I spend about 5-10 hours a week scouring eBay for rare books, this often means hundreds of searches, and then looking through all listings by a seller, I don’t always find great deals but once in a while I get lucky.
The lot above arrived today, and was not properly listed by the seller, simply as old books… and now that I have them here I can see some are book club editions and some are 1st editions. Quite valuable books, even as Book Club editions. Well worth what I paid for them. The Asimov books are all Guild / Book Clubs, while the Madeleine L’Engle (which is an ex-library copy – but still in good collectable condition) appears to be a 1st edition.
Buying on eBay is much more expensive than sorting through thrift store stock, but sometimes little details like the books being 1st editions are not noted… So in effect, I’m paying other thrifters a fair price for the books they have found. These ones came from Tasmania.
I may have another 80 older books coming on the weekend, will write a blog about them if they come through.