John Dunning's book-collecting backdrops -- how realistic?

Palmer, while I'm enjoying this discussion and your contributions to it, I
have to tell you that at least where I sit, your posts have a width of just
a few words..... it's totally maddening. Are you formating your posts in
some odd way?

Dave

"palmer.william" wrote in message
om...

"Mark Healey" wrote in message


...
On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 20:18:51 UTC, "palmer.william"
wrote:

Mark I appreciated your informative
comments, and people who missed
them should back track and read your
posting. I cut them (and most of my
remarks out here, because the post
was getting too long and I got inspired
to add a few more comments on the
regional used book business as I
have experienced it as a habitual
browser.

[...]



Of course, the ironic thing here is that
used book stores are obviously not
gold mines in Southern California.
As I mentioned in a recent post, many
of them have gone out of business
in recent years.

By "gold mines" I assume you mean places where you could get
collectible books at under market value.

No, actually I meant it in the sense that
a typical used book browser sees used
book dealers (some, anyway) paying
bottom dollar and selling at top dollar.
So it is easy to for such a customer to
assume the used bookstore is a gold
mine, so to speak. Obviously that isn't
always (or even often the case) or there
would be a lot more used bookstores
in the region.

Take North County, for instance.
Generally a prosperous area, with
many highly-educated people in it.
But if you go north from La Jolla, you
only find two used bookstores by
the time you reach Camp Pendelton.
If you go inland, you find one in
San Marcos, two in Vista
and one several miles East of the
ocean in Oceanside.. (I have not
counted those miserable little places
that do nothing but trade popular
paperbacks.)

Going south instead of north, let's see,
there is basically one in La Jolla (you
know who I mean, probably; the one
with a wonderful stock of classics
and the duantingly high prices)
not counting a couple of other
little La Jolla places specializing
in very expensive books. (I know
they are there, I have peered in the'
window a couple of times ) There is
one used bookstore left in Pacific
Beach, and it isn't much. One in
Ocean Beach, too, sort of run-of-
the mill, as I recall.

Now, considering the population
and the income of that coastal
stretch of communities, I think
you would agree that used
bookstores are pretty scarce.
I did not talk about the ones
inland in San Diego, because
I and another poster have already
covered most of those (on the
current San Diego bookstore
thread).

Also, as I said in an earlier post,
Carlsbad Village used to have several
used bookstores, and they all closed,
except for a pitiful little paperback trader.
Remember, Carlsbad Village is not
exactly poverty row, either, so we know
it is not that people in the Village can't
afford used books. Of course, the
old couple WERE terrible gougers,
and I don't think they will be missed
much, bless their dear old hearts...
They didn't care, the lady would
scream at the customers, etc..
They had an excellent stock, giving
them fair credit. I think what they did
was cherry pick whatever was brought
to them, and just keep the most
interesting books and charge an
arm and a leg for those. (They also
sold antiques in the same store,
so you can imagine...)

Guaging the market from net listings is more art than science. If you
see a wide range of prices for a title in like condition it is likely
that the high ones are old copies that haven't sold. You also have to
know about which dealers are crazy (Pawprint) and have insanely high
prices.

Then, too, remember that sometimes a high price means that the seller couldn't
locate a copy anywhere else and, not knowing if a book is actually collectible,
just made up a high price. I've seen that done more than once by a bookseller.
Sometimes he gets lucky and someone will actually pay that inflated price.
Other times, the fact that he is the first to list a copy will drive others out
of the woodwork and they will begin showing up at succesively lower prices as
competing dealers, seeing these high prices, try to low-ball each other.

I can think of more than one book (example: Operators and Things by Barbara
O'Brien) which could be sold for $150 a copy as recently as a year ago, but
which now nets about $20, and you have to wait awhile to even sell your $20
copy--except on eBay. (I'm speaking here of the 1958 Ace paperback edition.)


--
"Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor
citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang, as when
single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang."

--Benjamin Franklin

"David J Bockman" wrote in message
...
Palmer, while I'm enjoying this discussion and your contributions to it, I
have to tell you that at least where I sit, your posts have a width of
just
a few words..... it's totally maddening. Are you formating your posts in
some odd way?

I don't know that I am "formatting them."
I just prefer to write short lines. And
after 15,000 or so posts, I guess it is
a habit with me.

Dave

"palmer.william" wrote in message
om...

"Mark Healey" wrote in message



...
On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 20:18:51 UTC, "palmer.william"
wrote:

Mark I appreciated your informative
comments, and people who missed
them should back track and read your
posting. I cut them (and most of my
remarks out here, because the post
was getting too long and I got inspired
to add a few more comments on the
regional used book business as I
have experienced it as a habitual
browser.

[...]



Of course, the ironic thing here is that
used book stores are obviously not
gold mines in Southern California.
As I mentioned in a recent post, many
of them have gone out of business
in recent years.

By "gold mines" I assume you mean places where you could get
collectible books at under market value.

No, actually I meant it in the sense that
a typical used book browser sees used
book dealers (some, anyway) paying
bottom dollar and selling at top dollar.
So it is easy to for such a customer to
assume the used bookstore is a gold
mine, so to speak. Obviously that isn't
always (or even often the case) or there
would be a lot more used bookstores
in the region.

Take North County, for instance.
Generally a prosperous area, with
many highly-educated people in it.
But if you go north from La Jolla, you
only find two used bookstores by
the time you reach Camp Pendelton.
If you go inland, you find one in
San Marcos, two in Vista
and one several miles East of the
ocean in Oceanside.. (I have not
counted those miserable little places
that do nothing but trade popular
paperbacks.)

Going south instead of north, let's see,
there is basically one in La Jolla (you
know who I mean, probably; the one
with a wonderful stock of classics
and the duantingly high prices)
not counting a couple of other
little La Jolla places specializing
in very expensive books. (I know
they are there, I have peered in the'
window a couple of times ) There is
one used bookstore left in Pacific
Beach, and it isn't much. One in
Ocean Beach, too, sort of run-of-
the mill, as I recall.

Now, considering the population
and the income of that coastal
stretch of communities, I think
you would agree that used
bookstores are pretty scarce.
I did not talk about the ones
inland in San Diego, because
I and another poster have already
covered most of those (on the
current San Diego bookstore
thread).

Also, as I said in an earlier post,
Carlsbad Village used to have several
used bookstores, and they all closed,
except for a pitiful little paperback trader.
Remember, Carlsbad Village is not
exactly poverty row, either, so we know
it is not that people in the Village can't
afford used books. Of course, the
old couple WERE terrible gougers,
and I don't think they will be missed
much, bless their dear old hearts...
They didn't care, the lady would
scream at the customers, etc..
They had an excellent stock, giving
them fair credit. I think what they did
was cherry pick whatever was brought
to them, and just keep the most
interesting books and charge an
arm and a leg for those. (They also
sold antiques in the same store,
so you can imagine...)