It Didn't Happen the Way You Think (by Robert Lockwood Mills)

[Rob Wick]

Given that about 85 percent of the 400-plus books I own on Lincoln were bought used, I have a great interest in studying the secondary market. I have yet to figure out exactly how someone thinks they can get as much as $1,000 for a book that others are selling for .99. Before the internet, I assume that people just thought that no one could compare prices. After the web, I wish I knew.

Just a couple of stories about books I've looked for. In 1926, the Lincoln scholar James G. Randall published Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln. In order to get the book published, Randall had to pay Appleton, who then agreed to use all the resources of the company to sell it as if they had published it normally. Only 2000 copies were printed, most of which went to libraries, making them rather scarce. I could never find one for less than $300. Needless to say, I never bought it. Now it's available to download from Internet Archive. Even the updated 1952 edition was rare. I paid $75 for it at a bookstore in Champaign-Urbana, which is, coincidentally, where Randall taught.

The other book I was looking for was about a Florida architect that Tarbell wrote the foreword to. In the 1920s Tarbell did a series of articles for McCall's on Florida and became interested in this person's work. The book was available for $1,000. I decided to try to get it via interlibrary loan. Come to find out there was an edition published by Dover for $8 new. Guess which one I went with?

Then there was the time I got Sandburg's four-volume Abraham Lincoln: The War Years for $17. The seller didn't know what he had.

Best
Rob