Favorite Asimov Cover Art, and Update

   These are scans from my Collectorz.com image database. I may have scanned them in five years ago, and they still hold up pretty well. That aside, these printings of the foundation trilogy are some of my favorite covers ever. The geometric shapes, the symbolism, it's amazing.

     Quickly, I'll be updating with a new book case collection overview/retrospective in the morning. It's just too late to think straight, and I've had a couple beers which makes increases the difficulty of this post by a factor of.. five.
 Till tomorrow.

I bought a couch... and found some books.

     But first.. I have to run out and buy some furniture. I know, don't tell me, its boring. I have said several times before, I hate buying anything new. By that I mean I dont like to spend money on anything at all. I'm cheap, I save everything, and always try to get the best deal. My cat Artax, named after the horse in Neverending Story, tore up our old couch and the time finally came where I could not listen to the wife complain about it anymore. She deserves a couch after all, and so does this guy:

     He loved it. My son likes a good piece of furniture and pretty much sold it for me. Some haggling and price reductions, toss in the matching chair for a little bit extra and I caved, and my wife signed. Secretly my thoughts drifted to beer and books, two of my favorite things and I hurried home and took some pictures.

 

     The story goes like this: I bought these books at the Flea Market after working overtime on a Saturday merchandising grocery stores on easter weekend. I never took any pictures because I really didnt see anything that was new or stood out. We drank a beer, got some books and tore ass out of there. Upon further inspection I didnt do too bad!

 

 

     The winner of the day was the first edition George R.R. Martin book, A Song for Lya. Games of Thrones being as big as it as, this book goes for about $50 on ebay all day long. Nice score! The rest of the books are nickles and dimes ($5-10) with the Mine to Mind book selling for about $20. I think I bought these at the six-for-five book place, so thats a pretty awesome score for the money spent! I swear I could do this for a living. As with most TV ads, wait, there's more!

 

      Ladyhawke! A great movie with a great retro music score. I have a copy of this book already, but love the movie so much I could not resist. I opened up the book to find a cut out of an 80's TV guide advertisment with TV listings for the Boston/Metro area. Cheesy pictures? Of course. Worth anything? Of course not, but it's priceless to me.

 





Piers Anthony & Xanth Edition Variation

 
     At one time in my life I really enjoyed Xanth books. It was around middle school to early High School when I mostly stopped reading them altogether. The damage was done. The puns and sexual innuendo of the fantasy realm enchanted my young mind. Being that the majority of the Xanth novels started in the 70's and 80's, cover variations were pretty unique, and sometimes not-so. Exhibit A: Ogre, Ogre.

     The color of the books is not a product of fading, it's just what happens between printings. Typically the covers get lighter as the printings run on. Only one of the above is a first edition (I'll let you decide). Typically there will be a blurb of some sort over the cover art saying, "A Xanth Novel", or "A New Xanth Novel!", or the like. I hate the blurb like I hate herpes. It just ruins the great art on some of these older books.

 

     I just realized how boring this post is so i will quickly end it with this: Collecting variations of book printings is nearly impossible and has no real value. What is written inside is still the same, you wont be missing anything, and really its just tough to do. My advice is to just get the first edition if you want it and always keep your favorite books that you read the first time. If you can't find the first edition, use that money to buy beer.. or herpes medication.

Jared's Collection Update

          My brother likes him some Mack Bolan. What a collection! I wonder how many people have half this many. I'll do a google search later and check it out. He then sent me this a few days later on Facebook:

Old books: The Bible

     Everyone who lives in America most likely has some form of a bible in their house. I have news for you guys, it may be valuable. I'm crazy you say? The bible is not a fantasy book? Tisk, tisk. I could argue a case on both accounts. I keep mine in several garbage bags because I have no other way to keep it air tight so it will not disintegrate any more than it has.

    It's an American family Bible from the middle 1800's. I bought it at a garage sale around five years ago. It was in the same condition when I found it, so I try to keep it dry and as air tight as I can for storage. Its made of leather, weighs in at a whopping 30 pounds. The binding has brass strips in it, attaching to the front of the book so it can lock/trap. As you can see from the pictures below, its about a 1 out of 10 as far as condition. It has no value, but I thought it was interesting, and the pictures would like nice framed if I could save them.

     Sorry for the quality of the image, but taking pictures on my kitchen table while trying to get Easter locked down and a computer repaired at the same time can be frustrating. You can see the brass hinges and locks on the front of the book. Both the front and back cover are covered in gold leaf, and if you zoom in on the second picture you can see that the gold leaf has artwork of the apostles and the books of the Bible.

     Because this is a parallels Bible, the first 200 or so pages are reference and guide for the history and geography of the Bible. The pictures are amazing, and include detailed maps. Each picture is covered in a single piece of waxy parchment which has protected the pages somewhat. Some of the pictures are color, some are not. A few of the pictures are gilded with yet again more gold leaf. Click any of the pictures to zoom.

     The orange square in the middle is where the tissue paper on the adjacent page allowed ink to bleed through. You can almost see the picture in the staining. The bleeding did not seem to bother any of the artwork, which is good.

     Obviously my pictures do not do these beautiful pieces of art justice, but you can get the general idea. The care taken to make this bible borders on the obscene. I can't imagine what something like this would cost to print back then! The binding was falling apart as I was turning the pages, so maybe it was not all that expensive after all.

     Anyways, I could post pictures forever as there are hundreds in there but I just picked a few and put them up. I'm not sure what the book is worth. I'll explain. I've seen mint condition copies go for over $100, easily. The real money is in the pictures protected by the tissue paper. People carefully cut them out and have them framed to sell. Genuine woodcuts with gold lead from the 1800's are pretty hard to find in good condition, so the value taken apart is much more. I really don't know what to do with it. My wife is a very devout christian and does not want me to sell it. I see it as something I

could just cut apart and make a few bucks on. Comments?





Update 8/11:

An Issue with Reddit r/rarebooks

     Since I posted this on blog post on a Reddit comment, I had some haters, and it's obvious they did not read the entire post, or understand what my Blog is about. It's my blog about finding, selling, and buying rare books for profit. It's my opinions, thoughts and ramblings of things I think are interesting. I rarely tell people what they should or should not be doing. I'm the last person to give conservation or preservation advice unless it could make me money.  Let's back up a little.

     This book is not rare, they are easy to find in good condition, this one was- and the one on the Reddit post, was not in good condition. It's a common book on a rare book forum. Worth $20 maybe? Shame on me for offering a way to make a few bucks back on something with little value. I'm sure the bible has sentimental value for some people, or they look at it as a curiosity and hold on to it. As mentioned above, mine has no value, I dumped it in the trash. Even in the best condition, it's a hard sell. I've tried to get rid of a few after this, buying large amounts of books I was stuck with more of them. If you have any interest in restoring or preserving an old family bible, go right ahead, but you will never get that money back. I'm not a super-collector or person who preserves rare books.

     I buy and sell them to make money, and keep a few I like. I tend to comment on the value of things on several threads, typically about making money on something and nothing else. On storing your books: Obviously don't store your fucking books in trash bags unless you want them to end up in the trash like this one did? Use common sense?

     I ended up deleting the comments in question because of some assholes. I almost forgot I was on Reddit, and I guess I expected people to be more open minded. My blog post fit the theme of the Reddit post, so I shared it. Written over 6 years ago at my dinner table in 5 minutes, I never gave any advice on how to store books, or what to do with them. I did in fact say my copy was trash, in a trash bag, worth nothing, and If I could, would sell the art for more money than I had in it. (Which I did do, just not with this copy.) I never said I was an expert, or acted like I knew anything about the book except how to make a few extra bucks back on a piece of shit you might be stuck with. Almost instantly, the flock of self proclaimed experts at all things.. well everything, swoop down and say I'm a total piece of shit for my blog post, I know nothing, and I'm full of crap, and everything that is wrong with the world is on display in my blog post. A few paragraphs of me saying whats on my mind with a book I thought was cool at the moment.

Sigh.

     90% of the books and posts on r/rarebooks are not rare at all. Moderators don't do anything, and the top 10 posts every day are "Is this piece of shit moldy ass cover missing book worth anything?" First two comments are links to websites someone googled in 3 seconds, or a link to an abebooks.com listing, which are worthless. The few times I have seen someone comment with a legit value or comparison, it's downvoted. If you own the same book, get ready for someone to call you a liar or you don't know what you are talking about. Sold 5 of the same book in the past? I would not say anything or offer any advice, you are wrong, no matter what... remember that.

     Many years ago, Reddit was good to me. I posted all my new blog ramblings there, and got amazing feedback. Over 50 Posts on different forums including r/rarebooks, I never got a negative comment, including this very post that is getting heat years later. Over 100k unique views, mostly generated by being active and writing about what I was picking up or thinking about at the time, 100% supported by the Reddit community.

Well, I suppose those days are over.

Flea Market Pick Ups: Part 2

     Oh, Fleamasters Flea Market. The repository of most failed businesses in Fort Myers and liquidation center for all junk no one wants. I call this home. See Flea Masters Pick Ups Part 1 here.

  
  I really did not plan to end up at the flea market, it was more of a super-fail garage sale adventure. I tried to follow some leads on Craigslist but everything had packed up for the day.
     The weather was awesome as you can see from the picture of Mcgregor Blvd above, so I'm not so sure why the garage sales were not out in abundance. I just kept driving until I was downtown, and before you knew it, I was at the front door to the flea market.

     Fenced in to keep out the looters on weekdays, you get assaulted by fruit sales people from every entrance to the inner sanctum.

     I took this picture literally five feet after walking past the fence and in to the strange building. I live in a super high tourist area, so a huge amount of stall/shops in here are "Florida" shit sellers. Look honey, a real Florida turd! I love it.

 

     I made my way around to a second larger building that has less of the touristy stuff and more of the garage sale like stalls. As in my last post about this flea market, one of my acquaintances has a large area in here where he sells books. Above is the books i found in front of a romance book store. I really don't like bagged books. Anything with a bag on it people are going to pick up and pay too much for. The prices listed are almost always mid-high eBay prices. (which is what I go buy when i find something and log it)

 



     I rounded the corner behind where they sell the beer, yes i stopped there first, and made my way to the Hall of Books. I had heard this was where all the old books from the Silver Platter record store made there way to, so i had to check it out.

     The fantasy and sci-fi book shelves seemed a little picked over, and most of what I saw, I had or did not want. Another fail! First no garage sales.. then this?

    I promised myself i would take home something, so I talked to the guy taking the money about the possibility of there being some books from the Silver Platter's inventory laying around. He confirmed it, and pulled some bins from under the table. I wont ruin the rest of the post, but lets just say I did find some just great books here, and the only thing that put me over my budget was a 20oz beer. Beer is always on a separate budget from here on out.

 

     He had all the other strange shit from the Platter, like old vinyl and tons of anime VHS tapes. I stuck with what i know but the Weird Al in 3D almost had me.

 



     I'm sorry for the blurriness of this picture, I was told by an old man not to take it so I moved and it went to shit. Quickly, I was taking a short cut through where the vendors park and unload their trailers and vans and what-not, and I saw someone selling books out of fruit boxes for real cheap. No order at all. I stopped and bought a few books for literally pennies and made my way back to the car, stopping at the table that i stopped at in the first flea market post to finish my beer.

 

    Mission accomplished. Now to see todays take...

 Click to zoom

 

     Bagged books! Prices as marked when I use to buy them from the Platter back in the day. Prices vary between $8.00 and $15.00 a book, but he gave them to me for the six-for-five price listed on the home made sign above his shop. Some really cool old books and two not so old books I needed to complete a set; Lucky Starr and the newer C.S. Lewis book in the top left corner. Quick eBay searches on the couch with a cold one were in order after some picture taking sessions. Apparently the prices on the books are pretty accurate to low-eBay pricing which is great. One was way over, The Return to Jongor, because of it's famous Conan cover art. All in all I made out with about $200 over the money spent in book value. Seems as if my dry spell is over for the moment!

Changed the title image.. yeah.

Started as this,

 

Then to this..

 

And now this.

 

     I decided to try and put a little effort in to the blog look tonight as it picks up steam. I'm going to have a few guest writers in the future, so an updated look may encourage more of that to happen. Oh, and my wife said she can read it now.. because that is important. I use CS6 both at home and at work.