Oxfam Sunday - Wombats and Dodgy £20's

I went up onto the top deck today to take over from Lautaro (it's a Spanish name, but he's a Scotsman), and he'd left on the CD player a reasonably decent compilation, in which was this catchy number from those lovable scousers, The Wombats:

It was a fairly uneventful shift: people seem to be concentrating on getting presents for Christmas and leaving us except for cards and wrapping paper.
I'd run out of £10's at one point and asked Mark to bring any up. He examined one of the £20's in the till and started holding it up to the light. He explained that he had a conversation with one of the tellers at the bank and he got a few tips on how to spot a fake. I compared the one he was looking at with another and they were almost identical, but there is a watermarked £20 which was slightly off in the "fake" note:

If it is a fake, it's a good one! It passed the marking test with our security pen.

I also got a Penguin Special from John, The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard:

It's about advertising, S185, published in 1960.

Oxfam Sunday - Penguin Special Blowout!

I've started college this week, so I've been rather busy and therefore been unable to make many blog postings, but I have been to the shop. Today, John had a "few" Penguin Specials. Amongst them was a Pelican Special, which counts as a Penguin Special, and this one is Modern German Art (S6) and the earliest special I have so far:

It's in good nick with an intact dust jacket. The rest are a mixed bag, some with and some without dust jackets, ranging from the thick Penguin Political Dictionary shown to the slight Miners' Day (S149). All-in-all, it's almost doubled my collection.

Sunday Oxfam and a Penguin Special

I've started doing Sunday morning shifts at the shop at Mark's request. They've had a bit falling out with one of the volunteers, which is very rare. Apparently, he's suspected of dipping into the till, a definite no-no, so was asked to leave (Mark reckoned he had a gambling habit, centred on slot-machines).

John was there as well, part of his "tortoise" strategy to Michelle's "hare", I'd imagine. He'd put aside another special and knocked the price down as it was damaged:

S14!! from 1938. Mowerer was an American foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News (his brother was the editor at the time) and was in Germany at the last pre-war election, in 1933, writing dispatches criticising Hitler and the Nazi's. Naturally, they threw him out, so he didn't end up becomming as famous as Shirer, but he did get around a bit, as this book shows. The damage is on the cover: the inner front leaf has come loose and has been either cut or carefully torn, but is included with the book, pretty much intact otherwise.

Oxfam Friday - Penguin Special

I thought I'd pull a last shift at the shop before I left for my holiday in the North. John had a wartime Penguin Special for me, which was most welcome:

S54, Unser Kampf, by Sir Richard Acland, who was a founder member of CND.

New Lego - Commander Decorated

I got some new lego minifigs from series 10 today:

The rings on the sailor's sleeve indicate he's a Commander in the RN: four rings is a Captain.

I also got another Penguin Special from John at the shop the other day:

S209 from 1962, just as the Wall went up and the Cuban Missile Crisis was looming. It's weird to think that an entire generation has no recollection of the Cold War.

Oxfam Tuesday - All Conquering Literature

I did a morning shift at the shop and Anne had left John in charge, so much giggling ensued. I'd no sooner took my coat off than he was pointing out to me that last week his section, Literature, pulled in more money that Michelle's Fiction! "You're in trouble already", I said. "It's only by £3.50", he pointed out, to which I rejoinered, "About the price of a Booker Prize winner!" (the agreement he had with Michelle was to give her some Booker Prize winners that were popular, noteably Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel).

He'd also sold me a couple of Penguin Specials:

Not wartime, but not bad.

Friday - ...and another Special

I popped into the shop today on my way past and informed Mark that next week I was available as it was half term. While there, John said he had another Penguin Special, and an unusual one:

S88 from 1941 (this is the revised version from 1943). He also told me that quite a few people were after early Penguins and one was after 1^st editions of the first 100. A true collector! I checked my meagre collection and I don't have any 1^st editions, only a 1^st reprint at best.

Oxfam Tuesday - Another Special

Back down on the bottom deck this afternoon. John had managed to find another special, S142:

It doesn't have a dust cover, which stopped with S57 in 1940. Still in good nick, though.

All quiet today, trade-wise. Mark asked me to price up some games and RPG's which had been way overpriced. Two of the games were extensions of an RPG called Legend of the Five Rings (L5R):

It's a fantasy RPG based on feudal Japan. I'd heard of it a while ago and was a little curious and the extensions are very professional. There's also a collectable card game.

Oxfam Tuesday - Penguin Specials and Subbuteo

Mark asked me to do a shift downstairs today, where the action is. There was a bit of a surprise, though. I'd mentioned to John in the past that I was interested in Penguin Specials that came out from 1938 to the end of the war (there were some later) and he managed to find one:

It's number S26 and in very good nick.

There was the usual banter. We were talking about forged notes at one point and John said "Fivers are ten-a-penny", to which we all fell about.

With working on the bottom deck, there was no music as such, so I went all metal on the way back and listened to The Brain Police:

Rock On!

I was talking to Mark about Subbuteo, the football playing game:

Apparently, Mark said, the name is derived from Latin name of the Hobby falcon, (Falco subbuteo). You learn something every day working for Oxfam.