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One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

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Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#11

Post by pessimizer »

This can't actually be one of the largest stocks of second-hand books. That's just 50 of me, and I only have a couple walls full. He's got 25 rooms, which very much sounds like 50 of me. I'm poor, I'm not special.

I wish I could get rid of them all; when I want to read one again I just pirate a scan. I've literally thought about tightly wrapping them in plastic and burying them in a concrete vault. After the original texts of all "legacy" writing have been deemed too provocative, somebody could discover them and dig them up, show their friends how they've been changed since everything went digital, and shortly afterwards get arrested as a terrorist pornographer.

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#13

Post by jll29 »

metalman wrote: post #7

over 1 mile of shelf, he wants 1.5mill£ for the whole estate, and he will stay on

10 GBP/book, perpetual storage space included.

Sounds a good price, no?

His worst fear resonates with me: if the collection is separated, all his collecting was basically a waste of time and effort. I share similar thoughts: how to avoid that the collection gets ripped apart upon my departure? How to ascertain continuity (if now growth, at least at the status quo level)? Where should bet books be located so as to maximize utility? And, worst of all, how to stop the decay in people's willingness to read books for curiosity's and knowledge's sake? Move the books somewhere else where knowlege is not taken for granted (e.g. Africa)?

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#14

Post by frainfreeze »

jll29 wrote: post #13
metalman wrote: post #7

over 1 mile of shelf, he wants 1.5mill£ for the whole estate, and he will stay on

10 GBP/book, perpetual storage space included. Sounds a good price, no? His worst fear resonates with me: if the collection is separated, all his collecting was basically a waste of time and effort. I share similar thoughts: how to avoid that the collection gets ripped apart upon my departure? How to ascertain continuity (if now growth, at least at the status quo level)? Where should bet books be located so as to max…

As someone who often sees personal collections scathered around in the dust of flea markets, I would say there is nothing you can actually do to be safe. Even if your kids preserve it, their kids will _pay_ local gypsies to take it all away so they can renovate the houses and flats. From there it's as good as trash.

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#15

Post by akk0 »

fancyfredbot wrote: post #12

Being a collector is an affliction. A huge house given over to his collection while he relegates himself to the groundskeepers cottage. A lifetime acquiring money to grow the collection. I hope selling it gives him some peace.

What a strange read on the situation. The man combined his hobby with his profession and is now retiring a millionaire. Best I can tell the guy must feel like he's had a rewarding, satisfying life so far.

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#16

Post by lotsoweiners »

exe34 wrote: post #8
hopelite wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be something a whole organization and public campaign would need to be built around. We have also already traversed, unwittingly, into a post-ownership world and the IP issue would need to be dealt with since it was not dealt with to this point and the thieves have gotten away with robbery by default. Books were one of the first steps into a world where you do not own anything you buy, you merely possess it…

all my Amazon books were dedrm'ed and my kindle does not connect to the WiFi. I've stopped buying from Amazon since they removed the transfer via usb option.

What was different about transfer via usb vs “send to Kindle” ? I’ve always used the latter.

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#17

Post by dyauspitr »

fancyfredbot wrote: post #12

Being a collector is an affliction. A huge house given over to his collection while he relegates himself to the groundskeepers cottage. A lifetime acquiring money to grow the collection. I hope selling it gives him some peace.

Depends on what you find important in life. I would love a life where I get to drive around the country, collect books and make enough money to retire a millionaire.

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#18

Post by gerdesj »

pessimizer wrote: post #11

This can't actually be one of the largest stocks of second-hand books. That's just 50 of me, and I only have a couple walls full. He's got 25 rooms, which very much sounds like 50 of me. I'm poor, I'm not special. I wish I could get rid of them all; when I want to read one again I just pirate a scan. I've literally thought about tightly wrapping them in plastic and burying them in a concrete vault. After the original…

"This can't actually be one of the largest stocks of second-hand books"

Any library can be described as a second hand store of books and it seems this one is pretty large!

"I wish I could get rid of them all"

You could donate them to the really weird collectors - see OP!

I used to have quite a large collection of CDs (and tapes but they are mostly buggered). It took quite a while to rip them to FLAC but they now take up quite a small amount of disc compared to photos and the rest. A terabyte is not particularly large these days.

"terrorist pornographer" - that is quite a job title.

Re: One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

#19

Post by bombcar »

aurizon wrote: post #5

The University of Toronto has a free store and they place items departments discard into 2 areas. 1 area can be grabbed by other departments for a month - then it goes into a public swap shop area for Wednesday AM. Lots of assorted stuff but they place cubic meter boxes of all manner of books, old journals, reference books etc. In the same vein, I have seen dozens of old book stores close over the past 20 years. Trul…

Basically anything with an ISBN is catalogued, known, and sold.

If you want to find rare books of any value anymore, you need to know your pre-ISBN titles.

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