We had a somewhat slow first day to the sale. I couldn't understand how a piddling 4 inches would keep people away! But I was put straight on Friday when I arrived to find 3 cars waiting for me to open and several more pulling in shortly after. Springfield had had 12 inches and Connecticut even more! Took a while to get cars out of driveways even though the roads were clear. We are back on track with the lot near full and folks picking out fascinating piles of diverse titles. For example: Boston Architecture, Guide to Santa Fe , book on US Steel, JFK'S FOUR DAYS. Then 3 boxes worth of nautical books (we have plenty more!). And 4 author signed literary books. Will stay open til 5:30 tonight as it will take me at least that long to finish the paperwork (to give the consignor's credit for their books sold). I love these sale days when we are all winners.
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The plowers came early as did we to finish putting up the discount sale signs on all the book cases. So now the lot is plowed, the roads are clear, the sun is ablaze, the cider is poured, the cookie plates are aheap and the Annual Winter Book Sale Begins! It will run for 13 days total and many folks come back once or twice as they know we restock during and you can't see it all at one time.
The Mezzanine consignors have all their book cases at 1/2 price and their new showing of prints and maps at 35% off. I hope to get some time to check out their newly restocked offerings in that far back Children's book room. Past are the times of customers lined up at the door waiting for the opening hour. Maybe it's partly last night's snowfall, though just a scant 4 inches here. Folks still home shoveling your walks? A few early dealers, then this afternoon we have started to have a slow dribble of buyers come by. Had a conversation with a local dealer this morning who has been self publishing his books, that he's authored, for a few years. He has looked into getting it on KINDLE (the electronic book tablet from Amazon) and it's amazingly easy and potentially profitable. YIKES! What are we brick and mortars up against! Post cards and prints are all 30% off. At least old post cards aren't the same electronically!The downstairs is all at 40% off as is most of the 2nd room. Come on down and have some fun. Our January book & paper fairs and antique shows are behind us, the van is unpacked and most books are put away. Now is the time to try and clean up some of these unsightly (to me at least!) piles of books on the floor, vacuum and get ready for our ANNUAL WINTER BOOK SALE! Yup it's that time of year. More to follow...
So next week we begin our c. 20th Annual WINTER BOOK SALE! Many people have been emailing or calling us to ask when does it begin. It begins next Thursday Jan. 27th at 10 am and runs through Tuesday, Feb. 8th at 5:30 pm. Come on down! We don't know what all the discounts will be yet but they will range from 20-50% off and perhaps a booth at 60% off. It runs over two weekends, 13 days of deals galore! Think of birthdays, graduations and presents for other occasions. It's a bumpy ride into the electronic age for the computer meister here at WABC. (Me!) I first want to apologize to those 158 people on our e-mailing list. You might have received 3 or 4 announcements about the upcoming book sale or none at all. We ran into a sending glitch which seems to have sent the announcement to some names after saying they couldn't. I would love to hear from any of you who DID or DIDN'T receive it, the latter to add to the mailing list the former to apologize to in "person". Use the Contact Us page on this web site. I plan to announce special sales on certain topics (ie cookery, military, childrens etc..) through out the year but likely only by email as post card mailings (we have 1200+ names on our list) get more and more expensive. So send us a note and I will collect your email. We will definitely have the glitches out by then. FYI we do not sell our list to anyone and will only announce WABC related book events. (Barbara's Spring book barn sale and the October Pioneer Valley Book Fair are among them.) ....Peter has vacuumed during this slow sunny Saturday morning and I have put an hour in downstairs on piles. I will have to live with some, alas. We read a review of our book store someone wrote on-line, and while most are kind and laudatory, this one gentleman scolded us for the untidy piles of book boxes we have in our entryway. Sorry, sir. Running a used book business as your sole source of income in this day and age doesn't leave you much time or energy for neatening. Customers today are coming in relaxed and spending time poking around and finding interesting items. Sold a large pile of art and drawing books to a gentleman who hadn't been here in many years and said.."I could stay here for a week" or something similar. We do hear that a lot. At times I forget how large a stock we have. Today I purchased a short pile of history, American Indians and war titles. Then sold a sheaf of old Christmas Stamps and a large Tom Sawyer painting Book from the 1930's or'40's followed by more post cards, an early Martha Stewart book on Entertaining...she had longish blond hair in a flip of sorts...Letters of Emily Dickinson and one of those lovely juvenile Linneas books (she visits Monet's garden and other places). Time to price and put more books away. It is never ending! Til later! Barbara Eugene and I have had a busy start to the year getting ready for Hartford's PAPERMANIA, a major Book and paper show that has been going on for more than 30 years. Just back and we are both very pleased with our sales. We passed out WABC cards and some folks came north to buy some more at the store. Eugene is very good at making those connections. More and more often when I hand one of my customers a card they say, Oh we've been there! It's that great shop off the interstate/freeway on our way to Vermont/Montreal/ points north....
Our long time consignor Penny of WELL READ BOOKS (WELL) from Northport, Long Island sent back with us 2 boxes of pamphlets, brochures and miscellaneous ephemera and it's in her booth # 11 at 50% off. Come check it out! I (BES) just bought a couple of boxes of pop-ups and will be putting them into stock on Thursday. Mainly from the 1980's and 90's with a couple of earlier ones. They will go into my bookcase #83 in the second room. A fun collection. I write this from my home office. Husband, and fellow book store worker, Peter has just been out shoveling a path to our barn office and sorting area here in Northampton. The snow is sure getting deep! Eugene might not get out of his driveway to open 12-4 today Wednesday at the store. Always call ahead in a major snowstorm in case we are opening late. It is rare that we don't open at all but we do heed the State Police when they say don't go out except for emergencies! Peter and I head out to set up at the BOSTON ANTIQUES AND DESIGN SHOW in Wilmington, Mass. this weekend at the Shriner's large auditorium there. A great venue to sell our non-book items in addition to my few eastern mass tomes and post cards. And of course I bring out many classic Children's and Illustrated books which is one of my specialties. We look forward to another great show then a relaxing post-show week to recover and clean the house and office! Enough for now. Keep on reading...books! |
What's up (and down) with the used and rare book world... the weather.. and thoughts while walking Fred!
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