Selling the first book we cataloged

Archive: Online bookselling

Yesterday we sold the first book I cataloged. Paul Green's letters were entered into Homebase on 9/19/98. Our venture into ecommerce started then.

It was book #3, the first two were practice runs. I remember buying the book from the wife of a man who designed books for UNC Press, Richard Hendel. He got lots of books, either he'd designed them or another designer wanted him to see their work. A couple of times a year his wife, Vicky Statham, would bring a load of boxes to books they wanted to be rid of. Her last visit happened just before we started doing online bookselling. She was an exceptionally nice woman; I miss her visits.

Thanks to the web we sell more books. We see fewer people walking in the door. Sometimes we sell a book to someone who live a mile or two away. A few will come into the shop to pickup the book. Others just want it mailed.

I've never had the capitalistic talents or simple diligence to make much money as a used bookdealer. Mostly I prize the shop for the freedom it has given me. No capricious, childish bosses. My partner is my best friend. Our employee of almost twenty years is almost a saint: hard working, honest, kind. And for the last three years I've been lucky enough to supplement my lover's income by having him work in the shop.

Many would find the last a strain. It hasn't subtracted anything from our life together. I'm in a better position to take care of him, accommodate his special needs than a less interested employer would be.

I do fear that downloadable books and texts that can be read online will render my livelihood obsolete. But it has been a satisfactory day since we sold that copy of the Morphology and Integuments of Parasitic Nematodes to a researcher in the UK.