A rather lacklustre week was suddenly brightened when my husband arrived home with some real auction treasures! And he didn't even know he had them. Books are not very popular sellers at auction sales and my husband usually buys them all, as they go very cheaply. On the day after the auction I started to receive excited phone calls about the treasures he was unearthing. I was supposed to go home and rest as I had a cold, but I went home and took photos for hours.
The book I am going to share today is one that somehow touched my heartstrings, and I have no idea if it has monetary value. A father had sent the book he made to his son (presumably at boarding school) explaining the history of World War One using stamps he had collected. I see he seemed to lose heart when the Second World War arrived. At first I feared his son had perished, but as I have continued to browse through the book collection, I noticed his father had sent him another book in 1947, after WWII ended. Stamps is one area I struggle dreadfully with, and I don't have a clue if any of the stamps are worth anything. If anyone would like to see a closer photo, just let me know.
(I think the father, rather cleverly, converted an old atlas into his own book!)
Buying, sorting and selling books is very hard work, and a killer if you have allergies. 98% of books are basically worth nothing, but for me, and my husband, the outstanding 2% make all the work and sneezing more than worth it. For the most part books are slow sellers, as you have to find exactly the right buyer to pay the price the book is worth. (And I usually try to keep mine almost half of the price the book is commonly sold for.) It does make for a lovely, unexpected windfall, sometimes years later, when I finally make a sale of a valuable book. I have listed this hand written book for a starting price of R450. ($34).
