Lightening the load
Posted on | January 18, 2005 | 11 Comments
A couple of years ago, I would probably have sworn to you that I’d never do this.
It’s funny how our thinking on things can change. I started staring at one of the bookshelves in our living room a month or two ago, a shelf that contains some of our more special volumes, and realized that I’d never even opened some of those books. Some are fairly valuable, but what good were they doing on my shelf? I wasn’t enjoying them, unless you consider occasionally glimpsing the spine of one of them and remembering that I owned it enjoyment.
I don’t make New Years resolutions, but I decided in early December that I would gradually divest myself of some of these books. Many are King books, limited editions, first editions or otherwise signed volumes, but some are from other authors, too. I’m not getting rid of everything–some of these books are unique or are special to me for other reasons than their value or scarcity. I’m keeping, for example, the lettered edition of The Stand, my personalized copies of Six Stories and The New Lieutenant’s Rap, the beautiful limited of The Eyes of the Dragon and many others. I still haven’t decided about the signed/limiteds of the final four Dark Tower books (matching numbers), but I’m starting to believe they may go, too.
My resolve to do this was reinforced by recent events, when I came to realize that the things we collect in our lifetimes, as I mentioned before, becomes the burden of the next generation. Were I to die today, it would fall to my wife to dispose of these books at some point, and with collectables like this, it’s no easy task for someone who isn’t familiar with the field. If I’m not getting anything out of them, why keep them?
So, it starts today, with my auction of Stephen King’s Rose Madder. This is the UK signed/limited edition, one of only 250 copies in existence, bound in faux red leather and signed by King on a bookplate. Check it out! I’ll probably have something new listed every week or so as my gaze falls upon one of those book spines and I decide that it’s that book’s time to find a new home.
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11 Responses to “Lightening the load”
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About
Bev Vincent is the author of The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award nominated companion to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, which was nominated for a 2010 Edgar® Award and a 2009 Bram Stoker Award.
His short fiction has appeared in places like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, From the Borderlands and The Blue Religion. He is a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine and a member of the Storytellers Unplugged blogging community. He also writes book reviews for Onyx Reviews.
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:00 am
I’ve had the same revelation recently, and have been working hard to cull the multitude of books, magazines, comics and other STUFF that fills my home. It’s a lot of work, but it feels good.
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:03 am
Gezz, Bev I would love to get first crack at what you would be willing to sell. But auctioning it good too.
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:06 am
I hear you Bev. My passion ran to collecting DVDs and I quickly hit about 200 movies in the space of a couple of years. I have put the brakes on making purchases and have done some sell offs. Going forward I will try to hang onto those that have replay value. The others will go.
My book collection is smaller and largely paperbacks which are not really worth much resale wise. New purchases will be limited to books not available in my local area or really special items like Rocky Wood’s unpublished King writings.
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:14 am
My main decision is not to buy any more limited editions unless they are unique. I won’t buy the leather edition of Transgressions, even if it is signed, because it doesn’t contain anything to distinguish it from the trade edition besides a signature. If I’d known the future, I would have purchased a trade of the Centipede Press Salem’s Lot because I was mostly interested in the “deleted scenes.”
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:16 am
I’m starting with low opening bids–$75 for Rose Madder, which is worth at least four times that much. If bidding doesn’t go up to where the book is worth, I may rethink that option, but there may be some deals to be had!
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:18 am
I hear ya. Keep me in mind if you have something special. Im amassing a horror fictino collection to eventually give to my alma mater as definitive horror fiction collection when I am old and grey.
January 18th, 2005 @ 3:31 am
I’ve been doing something similar lately, taking boxes of books back to Powell’s in order to get rid of them. I have to admit that I had an ulterior motive: I wanted to buy new books with my store credit. Hee.
January 18th, 2005 @ 4:51 am
You have the best ebay username!
January 18th, 2005 @ 4:59 am
A few years ago, Money magazine did an article on eBay. The journalist picked a few items to bid on. One of them was an Easton Press edition of The Dead Zone that I happened to be bidding on, too. He writes in his article how he figured he wasn’t going to win that one! So, my monicker appeared in print!
January 18th, 2005 @ 5:53 am
I think that’s a great idea, Bev. If you don’t want them, get them out. There’s no point in holding onto them, hoping one day they’ll be worth such a fortune that you can sell them and buy a yacht with the proceeds. People who do that wind up never selling them anyway.
January 18th, 2005 @ 6:29 am
Absolutely. If they’re worth a lot now, they’ll be worth more later. Which “a lot” is enough?