Daily Bookshot: When expectations are surpassed

When expectations are surpassed, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

I was delighted and not a little shocked on Sunday afternoon, to discover that Jay Parini – author of The Last Station (Canongate Books) – had published a John Steinbeck biography way back in 1994. Because I have such an insatiable appetite for anything Steinbeck, you can bet that I was instantly on a hunt to track down a copy to call my own.

Long vanished from the active catalogues of its publisher William Heinemann, I was lucky to track down a copy being offered by Amazon UK market seller AllTimeBooks, and it was listed at a shockingly low 21p plus postage. Pausing for a moment at the cheap price of the book, and because the product description described its condition only as ‘acceptable’, I wondered if I should click the buy button. Of course I decided quickly that condition didn’t really matter. The book was less than dirt cheap, and I just wanted get my hands on a reading copy.

Well, that Steinbeck biography arrived earlier today, and I present it here as today’s Daily Bookshot. As you can see (probably) the book bears all the usual marks of age, but its condition is far in excess of acceptable. In fact given it’s age I would class this book pretty much as mint. Needless to say I was absolutely delighted with the book’s good condition – especially when I’d been led to believe that it was a bit scruffy – and I sat and hugged it for way longer than I probably should have .

Checking on Amazon this evening I see at the time of writing that AllTimeBooks still have another copy on offer, and for the even lower price of 17p. And while I can’t vouch for the quality of this copy, I can certainly state without fear of contradiction, that the seller given my experience, is something of a class act. So if you’re reading this AllTimeBooks, you’ve made one Steinbeck fan very happy!

So fellow reader, what are your own experiences of buying ‘unseen’ books from 2nd-hand dealers? Have you ever been pleasantly surprised with the quality of your purchases, or left somewhat disheartened by over-glorified descriptions?