The gunny book business

I went shopping at www.gunbroker.com and searched "books." The engine returned a three-page list of 109 separate books or lots of books. The total number of bids is zero. I find that disheartening. As a hobby group are we really that anti-literate?

But one entry tickled me, a partial (13 out of 16) set of one of the several "complete" (sic) editions of Theodore Roosevelt's writings. One of the volumes was author-signed. Opening bid was $99,999.99, modified by a not astounding offer to accept land or a nice motor home in full or partial trade. Maybe even high quality doubles.

It was probably mean of me to poke around in a bibliographic database and discover another seller opinion that the complete set was worth $600. No volume was signed, but I tend to doubt the old Rough Rider's signature is valued at a hair over $99,000.