Sight Unseen Forever: The Haunted Tea-Cosy by Edward Gorey

I was all ready to buy this book sight unseen: a crisp, clean, signed first edition of Edward Gorey's The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas (1998). The listing on AbeBooks was from Recycle Bookstore of San Jose, which priced the volume at $49.95, a price that can only be called unseasonably reasonable.

The book was represented by only a stock image—and not by what would have been a useful photo or scan of the signature. Hence it goes under the Sight Unseen category on this blog. Typically, in these posts, I purchase the book and soon find out whether it lives up to the listing's claims. I don't wish to boast, but usually I do all right.

Stock Image

There was just one thing to do before I placed my order. I needed to copy the listing for the blog.

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Haunted-Tea-Cosy-Dispirited-Distasteful-Diversion-Christmas/32334307394/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks item description

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks item description

Success! The listing was archived for the blog. The story had its beginning. But when I went back to AbeBooks to seal the deal, the book had just been sold.

So the item, sight unseen, is now reclassified as sight unseen forever. Of course, if the buyer would like to come forward with a pic or two, we might still get a real look at that signature.

The lesson of this whole thing is an improbable one. I seem to be putting my needs as a blogger ahead of my needs as a collector. So be it. What good is a book if one doesn't have a story to tell?

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