In need of some more inspiration! Stories of your top three finds!

[regularjoe2]

You can bank on me keeping updates on this little project here , D&b .

Goes to show a person does not know what might just be around the next corner !

And just between you & me , D&b - I bought the last one for $50.00 (plus all the shipping/handling/insurance & etc. & etc. that had to be tacked on , darn it !) .
(No brag , just fact.)

 
 

[luxetveritas]

  $50!

[regularjoe2]

Yup ...
well , actually it was $49.99 .
I didn't feel like paying 50.

[KC]

Tightwad! 

[regularjoe2]

"I yam what I yam" - quote attributed to - 'Popeye , the sailor-man' .

[KC]

You are very fortunate to find such a find at such a great buy!  Definitely something to be proud of...you deserve bragging rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep us informed!

[luxetveritas]

You continue to surprise me Congratulations once more on your awesome find! And Skinny, if you find another such eBay auction, you should send me a message I would be more than willing to pay the $400, sell, and split it half and half with you! I love antique manuscripts/books, just don't know a whole lot about them.

Mind posting a link to the ended auction? I am getting interested

[Skinny]

You continue to surprise me Congratulations once more on your awesome find! And Skinny, if you find another such eBay auction, you should send me a message I would be more than willing to pay the $400, sell, and split it half and half with you! I love antique manuscripts/books, just don't know a whole lot about them.

Mind posting a link to the ended auction? I am getting interested

I guess it ended to long ago to find it on finished listings. It was a few months ago I guess. She was a beauty though. A few hundred more dollars spent getting some minor flaws repaired on the binding and researching what it was about and who wrote it and where it was printed etc, and it would have been a valuable book indeed. If I happen to run across a once in a lifetime find like that twice in a lifetime, I'll let you know  

[luxetveritas]

Thanks Skinny I'm still waiting for my great eBay find. Although, if you search on the German eBay you can find antiquarian books for much cheaper than in the US. Some 17th century books sell for only about 12 euros!!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Speaking of old books, I have a neat, but not too valuable find coming my way- a grouping of four antique children's school books, the earliest of which is pre-Civil War, dating to the 1850's. The owner of the books tried unsucessfully to sell them on Ebay and could not interest a book seller in them. The condition apparently isn't that great. She posted them for free on Craigslist, saying she wanted them to go to someone who would truly be interested in having them. She said that she simply couldn't stand to just throw them out.

As it happens, I'm writing a novel, and I'm right at a part that is set in a rural Victorian schoolhouse where the books are old hand-me-downs, and a child's primer is going to play an important role in the scene. So I will be able to write one of these books directly into the story. It always helps to have the real thing to work from like this! In exchange for her gift of the books, I'll be sending her a copy of my book when it is done. So it kind of a neat trade!

[luxetveritas]

That is so cool, Tales! I tried writing a book... well, several books... but I never get close to finishing them, lol. It's really hard to keep your momentum after a while, at least I find. Like some days, I'll be writing really well, and then other days words come out in big piles of sludge Hopefully that doesn't happen to you. It can be a real annoyance and ends up waisting you time. If you don't mind me asking, are you going to have it published, or is it just for fun? Looking forward to hearing more on your ongoing project! It is always fun to hear the writer's process

--Lux

[talesofthesevenseas]

I've had pretty good luck being published already, I've published magazine and newspaper articles, plus a couple of radio pieces. I've also had some of my work reprinted in other folks books and I'm a full-time technical writer. But this is my first attempt at a novel. Normally the process is to interest a literary agent before writing the book. But with my situation of working full time and having a disabled husband, I did not want to put additional pressure on myself by having a deadline to meet. I wanted this novel to be a labor of love and it truly has been an absolute joy for me to write. I haven't become bogged down at all, it's become an obsession instead, which to me, is the best way to write, when the story just flows through my fingertips like utter madness! So I'm going at it a bit backwards by writing it first. If I am unable to interest a literary agent, I'll self-publish. I'm about 3/4 of the way through now. It's been great, my brain has been living in the late 1880's since January! LOL!

[luxetveritas]

That is so cool, Tales! Keep up the good work, I wish you great luck in getting it published!

[luxetveritas]

Skinny/anyone else who is interested: here is a really interesting book I found on eBay. I have no clue if it is exceedingly valuable, but it sure looks darn cool- and if you read the description of the book I think it would be an super entertaining thing to read- esp. for a doctor

http://cgi.ebay.com/MEDIEVAL-MEDICINE-Herbal-Medical-Magic-Alchemy-1538_W0QQitemZ170369193892QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item27aacb97a4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_6214wt_1165

[talesofthesevenseas]

I just got the antique schoolbooks mentioned above- They are wonderful! Not from a value standpoint, as they are very brittle, but for their content, which is what my interest in them is.

One of them in particular is a reader, that is full of pictures and little poems with upstanding morals. Very, very cute. There are little notes tucked in between a few of the pages. One is a little "reward card" that says:

"This little card
is for trying hard
not to whisper any
and it pleased many."

Kids have written in the margins and from the point of view of getting a glimpse back in time, this book in particular is absolutely charming. The books date from 1856 to the 1870's and from the dates that children wrote in them, they seem to have been in use as late as 1912. These are REALLY FUN!! I will post some photos ASAP.