Sight Unseen: Karen's Copy of Seth's George Sprott (1894-1975)

Recently I wrote here about the listing on eBay of two exceptional but, I thought, overpriced copies of George Sprott 1894-1975 (2009) which include original drawings of the title character by Seth.

I decided, as an exercise, to see whether I could still find other, less expensive copies that were similarly signed and sketched upon. This led me to AbeBooks, where a copy signed and inscribed to one Karen, with a drawing, was available for $50. I thought this price was fairly reasonable, although it was still more than I had paid previously for similar books. To complicate matters, though, there was no photograph of the drawing, just a stock image of the book.

Seth
AbeBooks listing accessed September 2, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30441908064&searchurl=kn%3DSeth%2BSprott%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

One always wonders what prompts sellers to omit photos of that one personalized page that makes a book unique. Is it a question of cost or of workload? Is it because the drawing doesn't quite measure up to the written description of it? Personally, I was pretty sure Seth would have done right by Karen.

As readers may know, the way I get to the bottom of these mysteries is not to ask the seller for more information but to order the book myself, sight unseen, and then to publicly post the results. My instincts have proven pretty good and usually the outcome is more than satisfactory for me, but there is sometimes a caveat or two. So, you might ask, how did I do?

Qualitatively, I don't see enough difference between these books to justify an eight- to ten-fold price differential. Still, Seth is good to his fans, and I wouldn't be surprised if demand for such books ticked up in the future. Will collectors be willing to pay $400 to $500 for Seth's books with original drawings? I will not, but then I don't speak for everyone.

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