Another blogger mentioned the bookshop being part of the community and I think that is an important part of why it is worth offering a book exchange service, despite the pain in the neck that it sometimes can be. We have a couple of library branches close by. I sometimes get people buying books from me because they don’t want to wait indefinitely for a book that is in high demand, and consequently has a long waiting list.
I also do book searching for people who don’t have access to the internet and order in books for people who are reluctant to share their credit card information online. I have a regular customer who gets me to bid on eBay auctions for him for the same reason, not always for books. If you look at my eBay buying history and think I am a Dr Who addict you are wrong. Not to say I don’t like Dr Who but not that much. Doing this doesn’t take much of my time, well , as long as they have the name of the book and the author correctly it doesn’t. Sometimes I drop a gentle hint that it would be nice if they bought something from me; say for example if they are getting me to look up the prices of books they own.
Today a lady came in looking for books about a World War II ship her deceased father served on as a teenager. I had a copy of the official war history that had several references to the ship (HMAS Bataan as it happens) but also showed her how she could look up her father’s war service records on line and request hard copies. I logged onto the site and got his service number so she could get her son to duplicate the search. It is nice to be able to do this sort of thing for people.
I also occasionally get asked by local charities to look books up but most of the time the books they bring in are so tattered and torn even if they were scarce they are of negligible value. I never offer to buy when these requests are made. Which is not much of an ethical dilemma when I don’t want them anyhow. I am very reluctant to provide a valuation service mostly because I feel very unqualified to do it. The other issue is people who want it tend to have high expectations about what their books are worth and explaining why they are unlikely to get the same as the asking price on a well known listing service gets pretty tedious.
There was a particular Sunday morning when I arrived to find someone almost dancing on the doorstep in excitement with a box of too-long-in-the-shed books that he was offering me but “really should be sent to auction”. 1940s Dickens reprints. I did explain that Dickens were first published in the 19th Century and perhaps they were not worth as much as he thought but definitely if he wanted to send them to auction he should. I am not a lily livered liar.
Speaking of really old books, I have about 20 or 30 19th Century volumes I bought when I first opened that I have had maybe two or three enquiries about in four years. The only really old book I have sold was a rebound book published in 1762, it looked like a reader’s digest condensed with duct tape on the spine but luckily I had a quick peek inside before discarding it. A customer bought it on impulse when I showed it to him when he mentioned that you could not get really old books in Australia. Still I felt a little sad when it went because I know I will never get another but the cash register was very happy.
Keeping books in the community might be important but sometimes the community just isn’t interested in some books. I like to think that I can provide a service to the community but If my books can find a home somewhere else on the planet that is fine with me too.
Therese Holland
McLeods Books
10 Station St
Nunawading 3131
www.mcleodsbooks.com.au
ph 0398777214
open 7 days