Old Authors, Old Books, Old Book Seller

OLD AUTHORS, OLD BOOKS, OLD BOOK HUNTERS AND A PROFESSION FINALLY ATTAINED

THERE'S NOTHING SO PLEASING AS FINDING A RARE, SIGNIFICANT BOOK, OTHER THAN SELLING IT TO A HAPPY COLLECTOR

    Suzanne and I are both efficiency nuts. And yes, we drive each other nuts sticking to our agendas. The explanation below may seem puzzling, because at least half the population of the world, likes to adhere to schedules and life missions. Nothing special here! If we have any significant failing, other than being too attractive for our own good (just kidding[ have you seen my nose), it's that we both appear at times to have two left feet, and the kind of beatnik perspective, that permits us to wax poetic every now and again, disappearing off the radar, to well, find ourselves again. Yup, even though we've arrived at exactly the place we were supposed to, by golly, we have no idea how that came to fruition. I mean, who really cares, how we got to this point, or whether it was as silken as ballet appears, or as happenstance as a left fielder falling, while attempting to make a big catch, yet somehow finding the ball in the web of the mitt on the ground. Or the goalie who stumbles, and falls during a deke by a forward, and accidentally falls across the path of the puck, making the big save regardless.
     Suzanne and I have tried our best to follow a logical path, but when you're running a precarious business, akin to gambling every day that it's in operation, and raising a bunch of musicians in our small house, gads, we're feeling like we just won the Most Amazing Race, simply by getting to this point; and feeling we touched all the most important points we intended, when we started out as newlyweds, with a raging amount of ambition. We've even dealt with some of the daunting truths, connected to that famous Homer Simpson saying, that "life is one crushing defeat after another." We've never sailed on seas that weren't trying to swallow us whole, but somehow, we managed to cling-on and make it safely to the nearest shore to restore our ambitions. This is the way we feel today, embarking on a few new golden age projects we've been planning for a long time. Before we could start them, we wanted to be able to say, without the shadow of a fib, that we accomplished what we wanted to, as set down in the late 1980's; and there was no requirement to look pretty doing it, or arriving at the objective with all our hair in place. Some of it was ripped-out in the frustrating circumstances of the old "hit and miss" exercise. Of trying to do too much, and having to settle for a tad less than what we had hoped for! We could have just quit and found some tropical beach in a low budget locale of the world, and tanned our white hides for the rest of our lives; sipping semi exotic drinks and eating coconut; being scantily clad and loving it! But, that would be the easy way out, and we've never been able to live with ourselves, when we've been tempted to take short cuts, which by the way, has never worked out for us.
    If you don't know Suzanne and I intimately (we can fix this in the coming year), or the handiwork of our musical sons, Andrew and Robert, let me offer this overview. We are plodding, inch by inch, step by step builders, who never give the appearance of heading anywhere very quickly; yet we always arrive ahead of our own rigid schedule. It has taken our sons twelve years, from the time it was commenced, as a lesson studio, in the downstairs of our Gravenhurst house, to this point where it occupies half of our present Muskoka Road location, in the former Muskoka Theatre; where we amalgamated on the rest of the retail space to sell antiques and nostalgia. None of it has been done in less time than was absolutely necessary. Some people have critiqued us as having moved to slowly and too frugally, to ever be a going concern in the vintage music and antique trade. We have great interest in hearing the views of those having greater experience in our respective professions, for what they can teach us, that by the way, we really want to know; but not so much, from the experts without portfolio, who will never be satisfied with anything we can come up with regardless. We don't waste our time trying to please those who can never be satisfied by the run-of-the-mill retailers like us. Their loss, someone else's gain. And this is exactly how it works. And not just in our shop. We all have ways of dispatching critics who just like to hear themselves warble-out their insights, then lift their chins, turn toward the door, and leave much as they came in; sure they wouldn't like anything we stocked. The mumble about us being stupid and crazy for stocking old books and records, and look down the street for the next stop on their self-satisfying mission of critique pooping.
     The point of my writing this preamble, is to offer the simple explanation, that we have always had a model of operation, behind the leadership of a ruthless accountant, "mom", and never step beyond what is a known safe landing place. We don't make any attempt to over-step, and although at times, it even frustrates us to go so slow, we know that our success has hinged in the past, on being secure with our progress. We're not gamblers that's for sure. In the antique business, it's almost impossible to avoid serious risk taking, but we know how to mitigate this, by being exceptionally careful buyers. Cheapskates. Very experienced cheapskates, and it allows us to keep our prices low. It is our big advantage over our competitors.
     Everything we've accomplished since 1986, in the way of shaping a retirement business, for Suzanne and I, has occurred on schedule, and with only a few exceptions, without taking too much risk when we could least afford it. We did make a little "zig" when we probably should have "zagged" at the time we opened our storefront antique shop, in late 1989, in Bracebridge, at the start of the recession of that vintage, which of course, heralded a real estate collapse. We got lucky, because the rent was low and Suzanne had a teaching job for stability. Surprisingly, we navigated the antique business until the mid-1990's with considerable ease, and without economic calamity. A lot of retailers succumbed and had to close up shop. The only reason we closed it, in 1996, was that I got a good job with the Crozier Foundation. We moved the business home, and kept it operational with online sales, until four years ago, when we readied ourselves to open up an antique component under the umbrella of son Andrew's vintage music business.
     I wanted to continue writing for as long as I could before my eyes fell out, or arms broke off my shoulders, because of the wear and tear; which by the way, is horrible when the thawing comes out. Thawing comes when I sit out a couple of days, staying away from this infernal keyboard. But my plan, as all our plans have been designed since we opened our first shop, was to get to a level of acceptable inventory, and sales stats, in the shop, to justify downsizing a profession that has run parallel to antique dealing since 1977 - as a matter of irony, my first column, published weekly in the Bracebridge Examiner, was entitled "Antiques and Collectables." It has been partnered that way for all these years. Now, I'm streaming, you might say, into what is most important to me, on the cusp of what others tell me are the golden years. I am a passionate old book hunter and seller, who also happens to write stuff. Well, I'm going to be writing a lot less in the future, because it's now time to specialize and, as my accountant wife quips, "make money for gosh sakes." She's right of course. To this point, I've been part-time in most everything I've worked at, including picking for old books, and the demand now is much bigger than it has been in the past, warranting a lot more focus and time spent hustling-up the books we need to fill the shelves. I'm not disappointed in the least, and lessening my work at this laptop will hopefully benefit my neck and shoulders in the next month or so. Writing the way I do, with a horrible posture, has been hurting me for years, but Suzanne has given up trying to convince me to change my habits; and like a golfer who goes an entire career, winning enough to stay comfortable, without changing styles, I have been pretty superstitious about making too many alterations with what has always worked; I have only had a few short-lived periods of writer's block in the past four decades, which is a huge issue for those who play around this writing-thing, with an idea of becoming something other than a diary author.
     I was to semi-retire my pen back in July, but I wanted to take it to the New Year, and to this end, I've been true to my word. I've quit a few times during this period, simply because my body was betraying me, and my neck and shoulders were refusing to co-operate; not that I didn't have the will to carry-on a little longer. I love writing, but I love collecting books and stuff much, much more. As I get older, and my endurance in composition lags, I urgently need to save what's left of my upper body before I have to beg Suzanne to feed me, because my arms would lift past my chin. I have been brutal on my back as well, and it has given me a limp which I don't like. I can no longer catch up to fast women. I tell people who ask, that my wobble is actually an old hockey injury come back to haunt me, when in truth it is a writing injury. Now tell me, who would believe this, considering it's a non contact profession? Well, anyway, I have waited a long time to become a full time bookman, and it starts for me on the first of January, 2016, meaning there will be a lot fewer new blogs over the next twelve months, although my monthly column in "Curious; the Tourist Guide" will continue. I will also be writing antique and collectable related editorials for our business facebook page, so you can catch me there as well. I always reserve the right to change my mind, if for example, my body all of a sudden stops aching and I can enter the Boston Marathon.
     In the early 1990's, we had a rack of about a hundred record albums in our main street antique shop in Bracebridge. We sold some every week. And there wasn't a week that went by, that a customer didn't laugh at us, for being so foolish as to have invested in old vinyl. They'd wonder aloud, if we were so far "out of the loop," in the collectable industry, as to not know that records were gone the way of the dodo. I couldn't possibly tell you how many stories I heard about thousands upon thousands of records being thrown in the landfill site, because their era had passed. Everything was going compact, in the form of silver discs the size of a beer coaster, and that, old bulky record players were following the vintage vinyl into the garbage bins. Worthless. Never to be heard from again.
     In the antique profession we hear this frequently, from self professed experts, who think that if they exclaim something with the grit of conviction, it will become etched in stone. From my miles travelled in this profession, we don't listen to those people, other than to be polite and nod our heads. We gave up debating these issues a long time ago, when we were in our early years and full of flourishing youth. Today we're a little too cranky to make any attempt to correct the record-naysayer, who will say something similar to what we heard in the nineteen nineties. "No one wants those old records you have up front; just a waste of space, if you ask me." Well, we didn't ask for their critique of the business from these one-time-only customers, who need to validate themselves, by making statements all the live long day. Most of them being wrong.
     Vintage vinyl (records) and new vinyl, which is still being pressed by contemporary artists, (at considerable demand) for this growing niche market, are both our hottest sellers, just in case you were interested. It doesn't mean all vintage or new vinyl are best sellers, when we buy large collections; just the same as with old books, some being undesirable, and yes, only worth recycling. But every week, our records show strong sales, both new and used. A collectable item that was supposed to be worthless, according to some of our customers, has become rather significant over the past five years, showing considerable growth. When a customer tells me that we should just toss them in the garbage bin, because they're completely worthless, I love to enquire at this point, if they have any left at home. When they respond that they got rid of their collections years ago, I can't help slip a dig in, about, "well, then, that's too bad. They could have been worth two or three thousand dollars, especially if you tossed out some Beatles records."
     I've heard the same thing about books, for just as many years, and today, I just let them talk, sometimes while I'm selling books over the counter with a tell-tale grin on my mug. They were telling me this in the late 1980's when I first began to accumulate boxes of old books from auctions and garage sales. It's true that I made a lot of mistakes during this period as well, but show me a collector / dealer who hasn't made lots of errors in judgement, and I'll show you someone who is fibbing to the exponent of ten.
     The difference of book hunting, and selling today, is that I am no longer looking to amass a large collection to fill my shop bookshelves. I've done that, and I'm pretty comfortable that as a general antique dealer, I've probably got ten to twenty times more than most other vendors; but I am still under the volume carried by typical rare and antique book dealers. I know how to differentiate between selling old and out of print books; the differences between a second hand inventory, and an antiquarian book shop, is revealed when examining average age of books on the shelves, rarity, subject, and condition. Antiquarian book collectors and dealers usually feed off us, finding texts on our shelves deserving of finer company. I'm more of a bibliophile who has a pretty good eye for the old stuff, than a declared antiquarian book seller. Let's just say, for reasons of clarity, you spend a thousand dollars on books in my shop on one outing. You might just clear-out most of one whole book case and then some. In an antiquarian and rare book shop, you might be able to purchase four or five books, if you're lucky that day.
     What we have found in contemporary times, versus the market for old books in the 1990's, is that the customer appetite for non-fiction, particularly reference, has grown substantially from what I remember it to be, back twenty years or so. Books are now outselling many other types of collectables in our shop, and the most robust sales are the result of having many hundreds of vintage and out of print cookbooks, under the stewardship of my business partner Suzanne. We are now getting people from two to three hours distance from Gravenhurst, coming to town to sort through our cookbook collection. We began buying old cookbooks thirty years ago, but only decided to sell them in our Gravenhurst shop three years ago. With both used and old books, all in the non-fiction category, we can honestly say, our faith that "books" in general, would make a strong return to the market place, has paid off; which is a good thing, considering we have many thousands on shelves, and in storage ready to be priced.
     When I was working for the Bracebridge Examiner, in the early months of 1990, and most obviously frustrating some of the layout personnel, because I was late getting them editorial copy, a staff member turned to me, and asked in a loud voice, "Mr. Currie, what is it that you want to be; a writer or an antique dealer." I had no delay getting back to her with an equally loud retort, "I want to be an antique dealer; thanks for asking." This was not the answer she was looking for, and she mumbled that it was undoubtedly why I was always behind my time, getting her the copy she required to lay out that week's issue. Which was balderdash I might add, but who cares now. I have been both a writer and antique dealer for long and long, and now I'm going into my antique dealer mode, which is for keeps.
     It is an adventure-filled enterprise, and I'll have lots of stories down the pike, about big finds, and the "big ones that got away." I will share stories about the rarest of books, and the most interesting stories bound within. In the meantime, I'm going to be slowing down a tad in the writing department, not because I've lost my mojo, but really because this old mortal frame, has endured enough; like the football and hockey player finally have to realize that all the punishing blows have left a lasting legacy of pain and suffering. Some times, I can hardly walk up the hillside to Birch Hollow, because of a wonky hip, which is fine in structure, but compromised because of muscle spasms in my back. I never thought writing would be this tough on the body, but, turns out, it is, and unrelenting. So I really do have to pause awhile, and do one thing really well; and hopefully that will herald a final leg of my two professions, being the successful buying and selling of old books.
     I will keep this site running with archives copy for as long as possible with my vault of back copy. Please tune in to my facebook entries which will continue indefinitely.
     Thanks for all your support in the past. Drop in to see us sometime, and check out our great collection of old books.