I joined eBay almost three years ago, and in the last two I've been selling lots of paperback mysteries that we boxed up at my Dad's house. Right now I have a set of all 21 Travis McGee mysteries (out of dozens of books MacDonald wrote, and I have another 40+ of those here still). That sale ends tonight and it has just topped $50. I had 18 of the books when I decided to list them, and incomplete sets don't bring nearly as much as the full set. Over a couple of days as my travels took me around Fort Worth I dropped in to a couple of used book stores and found the rest. So I spent under $10 and now they're selling for $50. It doesn't usually work this way, though.

For me, selling the books gives me a little time to look them over, read the cover blurbs, get a feel for the mysteries that my Dad enjoyed. While not reading the books myself, it gives me a small glimpse into the world where he sat in a well-lighted corner of his living room every evening and read. (That's how the neighbor figured out something was wrong. Tom thought it unusual that he hadn't seen Dad reading for several evenings, so he went to check on him.)

SRS