Anticlimactic Vero Fight

I recently decided to focus my eBay store on vintage paperbacks. They’re a good fit for the storefront presentation for a few reasons: it’s a visual browsing experience; they’re cheap to ship which encourages multi-book purchases; and many people who collect PBs don’t look deeper online than eBay.

I uploaded several author batches to my Mystery and Science Fiction catalogs. All was going well and–for the relatively small percentage of my inventory I’d shifted over–sales were healthy.

I delayed uploading my racier books because I wanted to work out a prude-proof disclaimer that would specifically point out why these books ARE allowed in the main eBay categories and don’t need to be banished to the invisible adult categories. I parsed eBay’s ridiculously contradictory adult guidelines and came up with this:

FOR POTENTIAL CENSOR VIGILANTES:

These books are generally less explicit that a “1980 Playboy” and the sexual activity described (when it isn’t hilarious) is comparable to a contemporary “steamy” romance novel.

APPLICABLE PASSAGES FROM eBay’s “ADULT” GUIDELINES:

“Pre-1980 Playboy, Playgirl, and Penthouse magazines are permitted in the main eBay categories…Romance novels are permitted outside of the Adult Only category…Books on sex, relationships, sexual education, and self help are generally permitted in the appropriate category outside of the Adult Only category.”

I uploaded a 13-15 books with the disclaimer (carefully excluding titles that actually are too filthy for the regular categories) and called it a night. Next morning 8 of the books had been Vero’d (and two of them were recognized mainstream lesbian classics).

I got my dander up for a Sisyphean struggle (hopefully followed by a Pyrrhic victory) and wrote asking why these books had been Vero’d since:

They’re collectible books from the 50s-60s, not sexually explicit by today’s standards, display no nudity, and aren’t described in an explicit manner. Also most of these books were purchased from eBay’s general audiences categories to begin with. Is it the word “Lesbian” because there are currently hundreds of books listed with that word in the title.

I was hoping the Vero people followed the Amazon adult fluff-up and would read into my veiled threat.

I received a boilerplate reply restating the adult guidelines from which it was clear no one had taken a second look at the item #s in question.

My second email was was snottier (but essentially the same), included my disclaimer, plus the text and images from two of the Vero’d titles (one of which was Patricia Highsmith’s Price of Salt).

There are currently at least 20 copies of this book listed on eBay….eBay currently lists numerous modern books that collect this same vintage cover art…Explain to me what could possibly have gotten these books pulled besides the word “Lesbian”. I don’t see anywhere where the term Gay or Lesbian is disallowed (and it better not be because you must have seen the bad press that Amazon received when they degraded G+L material in their search function).

More indignation, a bit of logic, and a less veiled publicity threat (signed-off with my blogger and Twitter ID in case they still didn’t get it). Received this in return:

I’ve reviewed your case and can inform you that these books are permitted to be listed in the general categories but you are not permitted to make any comparison to materials that are only allowed on the Adult Only categories. Your listing compares this book to a 1980 Playboy magazine. Your listing was also removed because it referred to items in the Adult Only category.Once you’ve removed all elements that aren’t permitted and checked to make sure your listing complies with eBay listing policies, you shouldn’t have any problem relisting your item.

Ah perfectly clear, my listings were pulled because I cited the eBay policy stating why they shouldn’t be pulled. The first rule of eBay adult categories is you don’t talk about the eBay adult categories.

So, I guess I “won” (at least until a random shopper comes along, with no knowledge of the adult guidelines that are no longer cited and decides I should be Vero’d again). I trimmed the disclaimer from the template and my G+L catalog is now up and filled with plenty of books that “the gayest man on earth would call over the top“.

I was hoping my struggle would be more epic to make for a more interesting post but what are you gonna do?

New Pulp Resources

Gary Lovisi (publisher of the essential Paperback Parade) just released his second book for Krause Publications: Dames, Dolls & Delinquents.


This book will be a much appreciated expansion on his “Social Issues” (Sex, Drugs, Juvenile Delinquents) category in The Antique Trader Collectible Paperback Price Guide. I haven’t received my copy yet but if the Antique Trader is any indication it will be a fun and informative guide with tons of high quality cover reproductions.

Also, I recently hooked a new customer who blogs at Pulp Serenade:

Cullen’s blog is one reader’s odyssey, started because he couldn’t find enough locals who shared his pulp fiction obsession. He writes long, thoughtful posts on classic era mystery, science fiction and westerns (books and film). Pay him a visit and see what he’s reading.

Buying Book Inventory: Striking the Right Balance

Due to drastically slowing sales volume–leading to nervous tic refreshing of my inbox and blank staring at the internets wondering “Is this thing on?”–I’ve been rethinking my buying strategies recently.

Back when the world wasn’t like this, I could count on Amazon and eBay as income pillars and the five others venues I list on as light gravy with the occasional surprise. My buying was divided about 60-40 between eBay / estate sale finds (slower selling but more interesting and financially rewarding) and thrift store hunting (ISBN checked quick-selling utility titles). I bought until I felt like stopping–based mostly on gut.

This is no longer working. My Amazon sales are down to the equivalent of an entry level job in a no future industry and–because of exhaustion and disgust at the high maintenance and ever changing conditions at eBay–my storefront has been nearly empty.

Starting NOW I’m going to much more strategically look at how I buy (a bookdealer is like a shark…you can’t stop buying or you die) and try to more effectively sell what I have. I’m going to total my monthly fixed expenses, see what’s left over and allocate that mostly to–hopefully–quick-selling stock.

I can’t ignore eBay because so many people are unloading good books at desperation prices but the at least 3-week delay between sending a paypal payment for an auction won and the day you can relist that item has become a barrier. I need to focus on only the most promising lots and bid at 15-20% of my presumed resale price rather than my usual 25-35%.

Sales-wise, I’m starting to repopulate my eBay store focusing on speciality areas in a way that will hopefully attract multi-book buyers. I’m uploading vintage paperbacks in select batches of collector friendly authors and genres. I’ve included an explicit and straight forward shipping chart that should encourage bundling (especially for international sales). And as always I’m auctioning crack lots of common and low-grade titles in the hope that buyers will come back for the heavy stuff when they see the care and attention I give my product.

I’m also digging out those ‘reseach’ items that are stuffed in drawers and getting them listed (since they’re long paid for) and opportunistically buying up cheap non-book items (toys, games, wacky crap) that I’ll quickly turnaround and–again…hopefully–pay for the slower selling books I pick up.

So, that’s all I got. As a bookdealer how are you wading through the quicksand?

METAPHORICAL LESSON LEARNED: A bookdealer is like a dying–yet hopeful–shark in quicksand.

But seriously people. Support your favorite bookdealer (even if it’s not me). It’s cheaper than a bank bail-out, war, or health care and you’ll have a new BFF.

Book CSI: Dumbass Killfile

I recently listed a first paperback edition of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train and–in the process of pricing my copy–I noticed one on ABE that was underpriced and restorable so I bought it up.

This is what I received in the mail:


Transparent plastic baggy, no padding or stiffeners whatsoever and–if that wasn’t bad enough– the bookseller had stuck an inventory label directly on the spine of a delicate 58-year-old paperback.


After a careful 10-minute application of sticker removal the best I could do was this…


I recovered and readherred the chip, but what a pain in the ass.

It’s true that I was deliberately buying a low-grade book from someone who doesn’t know how to catalog or price a book but do they have to suck at their trade so badly that they damage books more than they already are (and more than is described in their listing)?

I was so livid that I ended up spending 45-minutes restoring a maybe $25 dollar book.

As of now I’m officially starting my dumbass killfile of booksellers that I will never buy from again. Does anyone have such a list going already? Want to share info?

Studying Filth


I picked up three “Tijuana Bibles” (8-page erotic comics from the 1930s-1950s) at a flea market recently and I thought my process of researching them was worth documenting.

Tijuana Bibles were illegal to sell in most states, there’s no publication information or artist signatures in the booklets, and they were widely pirated and reprinted. So dating them is a bit of an art form.

TBs were distributed more like drugs than like paperbacks. To buy them you had to know a guy who had a connection. We he needed a restock, he had to contact his source and usually drive to pick up new stock personally (since sending “obscene” materials through the mails and across state lines was–and sometimes IS–a serious offense). The source usually had one or two in-house artists who drew the material (generally parodies of movie stars, comic characters or headline makers) or else would shamelessly reprint TBs acquired from another source.

Knowing this I looked at my three newly acquired TBs. All are bound in the same manner–a one-piece folded cover with a single staple in the middle; are on similar paper stock; and show the same level of age toning, so they’re all likely from the same source/publisher from around the same time. They’re also likely first printings or from the original art. I determined this by the vivid, high contrast reproduction. Later printings can appear faded or difficult to read because of detail loss (which has sometimes been filled-in or redrawn by a second, less-skilled hand).

Two of the bibles are generic gags and feature unrecognizable characters but the third is a parody of the Casey Ruggles strip by Warren Tufts with started in 1949 and ran until 1955. So we can safely put the bibles somewhere in the 1950-52 range (TB publishers were quick to find new material to parody so I’m putting these in the early years of the Casey Ruggles strip’s run). Were the Ruggles bible not part of the lot, I might attempt to date these by the gag contents…or the folk popularity of French hair dressers and cunnilingus, but that would be trickier.

Lastly I believe all of the bibles were drawn by the same unknown artist. This is due to the identical cross-hatching/shading technique in each of the bibles, the similarity of the figures and the joke contents (which all seem fairly progressive for the medium–showing a woman coming out on top–and are actually funny and well-told).

Here are the bibles in question (NOT WORK SAFE repeat NOT WORK SAFE): Andrie’s Beauty Shoppee, These High City Prices, Casey Ruggles

…and if you’re seeing this on my Facebook page and happen to be a family member or old grade school teacher DO NOT CLICK ON THESE LINKS (or at least don’t tell me about it).

Friday Linkage

Designer/Blogger Michael Newhouse and the proprietor of Windy Hill Books left comments on one of my old posts about Young People’s Records perhaps identifying the mystery artist of this charming record cover:

Abe Ajay is the often unsigned artist of the majority of the YPR And CRG covers, according to the book Revolutionizing Children’s Records by David Bonner. Bonner has a blog here.

Bonner’s book looks like a fascinating reference on this storied series of records–which recorded talents like Raymond Scott and Groucho Marx–and came under the eye of Joseph McCarthy. Must read more.

Engraver, bookplate artist and blogger, Andy English shows off his designs for the Oak Tree Press limited edition of Philip Pullman’s A Outrance (“To The Death”) a lost chapter from the Golden Compass series.

Looks like a stunner. Sign up for an email publication notice here.

And collection development blog The Private Library explains why a pile of well-preserved science fiction paperbacks is more bibliographically valuable than “fine press publications, printed on handmade paper using hot metal type, bound in full Niger goatskin or similar materials, with no title having been produced in more than 100 copies”…and therefore more worth collecting and buying.

Seems obvious to me but it’s a good argument.