Just got a note in from the famed and maniacal Autograph Hound Brian Leno, who says:
Last night some guy was selling about 70 or so signed postal covers. Good stuff too, so I got my trigger finger ready and waded in, like a crocodile at a chicken farm.
Thing is, I’m the one that got plucked. I bid on five of them, and only got one.
I missed out on Robert W Chambers, he went for 51. Already have him so I didn’t go too crazy. Richard Halliburton went for the same amount, but I have him also. So I held fast to the wallet, hoping to get a deal.
Robert Hichens and Achmed Abdullah both went for less than 10 each. Hard to believe, but I have both of them also, so I missed out, only placing a very small bid. Once famous writers, now not so much.
The one I got was The Penalty and “Back There in the Grass” author Gouverneur Morris. He was only 29 bucks, and I didn’t have him. Been a big fan of Lon Chaney’s The Penalty for a long time and I’ve been looking for a cheap version of Morris’ signature and so I did bag that one.
A Hemingway was offered, last time I saw it was over a thousand and climbing. James J. Corbett and James J. Jeffries were offered but both went over 500. I have a Corbett already.
I was surprised to see Earl Derr Biggers go for over 300. Would have liked him. Didn’t think that the creator of Chuck Chan and his Number One Son was still collected. Obviously I was wrong.
It was mortifying to see authors such as James Oliver Curwood and Rex Beach go for peanuts. Got a Beach, but no Curwood.
Really something how some authors fall from favor. See it every day, doesn’t mean I have to like it.
When their books are no longer read I find it really sad. A second death.
