When I began collecting vintage books, I had no idea of the incredible pleasure I would get from the book hunting side of the business. I am never happier than when I am fossicking, uncovering discarded gems, and holding history and the memories of peoples lives in my hands.
I do source books from a variety of places, but my absolute favourites are secondhand book stores and secondhand book sales. All those wonderful worlds and memorable characters that should never be forgotten, clumped together and close to being discarded. It’s like saving a life.
What is even more fascinating is to see what people buy from my store. Many, many times I have browsed through my inventory and thought “I shouldn’t have brought that” or “that will never sell”, and then a few days or weeks later it does. Conversely, the books I’m sure will be snapped up can languish in the storefront indefinitely.
Recently, I sold a copy of Jerome K. Jerome’s (the author of Three Men and a Boat – To Say Nothing of the Dog) Three Men on the Bummel to a customer in Norway. Bummel was never as popular as Boat, but I spied a nice clean edition of it while I was living in Perth and couldn’t resist it.
I immediately thought I’d made a mistake, as there were so many copies of it available online for sale (scarcity can be a bookseller’s friend). So, I racked it up to experience and noted that I needed to check availability more throroughly in future.
Yet, somehow, this customer came to my ETSY store instead of to the vintage seller super-sites such as ABE and BIBLIO, etc. Maybe it was my photos, the price point, or the site reviews. Who knows?
But I was THRILLED.
It’s like reuniting friends across the world. And that feeling never gets old.
