Every once in a while the question pops up an one of the book selling forums. “How far would you travel for a book sale?” While the responses always vary, I’m always a little surprised that, for most people, 100 miles seems to represent some kind of magic barrier.

Living in what some might describe as “the middle of nowhere” driving 100 miles or more to be able to attend a library sale is pretty common for me. I left Grand Forks around 9:30 this morning and drove 277 miles to Bismarck for a library sale that starts at 7:00 am tomorrow morning.

Along the way I stopped at three antique shops and an antique mall in Valley City and Jamestown. The pickings were pretty slim but I did buy a few things.

• Two issues of Wheel Talk magazine from 1896. This is a small magazine published by Morgan & Wright Tire Co. for bicyclists who used their bicycle tires. I paid $3 apiece for them.
• Two early booklets from Carl Zeiss promoting a new camera lens they had just released. They aren’t dated, but probably from the 1920 area. I paid $2.50 for each of them.
• A program for a regional Son’s Of Norway convention held in Hillsboro, ND in June of 1924. It’s entirely in Norwegian and I paid $10 for it. That may be too much, but I liked it and I have four or five people who buy a lot of old Norwegian paper items from me.
• A 1958 dinner menu from the Desert Inn in Las Vegas along with a small brochure advertising a show Jimmy Durante did at the Desert Inn in February 1958. Many of the early casino menus do quite well on eBay. This one has a few problems, but I figured for $3 for both items it was worth seeing what it might bring.

I’ve got a wake-up call at the front desk of the motel for 5:30 am tomorrow and by 6:00 or 6:15 I’ll be in line outside the door of the library along with all the other nut cases who believe in the old “early bird” adage. It will be interesting to see what things actually cost tomorrow, because rather than charging by the book they are selling all their books by the pound. I’ve never seen a sale similar to that before. The sale advertisement reads….

Bks- 50,000; 80% donated; sorted; papercover $1/lb; hardcovers .50/lb

After the sale I’ll be stopping at all the antiques shops and malls in Bismarck. Once done there, I’m not sure yet how this trip will develop. I’ll be talking to one of my sons, and if things are okay I’ll be continuing on into South Dakota for a few more days of antique shops and another book sale. If not, I’ll be cutting the trip short and going back to Grand Forks.

Either way, since this is the first buying trip I’ve made since the last one I wrote about in July, it’s great to be back digging through antique shops.

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