Random Comments/Stream of Consciousness Thread

[Merlin1958]

A hearty shout-out to the much-maligned USPS. I recently sent an item overseas via Priority Express Mail. Guaranteed delivery date was within a week (5 business days). Delivered on the 4th day. Another item sent the same way and it was delivered as advertised. I sent a 3rd item (same place each time) and it got stuck in overseas Customs for 3 days. And, as a result of that delay, the item was delivered a day late.

Today I went to my Post Office hoping they'd tell me just what I needed to do to get a refund -- or if I'd even get a refund since it sat in another country's Customs office for 3 days. Not only did they tell me that I would get a refund, they filled out the form needed to process a refund and gave me a refund on the spot. There were a dozen people in line ahead of me when I arrived yet I was there less than 15 minutes.

The USPS delivers to every city in the country six days a week and does a pretty amazing job getting the work done. Do they make mistakes? Yes, they are human and there are some bad actors. But it is the best postal system in the world, bar none, and I think they do a pretty damn good job day in and day out.

John

I gotta chime in with props for the USPS as I recently sent a good sized box to, Israel. While it arrived 5 days later than advertised, it arrived in a battle torn area, with no damaged and the contents intact.

Was the Israel package for Moshe? I miss seeing him around here.

There are no battle torn areas of Israel.

Meanwhile...

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday.

Mulleins

Thank you, Ralph. You as well.

[amd013]

There's probably a better thread for this, but wasn't sure which, so this is as good a place as any.

Does anyone know if ebay id sir.jason belongs to a member here?

[webstar1000]

There's probably a better thread for this, but wasn't sure which, so this is as good a place as any.

Does anyone know if ebay id sir.jason belongs to a member here?

I know him. Whats up? PM me

[St. Troy]

...Pitchers on the other hand...something not quite right in the head.

Hey - no back talk!

[wizardsrainbow]

Did not really know where else to put this info, so I chose this thread.

This may be widely known already but it was a DOH moment for me.....Richard Bachman....King's pen name....Richard's middle name is Cthulu....I actually have a picture of a Regulators S/L where King signed the check as Richard Cthulu Bachman....I never noticed this before and I sold the book a long tome ago (even to whom I do not know...I just discovered the picture)....so I did a quick GOOGLE of Richard Bachman and nowhere did I see a middle name. I must have sold 20 copies of Regulators SLs while at Betts and I never noticed the middle name before....maybe it is more common than I think, but it was a "discovery" for me....just thought I'd share.

[wizardsrainbow]

[kingfan2323]

Nice catch, David. Interesting.

seeking Gunslinger #246

[vincent]

Very cool, thanks!

[herbertwest]

Did not really know where else to put this info, so I chose this thread.

This may be widely known already but it was a DOH moment for me.....Richard Bachman....King's pen name....Richard's middle name is Cthulu....I actually have a picture of a Regulators S/L where King signed the check as Richard Cthulu Bachman....I never noticed this before and I sold the book a long tome ago (even to whom I do not know...I just discovered the picture)....so I did a quick GOOGLE of Richard Bachman and nowhere did I see a middle name. I must have sold 20 copies of Regulators SLs while at Betts and I never noticed the middle name before....maybe it is more common than I think, but it was a "discovery" for me....just thought I'd share.

I never heard about the middle name either before.
Couldnt it just be a joke he added for the check?
Cthulu would be a big giveaway otherwise

[webstar1000]

Did not really know where else to put this info, so I chose this thread.

This may be widely known already but it was a DOH moment for me.....Richard Bachman....King's pen name....Richard's middle name is Cthulu....I actually have a picture of a Regulators S/L where King signed the check as Richard Cthulu Bachman....I never noticed this before and I sold the book a long tome ago (even to whom I do not know...I just discovered the picture)....so I did a quick GOOGLE of Richard Bachman and nowhere did I see a middle name. I must have sold 20 copies of Regulators SLs while at Betts and I never noticed the middle name before....maybe it is more common than I think, but it was a "discovery" for me....just thought I'd share.

I also came across a book where Steve signed his FULL name. I never seen it before. I was this close to buying it then as the seller and me me chatted and I expressed my surprise at it... he must have thought he had something cause he decided not to sell after all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[herbertwest]

Any pictures?

[lotuz]

We emailed about this book last year and I almost bought it from you for this very reason! I love that sig! But I just couldn't get over the condition of the case. I probably should have just gone ahead and done it and worried about the case later

[Brian861]

No longer receiving email notifications from the site for some reason (not in spam either) so my responses may be delayed if you should PM me, etc.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

I like Tom Selleck, but I'm tired of hearing about his latest rodeo, give me a break!

[St. Troy]

I like Tom Selleck, but I'm tired of hearing about his latest rodeo, give me a break!

...if you have a single unkind word to say about Mr. Selleck, we are going to have a problem...

[Brian861]

I like Tom Selleck, but I'm tired of hearing about his latest rodeo, give me a break!

...if you have a single unkind word to say about Mr. Selleck, we are going to have a problem...

Yea, Steve. We're going to have to ask you to step outside.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Can we wait until spring, it's too cold right now!


I just caught the last minute of him on a talk show today! I didn't know he was asked to play Indiana Jones!

[Brian861]

Can we wait until spring, it's too cold right now!


I just caught the last minute of him on a talk show today! I didn't know he was asked to play Indiana Jones!

Yea, spring's good with me.

I didn't realize that either.

[Iwritecode]

Can we wait until spring, it's too cold right now!


I just caught the last minute of him on a talk show today! I didn't know he was asked to play Indiana Jones!

I thought that was more well-known fact.

Kinda like Christopher Walken trying out for the part of Han Solo.

[Joe315]

Can we wait until spring, it's too cold right now!


I just caught the last minute of him on a talk show today! I didn't know he was asked to play Indiana Jones!

I thought that was more well-known fact.

Kinda like Christopher Walken trying out for the part of Han Solo.

I’m trying to picture Han with walken’s voice. “ it’s not wise...to upset... a wookie.”

[vincent]

Yesterday someone told me he had heard a rumor that in the past publishers had "forced" first chapters into King's books that he did not write himself, meant as attention grabbers.

Has anyone heard about anything like this?

No doubt in my mind this was never the case, but I'm curious if anyone knows more on the topic.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Yesterday someone told me he had heard a rumor that in the past publishers had "forced" first chapters into King's books that he did not write himself, meant as attention grabbers.

Has anyone heard about anything like this?

No doubt in my mind this was never the case, but I'm curious if anyone knows more on the topic.

I wish they had forced several chapters out of some of his books. Whoever his editor is, must have the easiest job in the world. They don't do any editing.

[Johnny007]

I've been doing some work trying to find some specific SK books. I don't make it a practice to visit ABE as frequently as I do this site so maybe I visit there once every couple of weeks. I always search straight up on Stephen King and sort by the highest price. I always find it interesting to see who and what comprises the top 15-20 entries. I also look at the total number of SK items available for sale on ABE. I made particular note that today there were about 58.5K SK items for sale. Contrast that to maybe a year ago...or maybe two, when there were about 73K SK items for sale. That's a 20% decrease in supply in a short period of time. Have collectors been buying that much? Has ABE suddenly purged the erroneous ads? Any realistic guesses as to why the supply number has dropped? Thanks,

John

[Johnny007]

OK, piggybacking on my previous post, I was on ABE specifically looking for legitimate Fine/Fine copies of The Shining. Looking for both signed and unsigned copies. I find The Shining the most difficult of the Doubleday books to find in F/F condition. So I narrowed my search to The Shining knowing that it would include limited copies, as well. There were 860+ plus hits and I arranged them by price -- highest to lowest (if something is really good, it must be expensive, right? or is it the other way?)

Topping the list was a $6,480 "Flawless" signed copy from a Texas bookseller named Bowling. It didn't say much else and there were no pictures. Now wouldn't you want to brag a bit about a "Flawless" copy and maybe show it off with a few pictures? Bowling wanted to keep this copy a secret so I moved on, too.

Our favorite, Quintessential Books, came in at second with a $6,000 signed copy. It is "spectacular," aside from the light wear. But again, the book was camera-shy and there were no pics.

At $5,500, MDS Books had a F/F copy signed by King AND Jack Nicholson! I saw the pics and they looked legitimate but the F/F designation was offset by the light wear and the pesky nicks.

Copper Dragon Books has an "As New" copy for $5,100. But the book had the nasty remainder spray on it along with bumps to the corners.

And it went on and on, Fine Book Cellar's "Excellent" book had rubbing, chipping, toning, and fading. Pryor-Johnson's NF copy had sunning, rubbing, and bumping to various parts of the book's anatomy -- and the DJ was price-clipped. White Ink Books stated that their NF/NF copy was signed in front of them at the 3 Kings event in DC. But they still spent the time and money to have Spence authenticate the signature! The price for this gem was only $3.5K. And now we are seeing the quality of the books and their DJs get less appealing. We are in the NF/NF range.

Quintessential added a "Superb" copy for only $3K but the signature was laid in and there was wear to the book. One of my favorites was from BookManBookWoman Books. Their copy had some browning problems, some rubbing, some wear, and some foxing. And, by the way, they made it a point to state that "they don't post photos."

So after I reached 20-25 items, I began to get the signed, limited copies and those copies that were in VG or less condition. In defense of the sellers I looked at this weekend, there weren't many who used Fine-, NF, NF+, or VG+ so I didn't have to decipher any of that code. In the end, I found a couple of nice copies from some reputable establishments. We are way apart in terms of price but that will be another adventure. So once again I reinforced my reasoning for not visiting ABE more frequently. You have to have the patience of a saint to find what you're after and I guess I'm more of a sinner than a saint.

Good luck on your ABE adventures!

John

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Interesting breakdown.
I have bought a couple of books with no problems from Copper Dragon Books, both advertised as brand new, and they were! I think an Ellison and a Bloch, and I think the Bloch was a lettered.
I've also bought quite a few books from AbeBooks and as far as I can recall never had any problems, although I can't really trust my aging memory. However, nothing stands out.
I'm fairly certain my copy of THE SHINING is Fine+, but there are so many knick-knacks in front of it I hesitate to pull it out. It's not signed anyway.