I’m having trouble producing new words lately. At that point when simple tasks feel overwhelming, I’m severely burned out. So, I’m taking a break from freelance work for a few weeks. Maybe longer. I’m still showing up here, because you guys are low maintenance.
Without a looming deadline, my vintage book shop on Etsy has gotten attention for the last couple of days. It’s perfect work for the burned out brain.
So, want to see some picture of books? The estate sales in New Jersey opened up a couple of weeks ago, so I’m shopping like crazy in case things close again. I’m slowly taking pictures and listing them at the same time that I’m an education conference this week. It’s a huge conference, so my face isn’t on the screen; I can multi-task without anyone knowing. Shhh.
Here are some of the books that I’ve bought in the past couple of weeks. Some old and valuable. Some will be sold to decorators who are looking for some vintage flare to the room. I buy what interests me immediately, and then I figure out later if it’s valuable or decorator-fodder.
Last week, Steve and I rushed into a filthy house during an arranged appointment. We brushed off dirt and sediment from stacks of neglected books and walked away with about $150 worth of books. That’s way more than I usually spend on any one sale but the books that I had were very old, so I hoped that they would be worth money.
Among the interesting items that I found in this filthy house were three leather bound volumes of an old newspaper — Niles’ Weekly Register — printed in Baltimore in the early 1800s. I went down the rabbit hole for a while, trying to figure out that owner’s signature. Not sure.
And there were more there! Ugh! I left them there! They probably went into a dumpster!
I also have six volumes of a series of books from 1912 with tons of photographs from the Civil War. I haven’t figured out a price yet.
Steve thought this West Point Atlas of battle scenes was cool. I can probably get a $100 for them.
Apt. 11d 