Craig Miner Remembered

Craig Miner passed away this past Sunday, September 12th, 2010.  He was a Distinguished Professor of History at Wichita State and former History department chair.  He was also known as Kansas' premier historian.  In his lifetime, he authored over 40 books related to Railroads, Western Kansas History, Wichita History and Native American History.

I will remember Craig best for the chance I had to visit with him during the Kansas statewide River City Reading Festival, where he was signing books at the booth next to mine (where I was displaying books for sale and conducting an Antiques Roadshow appraisal session of sorts).  He had a steady stream of traffic all morning, and when his line slowed down a bit, he introduced himself to me as a fellow book collector.  We chatted for awhile about our particular areas of collecting, and he asked me some thoughtful questions about the book business, besides the obvious, "What is the most expensive book you have ever sold?"  He also turned out to be my best customer of the day, buying several books on ancient Egyptian history.  I asked him to sign the Wichita books of his that I had on hand, and he did so with a smile, and included personalized inscriptions.  Those books will forever remain a treasured part of my personal collection.

Although reading about the history of the state of Kansas has never been much of an interest of mine, I am sure that with his passing I will be inspired to dive into one of his books to try and appreciate the man for what he did best.  I have always valued and appreciated his books as objects, but I would like to appreciate them on a deeper level by truly giving this man's area of expertise a shot at making me a more knowledgeable local historian, a prerequisite for any professional bookseller.

Midwestern bookscouts should be on the lookout, as I have consistenly sold Miner's books in the $20-40 range, and I expect them to continue to be read and collected by history buffs for many years to come.  Most of the more recent titles have been published by the University Press of Kansas.

I have included a link to a selective Bibliography of his most popular works here, although the true joy in collecting Miner lies in locating one of his less readily available titles.

One of the most interesting things about collecting and selling books by Craig Miner over the years has been that I have found several monographs and local histories that I had no idea even existed.  For instance, just last month I came across a history of Child & Pediatric Medicine in Wichita which he authored in 2001.  It was published by Wesley Family Research Center, where my girlfriend is now employed as a Family Medicine resident, and I intend to put this copy on her Medical Reference library shelf.  Perhaps my favorite of all his books would have to be "A History of the Wichita Country Club," simply because it falls into my favorite specialized niche category which I created myself, "Preppy Books."

I plan on compiling a more comprehensive Miner bibliography in the coming months, if only for my own personal benefit.  I will always remember Craig Miner for his impressive body of work, but also for his kindness to a lowly bookseller one Saturday afternoon. 

Look for Miner's upcoming posthumous release about the birth of American Railorads entitled A Most Magnificent Machine, published by the University Press of Kansas in October:

How to Become a Better Online Bookseller: Look for Slim Paperback Volumes

I found three identical (except for the light purple mark on the cover of the copy I just sold on Ebay) copies of this slim paperback volume at an estate sale after three or four booksellers had already been through the room.  This slim paperback volume has no title on the spine, and was located upon a slightly more detailed inspection of the contents of a shelf. 

All 3 volumes eventually sold in the $50-100 range.  The Very Good copy sold most recently for $62.05 during a Free Shipping promotion.  The picture below was taken before I purchased my most recent digital camera, and before I learned some invaluable new photographing skills from Craig at Boothink

His wonderful series on photographing books can be found here: http://www.bookthink.com/0028/28pho.htm

Also, please note the genealogical nature of this volume (Before Germanna) and the specificity of the subtitle (The Ancestry of the Blankenbaker, Fleshman and Slucter Families), both of which are major bookselling flashpoints.

Although these books measure only 45 pages in length and were purchased for one quarter apiece, they pack a nice punch for their slim size.  Keep looking in the nooks and crannies.

Browsing Amazon's Catalog

Every once in awhile, while searching for something else, I'll come across an Amazon catalog page for a $50 book that I didn't realize was a $50 book.  Here's one I saw while browsing today, and I passed it up at a sale a few weeks ago:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/031294408X/ref=nosim/kristianstrom-20

I was doing a search for a Russian translation of the same book, and because Amazon's product detail pages are so mixed-up (as I'm sure you already know) I stumbled upon this listing for the 1st Edition, published by Bluejay Books in 1985.

I have obviously seen Dan Simmons books in the field (I must admit to ocassionally confusing them with Dan  Brown's), but after doing a little more research, I now know that this is his 1st novel and I can add this unique image to my bookselling memory.  

Please note that ex-library copies are fetching $50, while collectible copies are being sold at significantly higher prices. 

As far as my Russian copy goes, well, I thought I was going to "Create a Product Detail Page," something which has paid off for me over time, but is another post for another day.  I ended up finding the listing by doing a manual search, even though it did not come up by entering the Russian ISBN number, hmmmm?

My price?  $75.  How did I come up with that? I have no logical explanation other than that I appear to have the only copy for sale (including a Bookfinder search) and I think it is a fair price for a relatively scarce edition.

I hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day weekend.

A Game for Booksellers

Who says booksellers in competition can't be friends?

We have all heard the stories of the pushing and shoving, the story of the rival booksellers who grabbed the $1,000 book at the same time and perhaps you may have told the one about the grumpy bookseller in town who only pays pennies on the dollar, and just happens to be your only buying competition in the area.

Can't we all just get along?  Aren't there enough books to go around for everyone?

OK, maybe not at every sale.  There is bound to be a bit of competition in the arena of bookselling, but who says competitors can't be friends.

In the spirit of fostering a bit of goodwill among our bookselling brethren, I propose a bookselling game to play with one of your rival local booksellers (one that you may have talked to or befriended in line) in the final minutes of a sale.

The game works like this:

The library sale started at 5pm and goes until 9pm.  It is 8 o'clock and you have seen every book in the room three times.  You have 30 minutes until you absolutely have to start checking out before the workers at the sale start packing up your books and pricing them for you (Nooooooooooo!!!).

Each competitor in the game (assuming he/she is armed with a scanning device) has thirty minutes to refocus their efforts and find one last gem.  The person who finds the most valuable book (only $50 and up qualifies) with a sales ranking under 2 Million wins!  Ready, set, play!

This is a game I have played with a good bookseller friend of mine for the past several years.  Each year, he seems to find a nice $100 gem moments after we start.  (I always accuse him of setting one aside before the game starts).  And each year I seem to triumph at the last minute, finding a book overlooked by every seller in the crowd, usually one with an ISBN which requires manual entry.

Here is the winning book for the last time I played, which just happened to be the best book I found the entire sale, and has already sold to a customer in Italy for the nice sum of $500.  Just look for a massive, drooling dog.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0821221663/ref=nosim/kristianstrom-20