 | | | David Poitras Bookseller | | | Maintained by: | | RARE & OUT-OF-PRINT BOOKS, VINTAGE PAPERBACKS, AND VINTAGE LP'S. SEARCHING & QUOTING SINCE 1972. SPECIALIZING IN CRIME - FICTION & NONFICTION.
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| | Was it a dark and stormy night when I started out on my life of crime? Well, even though it still gives me goosebumps just to think about it, I confess that there’s really no mystery involved. Collecting seemed to be a thrilling pastime. So, as a delinquent juvenile, I began to pick up things that looked like they were real steals. I started small with marbles. That left me with too much dead time, so I moved up to bubble gum cards. Some smooth-talking dirty rats introduced me to comic books, and the plot thickened. I became easy prey for those hoary old paperbacks - you know the ones - sleazy, lurid covers, sensational stories, with socko endings. The game was afoot. Before I knew what was happening, I was hooked!
Grimly I prowled around - not doing anything really criminous I swear - and discovered curious old volumes of forgotten lore. Talk about a sucker punch! Just couldn’t get enough of them! Soon, haunting the local shops couldn’t satisfy my cravings. I needed more ... more ... more! I was on the road to addiction!! This was worse than bingo!!!
I began making the local scene, furtively becoming a dedicated scout - going undercover at auctions, doing the dawn patrol at garage sales, enduring bazaars, and looking innocent while dealing with widows. It was all in the game. My stash began to accumulate dangerously. I desperately needed to get rid of some swag. There was no room left in my apartment. I literally found myself up against the wall!
Just when the suspense was reaching a murderous pitch, in entered Gladys Pike, an older bookseller in town. She suggested that I try to sell some of my unwanted loot through the mail. She specifically suggested using The Antiquarian Bookman's Weekly [gone but not forgotten], and showed me the ropes. What a sweet racket! Although the books didn’t exactly fly off my shelves, it sure beat taking candy from babies (my dentist had begun to complain!).
Flogging the rest of my outcasts directly to the wolf packs and honest johns at flea markets on weekends was another solution. I stealthily enjoyed being hustled by the bimbos, moochers and rounders, but having to sit there all day nearly drove me stir-crazy. As well as that, I had to be nice to everybody - what a downer! Oh well, it was better than the slammer. I even tried pitching some business from my home. And for kicks I lugged books to The Ottawa Book Fair. Talk about your con artists laying track !
In good time, I became interested in issuing a few catalogues devoted to my specialty - CRIME. But was it really just a pipe-dream? Could I honestly do something respectable? I cautiously tried putting some book lists out. Informers told me that each one was better than the last. I suspected the worst though, because I wasn't exactly being mobbed with orders, but I persevered anyway.
Well, enough about trials and tribulations. My term has been served and I’m retired now [no longer being under the gun, so to speak] and I don’t need any kangaroo court to convince me that mail order and eBay seems to be the Real McCoy. Doing more than that though seems too much like work.
Yeah, book selling is an agreeable avocation - just don’t let anybody tell you that crime doesn’t pay ! |
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