I'LL TAKE IT!

[paularubia]

Just read an o/p book listing with this featured "description":

"NO SMELLS."

Good to know.

Comments

[snakefeathers]

Having worked in the used-book biz for quite some time, you have no idea how important that is. (No, not as a complete description.)

I lost track of the number of people who thought we'd givethem moneyfor yellowing old paperbacks that reeked of

a) mold
b) tobacco smoke
c) Cat Piss

They alwasy seemd so disappointed when we gavethem their books back with a sympathetic "no thanks", and then waited til they were out of sight around the corner to go frantically wash our hands.

[akatonbo]

And then there's the ever-popular "I can't figure out what this smells like, but man, it stinks."

[snakefeathers]

I always figured that was "all of the above".

[paularubia]

Exactly. I don't think a reputable bookseller would list a book for sale that DID have a smell. To take the time to note "no smell" tells me that the seller is a hobbyist rather than an experienced book dealer. And the influx of hobbyists - people who buy any old CRAP at garage sales and then describe it with vague non-bookselling terms - is what is dragging down online selling for the rest of us who actually know what we're doing.

[noroad]

Was it true crime? The ones that smell like dead bodies are objectionable... at least to me, and that makes up 95% of the true crime I've had the displeasure of sniffing.

[orangemike]

Well, there's the famous "Odor of burning human flesh, otherwise fine" copies of Poppy Brite's Drawing Blood.

[paularubia]

ha!

I'm not joking

[orangemike]

A guy committed self-immolation in a postoffice where a shipment of the limited edition of that book was being delivered. Weeks later, a horde of gimlet-eyed fans spotted the description in the Fall 1994 catalogue of Barry R.Levin in California -- "`THE MOST HORRIFYING COPY OF ANY VAMPIRE NOVEL' ... Poppy Z.Brite's Drawing Blood, which, thanks to the helpful chap who committed suicide by setting himself on fire with a Molotov cocktail right next to a mailbox containing copies of the book's limited edition, can now be offered in the rare state `Odor of burning human flesh, otherwise fine, in slipcase'. Only $600.00!"

[lots42]

Hee. I opened an old Spidey comic book and the paper age smell made me woozy