I recently bid (and won) on five lots of books for an online estate auction. I paid $13, plus a percentage to the online auction retailer. I didn’t realize I had just bought about 300 books. There is fiction, history, biographies, military history, philosophy, antiquarian books, you name it. A majority of the fiction books are ones that I have already read or are hardback from my favorite authors.
I went to pick up the books on my work lunch hour. I also purchased a few other nonbook items that took up a majority of my available car space. Thankfully, in talking with the seller, she offered to let me return the next day and pick up the remaining books. We laughed about how crazy I went buying books and I told her I would return with an empty car.
When I unloaded my car that night, it quickly became apparent I severely underestimated my book haul and there was no way I could/would be keeping the majority of the books. I work in the emergency department of a hospital and one of the nurses suggested I donate books to the downtown VA hospital.
I love books and I want everyone to enjoy books and have access to books, and read just as much as I do. I have started my own little library in the ED. Books and reading have been a great comfort to me throughout my life. So it makes sense that a majority of these books will be donated.
When I returned the next day, I had essentially 25 minutes to load about 150 books into my car. I started putting them into boxes. But then I realized if I were to take them all, I would have to work faster. So I basically started loading books into bags and boxes, dumping them in a pile in my car, and going back inside the house to get more.
While I was inside clearing the shelves the seller, who is the daughter of the woman whose house this was, said I could take a multitude of books on other shelves that were not picked up by bidders. They didn’t pick them up when they were supposed to, so they were forfeit. So I added about 50 more books to what I had already bought.
As I was packing up one of the shelves, I glanced down and saw a stack with a post-it note that said “1st Editions.” I commented “Oh, what are these? Do these go with this shelf?” She laughed and said no, that they were keeping those. I laughed and said yeah, I would keep those too.
When I got home that night I unloaded everything. Now my apartment looks like a book tornado descended on it. I decided I would donate most of the books, especially the military history books, for which I have no use, to three causes that are near amd dear to my heart: Veterans, homeless services, and women’s shelters.
I texted the daughter and thanked her for letting me come back. I sent her a picture of a duplicate book in her Mother’s collection and how she and I have very similar reading habits/interests. I also told her of my plan to donate most of the books to the above three causes. That made her very happy.
Back story is her father passed away a week before the auction and they were packing up the house and moving her mother, who has dementia, back to live with them out-of-state. I imagine her Father was a veteran, perhaps a pilot, hence the large amount of military and aviation books.
In telling the seller I wanted to avoid any books going to Goodwill or similar, and that I wanted people to actually read these books instead of them being sold, she said while they were packing, they found another shelf of books and did I want them? Otherwise her brother was going to take them to Goodwill. Yes, I wanted them. Movers were coming in the morning, and she said she would put them in garbage bags for me to pick up in the afternoon.
So the next day I went back once again to pick up more books. When I arrived, there were three garbage bags with books, which I loaded into my car. Her brother, who was there, loaded a milk crate of more books into my car. And also sitting there were the 1st Editions.
I nearly cried when I saw the books.
Now I have questions. To me, these “first editions” are priceless. They are all by my favorite authors, such as Margaret Atwood, Umberto Eco. I will never sell them. But there are some really old ones too. I guess my question is how and where is value placed on a first edition. Is there any significance to being a “First Edition”? I know condition obviously. But almost all the books in the crate are First Editions. I looked up online how to determine if a book is truly a first edition.
But, what determines value and how common are “First Editions”? Honestly, if the post-it note wasn’t there indicating “1st Editions” I would probably donate some of those too.
It has been so much fun going through all these books. I still have more books to go through. It’s also a little bit overwhelming honestly. I am exited to donate them, though. I am now adding senior centers to the list. There are so many books that I am now at the point where this is going to be a process and take time. And I’ll donate to whoever and wherever will take them and not sell them.
Veterans services will definitely take some, so will senior centers. But I need more ideas of where to donate.
OK, sorry for the novel, if you made it this far, thank you for reading. I lost my Reddit password and have been offline for several days. There.
THE END
time.
by echotrek