Latest Finds

I just picked up the 1927 Lakeside Press edition of Death Valley in '49 by William Lewis Manly. Found it on Ebay for $35.

Oh Joy Lakeside Peeps, I've secured the 1925 The Southwestern Expedition of Zebulon M. Pike. Interesting signatures inside. In one place it's handwritten "With the Compliments of Horace E. Donnelley". I looked briefly at the Donnelley archives and can't find his name. Does anyone know the connection? Then someone regifted it in 1933, "Presented to Roy Emery with Best Wishes, Ralph Budd, December 1933". I googled all of them and the only one I can find is Budd who was president of the Great Northern Railway and from Iowa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Budd It's in great condition by the way considering that it's 93 years old.

I went to a friends of the library book sale this week and picked up 8 or so brown edition Lakesides for a dollar a piece. Some of them are still shrink wrapped. They are all copies of ones I already have so I'm thinking of putting them on Ebay. It's probably been 20 years since the last time I tried to sell anything on there. Any words of wisdom/caution?

Eta- I put them out there. Cross your fingers.

I was curious what others are paying -- Say you have a great used bookshop that has a good number of Lakeside Classics on hand. Do they seem to fluctuate in price due to subject, or are they in one section all together priced roughly on a scale of age and condition? The marvelous Treehorn Books in Santa Rosa, California (my local shop) has them for around $15 ea. in a section to themselves, but several can also be found among the various military history sections and things.

I guess also, do you see them "in the wild" in used bookstores where you live regularly, or do you need to hunt them online?

I found about a dozen at a friends of the library sale last year for $1 each. It was the only time I ever found any in the wild. On line they seem to average $15-20. I tried to sell those wildlings on eBay since they were duplicates of ones I had but got no takers. I ended up giving them to LT member Dragonfly.

Whoa! That's a score either way. I'm surprised they didn't sell on ebay, but that's how it goes there sometimes. I've only ever found one at a thrift shop for a couple of bucks, although I go to them all the time, and I've never seen any at a library sale, though my large county system has them a few times a year.

Growing up in Lincoln, NE, there's a great used bookshop, Bluestem Books, that usually has a shelf or two of them on hand. I don't remember the pricing, but I imagine it's in that $15/ea. range that seems to be the norm.

I met a dealer at the Florida Antiquarian book Fair. When he got back to his shop he let me know that he had the 1915 reprint of the 1903 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I had no idea there had been a reprint but I know I couldn’t afford the 1903 edition even if one could be found so I snapped it up. I’ve got 15 to go to get the complete set.