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Three weekends lost to a mislabeled box at an Ohio estate sale | Rare Book Hunting - Librear

Three weekends lost to a mislabeled box at an Ohio estate sale

Went to an estate sale in Dayton back in March and saw a cardboard box marked "misc paperbacks $1." Dug through it, found a 1960s hardcover that looked like something, paid the dollar, and took it home. Turned out the spine was a re-glued fake and the real edition was a common reprint that sells for $8 online. I spent three full weekends cross-checking library records and dealer forums before I finally admitted I was chasing a ghost. Anyone else ever sink serious hours into verifying a find that turned out to be worthless?

2 comments

2 Comments

robertsmith2mo ago

Man, that hurts just reading it. Three weekends is a lot of time to sink into something that turns out to be a dead end, especially when the box was marked so casual like that. I've been there with a vintage camera that looked perfect in the case but had a cracked lens hidden under the leather. It's the hope that gets you, right? You start picturing the find, telling your friends about it, and then reality just kind of slaps you in the face. But hey, at least you know now, and that hunt for the truth is still kind of cool in a weird way. Don't let it stop you from digging through the next estate sale, the good stuff is out there somewhere.

avery_roberts672mo ago

The whole "it's the hope that gets you" thing, @robertsmith, that's exactly it. I've burned entire Sundays on a similar fake, a signed first edition that turned out to have a tipped-in signature page from a different book. My practical advice is to timebox the research before you even start, give yourself one afternoon max to verify any find, and if you can't prove it's real by then, it's probably not. Also, learn to spot a re-glued spine early, hold the book up to light and check for uneven glue lines or a slight gap between the cover and the text block. That little trick would have saved you those three weekends, trust me. The hunt is fun but the sunk cost is real, so set a timer next time and walk away when it dings.