A New Set of Online Bookselling Flashpoints and a Relatively Common 3 Figure Book

2010 was an eventful year for the Republics of Haiti and South Africa, for very different reasons.  Haiti was rocked by a devastating earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands and left over one million people homeless.  More recently, it has been flooded and is experiencing an outbreak of cholera.  South Africa, on the other hand, became the first African nation to host the World Cup, and received stellar marks for successfully hosting the event, despite the popularity of the blaring and some might say annoying vuvuzuelas.  For the record, I thought that their collective shriek added to the atmosphere and excitement of the matches, except when the US team went down a goal to Ghana, and then I found them the cause of a severe headache.

I realize that there is not much of a similarity between the two countries, and that my recent spike in sales of books about the two countries is mostly pure coincidence, however, I do think that their heightened exposure on the world news scene has resulted in at least a temporary renascence (forgive me for the use of the big word, but I was reading Edna St. Vincent Millay before bed last night).
Below I have highlighted several books I have sold recently, along with several that I have recently listed and one or two I hope to find before the well runs dry.  I hope you find this information helpful, and that you give books related to Haiti and South Africa a second glance on your next book buying excursion.

If you learn one thing from this entire article, I hope that you memorize the dust jacket for this photobook, which has experienced a recent spike in demand, a shortage in supply, and is a relatively common book which I have come across a handful of times in the past two years.

House of Bondage By Ernest Cole (A South African Black Man Exposes in His Own Pictures and Words the Bitter Life of His Homeland Today)- Check out the Amazon detail page by clicking on the link and you will find that your copy will sell quickly in the $200-400 range, depending on condition.  Thumb through this amazing volume before you list it, the photographs are riveting, if not horrific and sobering.

I recently listed this language dictionary for $150 due to its relative scarcity and for being the most comprehensive reference of its kind.  On a related note, I have found that the more obscure the language of the dictionary, the higher the potential value.  Haitian-English Dictionary

OK, so this one has nothing to do with what I've just written about, but I'm including it anyways because it is a slim and specific paperback volume that I just listed for $75 (for an ex-library copy).  It is a regional African cuisine cookbook from Ghana, whom I did mention above and must give credit to their national soccer team, The Black Stars.  Authentic African Cuisine from Ghana

Even relatively outdated paperback textbooks from Academic Presses (think Westview and any University) have been fetching $20 and up for me this past year.  Here are two examples:

Haiti: The Breached Citadel (Nations of Contemporary Latin America)

Langston Hughes in the Hispanic World and Haiti

Here's a few more books on South Africa I have sold in 2010:

 

Finally, a few that I'm hoping to come across before the trend passes:

A Civilization That Perished: The Last Years of White Colonial Rule in Haiti















Please feel free to share your comments below, including any books on South Africa and Haiti you have sold for $20 and up in the past, or any you have sold since reading this post.