A few days ago I was searching online for a book deal, my usual searches for book lots etc. did not yield any results… I had almost given up looking when I decided to just search for single author names… The search I typed in specifically was Robert Heinlein… and the magic happened.
I stumbled onto a book lot of 180 sci fi novels mostly in Hard Cover. I quickly contacted the seller and was told another person was looking at getting them shipped. I explained that I could come on the weekend and pick them up, and waited patiently for the seller to get back to me, he said that he would contact the other interested party and find out how they were going.. Turns out I got lucky as they were located in Western Australia, and the shipping would be more than the books.
I had a feeling this would be a great lot, and even if most of the books would not not be 1st editions, still a great lot of books to add to the store. I managed to make a time with the seller for Saturday afternoon.
For the next few days I was restless and worried that something might come up, or someone make a better offer for the books, but it all turned out ok.
I woke up at around 7am on Saturday, I had made plans with a friend to borrow their car, and he decided to come along with me, the books were located way past Greensborough, maybe a 25 minute drive from my friends house.
The trip proved to be an exhausting one, trains were out from Frankston to Mordialloc, I patiently waited for the bus, which took about 30 minutes to get to the station where trains resumed. The train trip to the city went ok, the city itself still deserted due to Covid etc. Made the final leg to meet my friend in Macleod in another 45 minutes or so.
We stopped by Savers Greensborough where I bought a large bag of books, but there will be another blog post about that at some stage, had a coffee at a Cafe that allows smoking outside. I was several hours early for my appointment with the Seller, so I rang and asked fi we could come a little earlier, this was fine with them.
So in the car, literally driving through countryside, on a really beautiful afternoon, we eventually got to their house and, the books were sorted by author outside their garage ready for us, and also being Covid Safe.
The entire back seat almost loaded to the ceiling full of books, a lot more than I had anticipated, the seller was extremely nice, we had a chat about our favourite authors, at which point we started driving back to Frankston.
Frankston was almost 2 hours away via non toll roads, I was exhausted by the time I got back. As I was stacking the books, I did a quick search and check of editions and value etc. The seller made no mention of how many were 1st editions or even if any, turns out about 70-80% were first editions, from authors such as Arthur C Clarke, Stephen Donaldson, Greg Bear, Robert Silverberg, Julian Man, and many others.
There were quite a few older book club books in the lot, as well as an Edgar Rice Burrough Sci Fi book from 1905 or 1915 – a 1st edition also.
Realising that this was a mammoth deal, I quickly messaged the seller and asked if I could send some extra money, to which he said no… So if I have some spare money next week I may have a hamper sent to them as a thank you.
Exhausting weekend as I had to return the car on Sunday, and catch trains and buses back home, now the “fun” part, listing them on the website… Will take me a week or so to get through this lot.
Until the next adventure.