I'm trying to decide what to do with cool but very beat-up old books that get donated to the thrift store.
The ones in good shape sell, but the ones with, say, covers coming off usually don't. I'd thought they'd sell to book artists, but that's not really our customer base. I could try to sell them online, or buy them myself and reuse them (bind them as blank books)...
Some are rather plain.
And some are crazy wild, like this book, LIGHT, from 1930, published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses). I see copies on ebay for about ten bucks.
We got some Tennessee Williams movie-tie-in Signet paperbacks from the 1950s-60s the other day.
They were pristine for pulps (high-acid paper = brittle and yellowed). I put them on Facebook ($5 each), and a customer who saw them came in the same day to buy all of them.
"For display," she told me.
Yes--they're wonderfully lurid.
The ones in good shape sell, but the ones with, say, covers coming off usually don't. I'd thought they'd sell to book artists, but that's not really our customer base. I could try to sell them online, or buy them myself and reuse them (bind them as blank books)...
Some are rather plain.
And some are crazy wild, like this book, LIGHT, from 1930, published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses). I see copies on ebay for about ten bucks.
We got some Tennessee Williams movie-tie-in Signet paperbacks from the 1950s-60s the other day.
They were pristine for pulps (high-acid paper = brittle and yellowed). I put them on Facebook ($5 each), and a customer who saw them came in the same day to buy all of them.
"For display," she told me.
Yes--they're wonderfully lurid.
You feel that books should always go to some sort of home, even if it's just re-use the covers.
ReplyDeleteYes---except I admit I have no trouble throwing out heaps of outdated books on Real Estate and the like...
ReplyDeleteI love that "Mornings in Florence" cover. Is that John Ruskin? And yes, the Tennessee Williams books are terrific! Glad someone bought them, even just "for display." (Whatever that means!)
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