Greyhounds and Greyhound racing, from what I can gather, are still as popular as ever. My main evidence for this, is that Greyhound books sell. This book is a little more obscure than some of the training guides that I have sold in the past. The book lists literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of dogs and has information about who begat whom up to 1989. To us outsiders this bible of Greyhound information is very dry and well…. just a list of dogs that run around a track and never catch the fake rabbit. To a Greyhound breeder looking for that important piece of information about their prospective winner, this book is gold… or maybe it was gold. Unfortunately (?) I’m not in with the Greyhound fraternity or any other dog breeding brotherhood, so I’m not sure whether 21 year old pedigree information is still relevant, but I imagine it must be of some interest… to someone. A quick look around the www shows that there are not many copies of this book floating around. This is either very good or very bad. Good because the book is rare and demand is so high that copies get snapped up quickly. Bad because the information is outdated and no one wants it, therefore no one sells it. To be honest I don’t know which it is.
The manager of THE HILL OF CONTENT bookshop recently told me that they figure they can pretty much always sell one copy of any new book. It continues to surprise (and hearten)me how obscure an interest a person can hold - eg collectors of obsolete technology - people who buy and trade secondhand BETAMAX equipment online. People are interested in dogs, insects, gardens, the American Civil War etc. I'm sure as a bookseller the quick or high price sale of a niche/obscure book still may surprise you.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Peter Bakowski
The fact that stud books are in demand shows that most people believe in nature rather than nurture.
ReplyDeleteThough how reliable these books are, I sometimes wonder.. remember Tony Lockett being fined for arranging a mating by a mystery dog instead of the promised Malawi Prince? Though I expect there are plenty of irregularities in that other great studbook, Debrett's Peerage.