Nazi Leprechauns!

I spent yesterday evening alone and occupied my time watching youtube videos of pulp horror fiction reviews, personal book collections and paperback fair visits.

These days, you can't look up pulp horror fiction without a ton-load of Paperbacks from Hell dominating the links offered for your perusal. One of these led me to a vlogger who had the interesting idea of presenting a couple of shows evidencing how that much-loved tome has raised the market prices of the books it explored and clearly cherished.

After turning off the TV, I was in the mood to do a little investigation of my own and started searching for that collector's dream of a paperback - the Arrow edition of John Christopher's The Little People.

 I soon discovered that the number one holy grail paperback on everybody's Want list, was selling in the region of the £200 - £380 mark. That was, except for one American seller who just seemed to be selling the contents of their home in a mass clearing. Whilst this particular seller was still asking for a price well over what I am willing to pay for even the rarest of titles, he was open to offers. 🤔 And so I sent off my offer, which took me below my forbidden zone, even taking into account the postage fees from the currently troubled U.S. of A. It was then a waiting game. 🫣

My offer was a fair one, and came in under what  I paid to source my most expensive book thus far - Guy N Smith's even rarer Crabs' Sacrifice a few years back.

My most expensive
book purchase ever

It was a bit of a troubled sleep for me as I waited for the seller's decision on my offer.

Even though it's my 59th birthday next weekend, and I am in possession of a long-idle Paypal credit card to spread the costs, I knew I would not be able to match any higher offer he demanded. And so my sleep was disturbed for a couple hours before I finally received the seller's decision.

😬🫣🤪😃🎉

By the time I awoke this morning, this email was already waiting for me:

I'll write another post on this real gem of a paperback when it crosses the Atlantic and finds a home on my bookshelves. Until then I will be 🕰👀 as I await the arrival of the nazi leprechauns...