t was declined and had to go to another. Well, in the case of
this Columbus Letter, though I had five or six orders, I purchased it for
L16 10_s._, and, accordingly, as had been done many times before within
the last five or six years without a grumble, I awarded it to the highest
limit, and sent the little book to Mr. John Carter Brown. Hitherto, in
cases of importance, Mr. Lenox had generally been successful, because he
usually gave the highest limit. But in this case he rebelled. He wrote
that the book had gone under his commission of L25, that he knew nobody
else in the transaction, and that he insisted on having it, or he should
at once transfer his orders to some one else. I endeavoured to vindicate
my conduct by stating our long-continued practice, with which he was
perfectly well acquainted, but without success. He grew more and more
peremptory, insisting on having the book solely on the ground that it went
under his limit. At length, after some months of negotiation, Mr. Brown,
on being made acquainted with the whole correspondence, very kindly, to
relieve me of the dilemma, sent the book to Mr. Lenox without a word of
comment or explanation, except that, though it went also below his higher
limit, he yielded it to Mr. Lenox for peace.... From that time I
resorted, in cases of duplicate orders from them, to the expedient of
always putting the lot in at one bid above the lower limit, which, after
all, I believe is the fairer way in the case of positive orders. This
sometimes cost one of them a good deal more money, but it abated the
chafing and generally gave satisfaction. Both thought the old method the
fairest when they got the prize. But I was obliged, on the new system of
bidding, to insist on the purchaser keeping the book without the option of
returning it." There can be no doubt that the latter plan was the most
satisfactory.

Some persons appear to be under the impression that whatever a book
fetches at a public sale must be its true value, and that, as the
encounter is open and public, too much is not likely to be paid by the
buyer; but this is a great mistake, and prices are often realized at a
good sale which are greatly in advance of those at which the same books
are standing unsold in second-hand booksellers' shops.

Much knowledge is required by those who wish to buy with success at
sales. Books vary greatly in price at different periods, and it is a
mistake to suppose, from the high prices realize