John A. Stovall wrote:
> Anyone else ever have this happen?
Not, alas, in a way I care to remember. Yes, shortly after I was bitten by
the book-collecting bug I rummaged through all my old books and, yes, I
found that my old copy of Winnie the Pooh, given to me by my mother, was a
first edition and, yes, I took it to the local rare and antiquarian bookshop
(with a specialism in children's literature, no less) and, yes, I laid it on
the table and the expert took it in his hands and....and saw how I and my
brother and sister had treated it, and rapidly replaced it on the table and
slid it back at me.
He didn't actually take out a wet tissue and wipe his hands with it (I
suspect he did so as soon as I left, however). He managed to explain, quite
pleasantly, that there were perhaps booksellers in the world who might pay
me a few pounds for such an item, but that he personally wasn't one of them.
I grabbed the book, stuffed it into the plastic bag I had brought it in, and
made my escape...
I had, of course, realised when I walked in that the lack of dust jacket
might be a problem. I had just underestimated the extent to which gouged-out
sections from some of the pages might prove a turn-off. An elementary object
lesson, I suppose you could say.
--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Surprise fine on my shelf which has been there for years. 
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