…the sons of bitches who sold it to me, apparently stole it from a
public library. The book’s front, third and forth covers clearly identify
it as a library book—which was published this year.
I got furious, looked up the library’s phone number, called and told
the gal who answered the requisite details. She took my number
and said someone in Management would call me back. (She was no
dummy, just had no authority and the library was closing early because
of the holiday.)
That was yesterday and no callback as yet.
I’m on the East Coast. Library’s on the West Coast. I get the feeling this
third part seller is a scumbag who takes advantage of the geographical
separation.
No matter what the libray does, though, I’m gonna do my damnedest to get
this vendor blackballed.
If all is as it seems, then no, I don’t think you are.
Libraries do sometimes discard their books, and then either they or a third party may sell them as used. But in this case the book will usually have a “discarded” stamp on it. And I don’t blame you for being suspicious if the book was published this year.
But you shouldn’t expect to get a callback from the library on Thanksgiving. Wait until you hear from them—which may take at least until Monday, with the long holiday weekend—before getting too worked up.
Ooh, evil! You should definitely get them banned from selling. (I mean, yeah, wait until you hear back, but then do it!) If it was a discard it would be pretty obvious, and of course a new book wouldn’t be a discard unless it had been defaced or thrown up on.
Not always. I recently bought a shit-load of books at my annual library sale and none of them were stamped.
I do agree that the fact that it was published this year is suspicious to say the least. My library’s policy is that they don’t discard books unless they’ve not been checked out for a certian period of time, and I imagine it would be more than a year based on the offerings at this year’s sale.
I wouldn’t assume the book is stolen. If it’s a popular title, the library may have bought lots of copies. If a paperback is coming out soon, they know they won’t need so many copies, so they’re making space for other books.
Something’s not computing here. If the seller checked the book out from the library, claimed to have lost it, then sold it to you, in most cases the library would have made him pay back the cost of the book. So that’s not happening. If the book was just stolen, and not ever checked out, well, that couldn’t happen on a large scale without the guy getting caught, could it? Even if that did happen to your particular book, I can’t imagine that it would succeed on a massive scale, as you suggest.
I’m inclined to agree with AuntiePam – it’s probably a book they had a lot of copies of that wasn’t popular, and they decided to get rid of a few. But I don’t blame you for following up on it.
Rodgers01, yeah, there’s no profit in stealing books that way. (Unless he didn’t check the book out first but simply stole it.)
Did the seller tell you that you were buying an ex-library book? If he didn’t, that’s definitely worth reporting to Amazon, or wherever he’s selling from.
I bought two used books from an Amazon marketplace seller. Both were ex-library. I simply assumed they were library discards.
I have a lot of books I’ve bought at library discard sales myself, and even when there’s not a big sale on, the library branches always have a cart with books for sale.
Maybe so. The vendor never said it was ex-library. I wouldn’t mind if it were, so long as the vendor got it honestly. It’s hard for me to believe, however, that a popular hard cover book like this would be sold by the library.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll get a call that answers the question.
The last time I was in the library, there was a cart with 30 or 40 copies of the new Dick Francis book (disappointing, by the way). I can’t imagine they’ll need all those copies for more than a couple of months. I can easily see that a book published only this year might have already been discarded.
Not at all, AuntiePem. But you’re going to be disappointed.
On the Brink by Ty Drumheller, former Chief of CIA Clandestine Operations, Europe.
On the front cover, the publisher adds, “An insider’s account of how the White House compromised American Intelligence”
Maybe the library did sell it. But like I said earlier, it was published this year. And it’s still riding a crest of popularity. So why sell it—the library, that is.
I’ve bought many used books via Amazon and several were ex-library books. It had never occurred to me that they might have been stolen rather than legitimately sold or discarded. Now I’m going to go back and start checking.
I’m thinking that the library did sell it. Interest in political books probably dropped sharply after the election. The library probably had a couple of extra copies and decided to sell them.
When author Ed McBain died, his wife donated a lot of signed, non-English copies of his works to the local library. The library in turn advertised them on his website.
I got me a bunch of autographed, signed non-English McBains.
