1998
• $11 - Deception Well - Linda Nagata - BCE HC 1978
• $15 - Charnel House - Graham Masterton - First HC 1978
• $12 - Swords Against Darkness IV - Andrew Offutt - First PB 1979
• $22 - Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison - First HC 1967
• $10 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman - PB 1976
• $10 - Ringworld - Larry Niven - 3rd printing 1971 PB
• $12 - Picnic on Paradise - Joanna Russ 1979 PB
• $25 - The Djinn - Graham Masterton - First PB 1977
• $10 - A Feast Unknown - Phillip Jose Farmer - First 1980
• $6 - Deus Irae - Phillip K Dick/Zelazny - 1977 PB
• $12 - Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut - First 1970 PB

     In the month of April we made $471.73 net from 26 book sales, give or take a few bucks we made on shipping. Our 60 day total is now $1,193.10. The average price of books sold was a paltry $17.80, and our overhead on shipping media mail averaged $5.30 cents per book, which is envelope plus media mail average $4.40 shipping, and the little fake library cards and a protective bag we add in each package to solicit positive reviews and add a personal touch. (See results below)

     It's worth noting we are having issues with book storage, moved some boxes to the garage, and the desks are overflowing. The top of my son's piano has turned into a staging area for books waiting to be shipped or listed, and the plastic totes behind me have turned into the collection for current listed inventory. There has been a few moments where it has taken more than 5 minutes to find a book when sold, so we are working on a better way to keep things organized; more to come on that. I feel that our little sanity breaks of 4-5 days did not help the book sales and keep the inventory fresh, so it's been hard to keep motivated when I work a 50+ hour a month job and my wife homeschools all day. Tough changing gears! We felt discouraged when there was 3-4 days without a book sale, only to be rewarded with multiple days in a row of sales, or multiple in one day. I think it's just staying motivated and consistent overall that will keep this train on the tracks. So far in May we have already sold six books with a value of $193, so it's looking like a record month.

See you in May for Reseller Retrospective Part 3!

I bought a crusty old collection.

 

The pictures don't do the level of filth any justice

     I get excited about little things, and seeing pictures of crusty old books for a super cheap price real close to my house would qualify as one of those little things. I answered the post above within an hour of it online, and after work the next day, I head over to Dunedin with some old boxes and prepared to load up. From the pictures alone I could see about 350 books of varying quality, so I got $40 out of the ATM and set that as my budget. 

     I did not know what to expect, but I'll describe this the best way I can. The house looked to be 30 years overgrown. There was no front path leading up to the house, and the driveway and front yard was covered in old wood and appliances. This was a pretty nice neighborhood, so to see this was pretty unexpected. The owner met me on the front lawn for my appointment, and led me around to the alternate front door which was framed out of wood and had some pool screen on it. There were book cases inside the front door that was missing, and a sign with an allergy warning in spray paint. I do have horrendous allergies, but I can also smell a deal, so I'm not going to let that stop me. It's clear there has not been anyone inside this house for over 20 years, and there was no power or AC. I've been having an issue seeing in the dark in my old age, so was only able to pull books out by the light of my phone, so was not able to take any pictures of inside the house, as that would require me to put the light away. Because of the aforementioned issue with the light, some of the books I picked up had some horrible spines that I did not notice. You can't win them all! There were actually several bookcases, and the one in the picture above was the worst of the bunch.

The Take

     I left behind hundreds of books in the worst condition I've ever seen, from fire damage to water damage, missing covers and spines, to infestation of something else entirely. Every book was stuck together with the one next to it, and in the case of the Ace Doubles, they might as well counted as one book. The ones I picked up were all in the fair-to-poor range of condition, and as they were only 10 cents each, I picked out the best 200 or so and loaded 5 large boxes, and at the end just starting throwing random books in the boxes to get my money's worth. The new owner of the house counted nothing, offered to give me everything including the book cases, and offered me lemonade, which I turned down. The books I did grab that were in poor shape were first edition classics in their own right- I left two deteriorating first edition I, Robots with missing covers, things I normally would be over the moon about. The Dune books were in surprising shape and will be on eBay soon, as were some old classics that cleaned up with alcohol and a rag. I counted, and of the "listable" books, we have $484 in eBay value for $40, plus some cool books to add to the collection or sell on Instagram on the cheap. Some pretty cool standouts below: