well, we can't really contiune to do big-time commercial bidness On List
i suppose, or Ole Bossie George will want 20% off the top.
but, since you axed, and some literate folks might on the list be interested
in how book dealers think about such things, i'll continue on
a bit.
No, i don't have a copy of it. Nor have i ever heard of it/seen a copy, to my
knowledge.
sounds like a genre of historical novel which i'm familiar with --sort of a
spin-of of earlier Lew Wallace or Bulwer-Lytton-- very popular in the
pre-TeeVee daze.
>I didn't order it yet because the price was a little steep.
reasonably outrageous, considering that it is a *third* reprint (1961) rather
than a first edition (1918) or even a second (1937), in
potentially dodgie condition ("VG+/Fair"), with a potentially ratty dust
jacket ("Dust jacket mildly spoiled, several chips, 1 small closed
tear").
otOh, it *is* the only copy to show up in the databases searched by half.com
(*millions* of books there, as i said), so it is, by definition, a scarce
item. which, in the world of supply and demand, is only half
the story.
curious that it was reprinted *twice*; must have *some*thing going for
it. just a good historical novel? but, say, _The Cloister and the
Hearth_ is an *excellent* historical novel (about the parents of Erasmus) and
i've drug a really *nice* copy of that up to k'zoo for donkey's ears an not
had a knibble from the cognosentie there.
seems to me that the www is cutting both ways in the used book bidness:
on the one hand it is driving a *lot* of smaller stores out of business --or,
to put it more positively, allowing a *lot* of dealers to get out from under
the onerous overhead of a storefront, which can be murder for a business which
depends upon a *lot* of space.
this, in the long run, is going to have a disasterous effect on the network as
a whole --how do the books get *back* into circulation if
there are no storefronts out there for folks to take them to??
the implications of the distruction of the old used book network cannot
be underestimated. in this country (u.s.a.) the federally financed urban
renewal projects of the 60's-70's, resulting in the devastation of the centers
of, literally, our "civilisation", began this process, it must be said.
the www is just a coffin-nailer, perhaps.
otOh, obviously, the web, as you've just demonstrated, is really quite
astonishing in its ability to put buyers and sellers together rapidly,
efficiently and with ease.
>I was just glad to know it's out there.
easily satisfied.
nice attribute, for a customer.
>...a book I loved as a young teen
then you probably actually would *prefer* to have the 1961 ed.--in dust
jacket-- if that one was the one you read, rather than the 1918 first (or 1937
reprint) which doesn't have the look and feel of the reel thing, to you.
different stroaks for different foalks.
i recently came across a dust jacketéd copy of _The World of Caesar Augustus_
which i read in the mid-fifties, and felt the same way. i just had occasion
to lend it to my neighbor's kid who had just seen
_Gladiator_ and asked me who "Caesar" was. so it goes.
>If you haven't sent it to the Salvation Army...
*lots* of them ended up there, believe me.
>and can beat $47 with shipping,
still sounds *much* too steep, to me. if i had a copy of it i don't believe i
would know that there was a sucker out there who'd give that kind of money for
it. guy must be something i don't about it, for sure.
>I'd be delighted to buy it from you.
i'd say, keep looking, for a while at least. can't be all *that* scarce.
>Best, Carol
back attcha,
christopher
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