Ups and Downs of the Trade

My how time flies when one is playing. I finally finished up my Bachelor's degree in December, and since I have remained unemployed since then I have had a little more spare time to get involved with my favorite hobby. I've looked around at trying to start up my own web site, but alas I am not tech savvy enough and have just resigned myself to the ole stand bys and selling on other websites. The fees are ridiculous, but still a good way to stay in the biz. I still have plenty of books all boxed up but thought that I might need an infusion of new items. The problem with that is the nagging fact that I am still unemployed with a lack of cash flow. So my beautiful partner in crime suggested that I but an ad out on a couple of those free websites. Didn't really think it would work, but what did I have to lose, right. The ad specifically said I would travel up to 30 miles and take most books that anyone was willing to give away for free. Low and behold, literally within a few hours I had a response from a nice lady who said she had well over a hundred books and they were mostly boxed up - but she was closer to 90 miles away from me.

As luck would have it for me, that 90 miles put us on the coast, and since my wife was needing a water fix, it was not too hard to talk her into going with me. Naturally, as the way things go, 100 books turned out to be over 300 books - and they were not even close to being all boxed up; and most of them not worth the effort of sorting through them. Still, there is that strange sense of excitement that few people know and understand - the one where you truly believe that if you just collect enough books, maybe, just maybe one of them will be worth all of the time and effort. - Incidentally, while I was searching the web to come up with an image that might begin to show what it is like to have to box up 300 books. I found this image of books in a box, along with an inspiring story. Check it out here: http://ericsmithrocks.com/2010/05/07/boxes-of-books/ I'll bet he knows the sense of excitement that I'm talking about!

So, my dear wife was accommodating enough to not only help box up the books, but carry them to the car as well, then we headed to the coast to get her sea fix. After that I actually spent the next 3 or 4 days sorting through the boxes, setting aside the ones I thought I might want to keep, and cleaning the rest well enough to be able to donate to my local library. Through the process, I was ever so disappointed to be forced to 'recycle' a few that were too badly soiled or torn to keep. Once I got a chance to look closer at the ones I set aside, I was very excited to find that a few were very well priced on other websites. One book in particular, titled I Was a Pagan, by V.C. Kitchen in 1934 was really intriguing as the book is dedicated "To The Oxford Group" and on the front end page is a label from "The Oxford Group Commander Hotel,Cambridge, Mass". A little research showed that the Oxford Group was a major influence in the starting of a small support group called Alcoholics Anonymous. Even more exciting was seeing that this book, even as an Ex. Library copy was easily worth well over $150.00 --- and that is just a small bit of the excitement of finding the one book that makes it all worth while. Straight to the auction block that one went, at a very modest price of $125.00. Oh the joy of watching the number of views and watchers as auction day neared. On the final day I had a dedicated 4 watchers and was just sitting back waiting to watch the bidding war begin - when to my utter disappointment, the auctioned ended without a single bid! And there you have "The Ups and Downs of the Trade", still I think I'll leave Mr. Kitchen sitting right here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280837291124&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT - just in case someone else gets as excited over this book as I did.