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Article on the 1911 edition. The copy I referred to above could have been the property of the original owner of the hall (an Edwardian mill owner’s house). Probably still there!
Checking eBay UK solds, it seems the 1990s and 2000s sets fetch about 100 dollars upwards. 1970s sets sold for 2 dollars up to about 10 dollars.
A full set of Encyclopedia Britannica was “donated” a couple of weeks back to the thrift shop I volunteer in. “Donated” because they were dumped in a bookbank in a supermarket car park. Manager told me to recycle them, as they’re unsaleable in the UK. That’s the second set I’ve bagged up for pulping (the first was mouldy).
The 1911 set might be worth something. I came across a set in the attic of a student hall of residence back in the 1980s.
I thought you had that 1776 thing to get away from paying taxes! 🙂
Just checked my solds, and the mix of “dispatched” and “delivered” seems random, i.e. some items that I know were delivered aren’t marked as such. My late delivery rate hasn’t changed since a book was delivered to the wrong address by a post person- buyer complained that he hadn’t received the book, but he was eventually able to retrieve it. Made me a bit cynical about these metrics.
UK seller. Of the last 20 items sold, 8 were posted without tracking. No defects. A ninth was posted via GSP; a label was printed but wasn’t used– couldn’t find the item (a small purse) until after the label expired, so I posted it without tracking to the GSP centre. Just checked the tracking, and for some unknown reason it worked (I knew that the item had been delivered, but the label wasn’t attached to the parcel, and thus had not been scanned at posting).
One thing (maybe only applicable to the UK). Post label when issued is valid to the end of the next working day. I just now (Monday 30th) bought a label for an item purchased Sunday evening- the label is valid for use up till midnight Tuesday. If, say, I sold an item Monday afternoon and I bought the label at “zero dark thirty” it would be valid until Thursday midnight, but the eBay metric would show that I dispatched the item within 24 hours. Whether the tracking system feeds back I don’t know- I haven’t pushed it that far but I have made use of the leeway to post later.
The thrift shop I volunteer at has just this week re-opened as a bookshop. The manager’s instructed us to use a site called Bookbutler to price books. The site seems to me to be a bit clunky.
One example: a book turns up in one of the sacks- 1880s about Korean Christianity. I check up online and find one copy for sale at £380 so I left a note about this. Someone else prices it up at £100 and puts it on display in a cabinet. Now as far as I can see the bookseller pulled their “£380” price out of their nether regions- the book falls into that category of Victorian religious personal stories which ain’t worth nothing. However an elderly gentleman did last week purchase the book- did he think it was very underpriced having checked it online?
Bicycle parts, e.g. Campagnolo stuff such as seat pillars
Maybe Dyson bits (reasonably easy to dismantle, but the motor housings are a bit of a bojo)
I made a functioning lawn mower out of two Flymos; easy to take apart but they seem to be built down to a price
The surface-silvered mirrors out of Polaroid cameras (haven’t tried this)
The silver collars from fish forks (the cream-coloured handles give off noxious fumes when heated)
Bookplates and marbled endpapers (go on- be a vandal!)
Handmade nails and screws from old furniture and lumber
…and for eBayers in the sceptered isle, replace .com/sts with .co.uk/sts.
Check out “Chinese textile industry in Italy”- you may find that the company is Chinese-owned. The town of Prato is apparently the centre of the textile trade there- Chinese entrepreneurs managed to subvert the Italian “closed shop” that had a stranglehold on the industry.
Estimating a room temperature of 23ºC, the purchaser will assume that coolness just over 9 hours after kicking the bucket.
The background looks like Chinese seal script (link to Wikipedia). Think the wagons with parasols are also Chinese. I would think that they’re for drinking spirits, like mao tai, ‘cos the tea cups tend to be conical, so you can clean the tannin stains easily.
