Any "secret" sources for semi-affordable rare/out-of-print titles?

CharlasRare, Old or Offbeat

Únete a LibraryThing para publicar.

Any "secret" sources for semi-affordable rare/out-of-print titles?

1amysisson
Mar 20, 2019, 2:24 pm

Hi! I'm wondering if people have sources other than Abebooks, Bookfinder.com, Alibris, Biblio.com, and Bibliophile that they've sucessfully used to find out-of-print books.

I have two short story collections by E.M. Delafield that I'm in the market for: Love Has No Resurrection and Other Stories and The Entertainment and Other Stories. Resurrection starts at $67 and up, which I might be willing to pay,and Entertainment starts at $100 and up. Just wondering if there are other options before I take the plunge.

I have no trouble believing the book is rare, but I'm having trouble imagining copies really sell at those prices, since noboby I've ever asked has heard of her, or if they have, they've only heard of Diary of a Provincial Lady and its sequels.

2elenchus
Mar 20, 2019, 2:38 pm

I've read many a post here on LT of hunters finding rare (though typically not antiquarian) titles via eBay. The usual caveats apply, as there are just as many posts about mercenary eBay sellers -- though you would be able to avoid those, already having identified the price you're willing to pay.

3Crypto-Willobie
Mar 20, 2019, 2:43 pm

Don't neglect eBay.uk, ABE.uk, Amazon.uk (or whatever their corrects urls may be). Most of their stock is the same as their US versions, but not all. And after all Delafield is a British writer, correct?

And Powells.com

And ADDALL instead of Bookfinder.

4JBD1
Mar 20, 2019, 3:47 pm

vialibri.net aggregates many, many of the usual sources plus some unexpected ones - I'd run your search there, since that doesn't leave many stones unturned.

5bluepiano
Mar 20, 2019, 6:09 pm

Neither of these shops has those books at the moment, but it might be worth checking them every now and again to see have they got in the Delafields: https://www.kennys.ie/. I have, rarely, found OOP gems there & all shipping is free. https://www.strandbooks.com/. I ordered a fair few lesser-known OOP books from them back in the day when exchange rates were favourable. Both these bookshops are long-established & reliable.

>4 JBD1: I'm glad to know about that site so thanks but Janey Mac, a search there throws up as many irrelevant results as a book search on LT does.

6Crypto-Willobie
Mar 20, 2019, 6:20 pm

Right now there's an Entertainment on sale on eBay for $75
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1st-Edition-THE-ENTERTAINMENT-STORIES-E-M-Delafield-FIR...

7JBD1
Mar 20, 2019, 6:24 pm

>5 bluepiano: Yeah, definitely works best if you can be as specific as possible and you sometimes do have to wade through some muck to get the good hits.

8amysisson
Mar 20, 2019, 6:31 pm

Thanks, everyone! I'm adding a bunch of these to my "rotation," and will be setting up alerts on the sites that have that feature.

9amysisson
Mar 20, 2019, 6:35 pm

>6 Crypto-Willobie:

Thanks -- I made an offer on the ebay copy. Worst they can do is say no! ;-)

10amysisson
Mar 21, 2019, 2:24 pm

>6 Crypto-Willobie:

Well, hot damn! The seller accepted my offer of $40! So one Delafield collection down, one to go! Thanks again, Crypto-Willobie!

11Crypto-Willobie
Mar 22, 2019, 9:26 am

Great!

12kswolff
Sep 30, 2019, 9:41 pm

Downtown Books in, you guessed it, downtown Milwaukee, WI, is a treasure trove of mostly affordable used books. A wonderful admixture of bargain basement bestsellers, hard-to-find oddballs, and academic books. Well worth the visit. I found Milkbottle H and Epistemology of the Closet there, both for reasonable used book prices.

13Nicole_VanK
Editado: Oct 1, 2019, 7:19 am

I've had some results with ebay over the years. It takes patience though.
(Abebooks too, but you already mentioned them)

John Flaxman's Lectures on sculpture - first edition (there only ever was a 2nd edition as far as I know) found it on ebay. Out of print for a very long time. It took me a few decades to find it though

14Keeline
Dic 14, 2019, 4:05 pm

With the used book databases, there are more of them than you might imagine (certainly more than the sample list). Two sites I have used for years aggregate the results from several sites. One cavat, they often will have a limited number (say 50, 100, or 200) of listings from each database. So, if you are looking at a really common book, you might not see all of the listings.

Used.AddALL.com

BookFinder.com

I use the top link the most. It allows me to select the sources, including databases popular with European sellers, and sort the listings by price. The second link is pretty good and has some different features that are interesting.

Otherwise, people list books on many places. I've seen books listed on eBay (all versions), Bonanza.com, Etsy.com, and many others.

It helps to know who published the book, when, and where. This indicates how many were sold and where they might be found today.

There are so many books out there that not all of them get listed while some get listed by the dozens or hundreds of copies. Certain books I am looking for seldom seem to be listed but if I find one it is usually not so expensive.

James

15jonsweitzerlamme
Ago 13, 2020, 8:53 am

Vialibri.net is probably the best place to look; if you make an account, you can set a saved search (title, author, publication date, or even keyword and price: I have one set up for the Doves Press under $200) and you'll get emails every time a new book pops up. They check all the ebays, abe, biblio, a number of European sites I'd never heard of, and even some dealer's websites directly.

16GeorgeKhan
Ago 13, 2020, 9:36 am

Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.