Sunday, July 27, 2008

Estate Sale Secrets

Many unscrupulous people use the words "estate sale" for their moving or garage sales.  An authentic estate sale involves walking through the home of a recently deceased person in which everything you see is for sale.  Families usually do them in an attempt to clear out to detritus of their loved ones after they have gone through and taken away every meaningful antique, heirloom and keepsake.  Usually an estate agent is hired to price the items and conduct the sale.  I imagine the families go through the closets to get rid of the embarrassing items before the estate agents get there.  You know - Mom's old Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie and the like.   

But when there is a sale with a large amount of books neither the family nor the estate agents have the time or patience to go through every title before opening to the public.  At these sales I am always sure to find at least one book that nobody was supposed to see - ever.

Here are a couple I found at past estate sales that I have up for sale on the internets.  And no, neither one were owned by a doctor or dentist.



Believe me, I'm doing you a huge favor by NOT providing you samples of what is inside these two books. I mean, who doesn't love full-color photos of genital sores and advanced mouth ulcers?

Today while going through hundreds of books about science, literature and geography from a recent estate sale, I found my all-time favorite:

The back cover of this mass market paperback states that they are proud to present the latest volume in this distinguished series of books by F. E. Campbell.  It also says the cover illustrations by Robert Bishop are a special treat for the connoisseur of fine bondage art.  Who knew?

It's amusing enough this was among the decedent's  books, but when I opened it up, I was in for more fun.  Its interior is decorated with dozens of little color bondage photos cut out from magazines and pasted throughout.  Here's the least offensive one I could find, on page 30:



But even better, the entire book is neatly interlineated in ballpoint pen with many grammar corrections and suggested changes:


I suppose we all have our fantasies, but I'm guessing being an editor of bondage literature is a rare one.

2 comments:

tracy said...

Apparently this person didn't know that the editing is supposed to happen BEFORE the book gets published. Or maybe clarifying pronoun references is itself erotic?

Note to self: purge cookbook annotations.

leslie said...

This is evidence of the sad Curse of the Copy Editor. As a reformed copy editor myself, I can assure you that these sorts of things begin to permeate your very existence and drive you completely mad. You can't read a menu, or any book published since 1998 (which must of been the year of the Great Copy Editor Purge at the major publishing houses). Instruction manuals for Japanese electronics are out of the question. It becomes so dire that you can't even get your rocks off without penciling a few corrections first. Clearly this poor sap needed an intervention.