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.
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| Stock Image |
There was just one thing to do before I placed my order. I needed to copy the listing for the blog.
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| Edward Gorey AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025 |
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| Edward Gorey AbeBooks item description |
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| Edward Gorey AbeBooks item description |
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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