Book Dealer as PIG at FOL Sale...

Yesterday at my Universities FOL sale I had the most unpleasant
experience of my many years of going to sales.

I got there early and was let in to have coffee but did not take
advantage of cherry picking until at 9 when the public was let in (I
could have). There were about 4 people who came in when the doors
opened. In about 5 minutes into the sale was I was just going by
shelves scanning what there. I found about 30+ copies of the War of
Rebellion (127 vol. collection of records on the Civil War published
by the Archives from 1894-1924).

I started putting them on a empty table to see which volumes were
there and which one would fit with my research areas. I then went up
to my wife and ask her to come back and help as I didn't want them all
and told her what they were. A person standing near my wife suddenly
ran back and began grabbing them off the shelves and piling them in
the floor. I ask what was going on and was told, "I'm buying them."
My wife ask if he was a dealer and said I was working on a book about
the war and only need a couple of select copies (as he keeps piling
them in the floor. He screams at her, "I don't have to answer your
questions!."

At which point I told him if he wished to be a pig take the ones I had
place on the table and we left. I truly fear if I had remained and he
made one more remark, I would have been moved to violence.

What to you all think of this behavior?
********************************************************

"All plants here have thorns, all animals stings or horns
and all men carry weapons"

Lt. Adolph Engelmann
2nd Rgt. Illinois Foot Volunteers
writing of Texas in 1846.

In article <tltdl0t4eo44gs754s33j57vr45v16krag.TakeThisOut@4ax.com>, John A. Stovall
<johnastovall.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net> wrote:

 > Yesterday at my Universities FOL sale I had the most unpleasant
 > experience of my many years of going to sales.
 >
 > I got there early and was let in to have coffee but did not take
 > advantage of cherry picking until at 9 when the public was let in (I
 > could have). There were about 4 people who came in when the doors
 > opened. In about 5 minutes into the sale was I was just going by
 > shelves scanning what there. I found about 30+ copies of the War of
 > Rebellion (127 vol. collection of records on the Civil War published
 > by the Archives from 1894-1924).
 >
 > I started putting them on a empty table to see which volumes were
 > there and which one would fit with my research areas. I then went up
 > to my wife and ask her to come back and help as I didn't want them all
 > and told her what they were. A person standing near my wife suddenly
 > ran back and began grabbing them off the shelves and piling them in
 > the floor. I ask what was going on and was told, "I'm buying them."
 > My wife ask if he was a dealer and said I was working on a book about
 > the war and only need a couple of select copies (as he keeps piling
 > them in the floor. He screams at her, "I don't have to answer your
 > questions!."
 >
 > At which point I told him if he wished to be a pig take the ones I had
 > place on the table and we left. I truly fear if I had remained and he
 > made one more remark, I would have been moved to violence.
 >
 > What to you all think of this behavior?


It would be nice if cheapskate sales were as calm & orderly as a visit to
some Museum Gift Shop, but the excitement of cheapskate sales is beating
out the next guy for something worth more than the pennies it costs. If
one doesn't want to risk rubbing shoulders with greedy cheepskates
treating other greedy cheepskates like bowling pins, there are better
places to find books than library discard sales, where greedy cheepskates
never show their faces for fear of spending five dollars instead of fifty
cents for something.

I long ago stopped getting mad at the kinds of vendors who shove & muscle
in for fear I will find something they want or might profit by. Their
behavior is foolish & I don't want to be tempted to imitate such acts as
resemble desparation, but I'm sure there must've been times I grabbed a
few things others were after that annoyed someone nearby.

On the other hand, one of the worst things I've seen scouts do is pile up
books at busy sales, even putting them in boxes, but not to buy them --
only so that they can select from among a stack of maybes while keeping
anyone else from realizing those books aren't honestly already taken. The
act of SEEMING to be interested in a pile of books when one only wants one
or two out of the stack is behavior no better than those idiots who muscle
in & shove & act like fly maggots afraid they're gonna miss out on a bite
of the last turd on earth.

So it's not impossible this chap is on some other list somewhere writing
out a story about the guy at some discard sale who tried to horde a stack
of books with no intention of buying more than a couple out of the stack,
then had the audacity to puff up to the verge of violence because someone
else actually did want to buy them so did so.

It's hard for all of us in a competitive environment to not feel the heat
of the competition, & most of us are to some degree at some times foolish
& greedy in our lust for books, whether for our grubby reading stacks
piled up around our beds, or for resale. One of the most offensived
nutbags who ever knocked me over to get at books I was looking at turned
out to be a pretty good friend when I stopped going to trash-sales & never
had to see her in that environment ever again, so being creepy in one
context may not mean much for the rest of that person's life. Then again,
that fellow might've been so crazy he'd next have drawn a knife & stabbed
the missus, so it's good you both walked away.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.paghat.com" target="_blank">http://www.paghat.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->