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That $2 moldy paperback turned out to be a $90 first edition
I grabbed a beat-up old sci-fi novel at a church rummage sale in Grand Rapids for two bucks last month, mostly because the cover art was cool. It smelled like a basement and had coffee rings on the first few pages, so I almost put it back. Got home and noticed the copyright page said "first printing" and the author signed it in faded pen on the title page. Looked it up on a book forum and people were listing clean copies around $90, though mine would probably sell for half that with the staining. Anybody else ever resell a lucky find like this, or do you keep everything you score?
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emmafisher21d ago
Did you actually sit down and read the thing before you realized what you had, or did the price tag do all the talking? Because I feel like the real win is when a book finds you, not when you find a book. The coffee rings and basement smell are part of its story, you know? Selling it feels like you're just cashing in on someone else's life, even if that someone is a fictional universe. I've got a beat-up copy of a Neil Gaiman book with a torn cover that I'd never part with, not for a hundred bucks, because the damage makes it mine. So what's the endgame here, the money or the hunt?
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