I haven’t been able to go to Abids for quite some time now. The itch for second-hand books was growing. My previous Abids visit got me a double-book volume of two Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks’ novels, which I finished reading as if I was thirsty for a long time. I wanted to go back to Eastvale and wander around the moors and dales of Yorkshire and those dark streets with Inspector Banks and drink warm beer in pubs and eat pub lunches. Abids seemed so far away and the online secondhandbook store did not promise me much, though I had moved two Peter Robinson novels to the cart. Best Books also seemed far away. I went to amazon to see if I could locate inexpensive Peter Robinson novels. I went and searched and while searching I saw this small link below the paperback price box ‘2 used from ₹ 85.00.’ It is quite possible that the ‘used’ link was there earlier too, or maybe I had missed it earlier or even that it was put in there just then … and I discovered it on the first day! Anyway, I decided to explore the link. It took me to a page which displayed a short list of two entries, the first of which showed the lowest priced of the two used copies. It also showed shipping charges, but very temptingly also said that shipping is free for shopping above ₹ 399! And there was another link to the page which displayed the used books being offered by the bookseller, which in this case was Save Earth Books. One could search for books directly from the seller’s page and which is what I did. Greed overtook me and I ended up with a tally of 6 books. The prices are competitive – I got one novel for ₹ 55, another for ₹ 65, and two more for ₹ 78 and ₹ 84 respectively, and the highest was for ₹ 113. After I placed the order, the wait began. While waiting, I was tempted again and visited the Save Earth Books page and searched for some long standing books that were there on my wish list. Ammmooooi … I found three novels. I was really really looking for them. The prices were not as competitive as the PB novels, but the books, or rather the editions, I found are not commonplace either. So, the wait was over and three days back I received my first shipment of used books from Amazon. I had wondered about the condition of the books, but now when I saw the books they were as good as new. They are not spanking shiny new, of course. But they are not 'secondhand' either. These books are what we know in India as 'factory seconds,' or as we fountain pen geeks call 'NOS' - New Old Stock, sort of long standing unsold stock. But I was happy with the books. These are the books …
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