#126-CIVIL WAR SALE: PASS FOR 1ST CLASS PASSAGE ON STEAMSHIP TO HILTON HEAD

This is one of several rare passes we have found to include in this sale. I've sold three that I found in the last 18 or so months, with the ones included here being the most recent ones I have been able to locate. Finding them is one thing, but finding affordable ones is another. Several similar passes (with nothing to make them more valuable besides the seller's believe in their pricing) I have had to pass on because the asking price was $500 to $1,000 per pass. Perhaps the sellers made the sale--or like you see if you frequent ebay, as an example, many items make ebay virtually their permanent home. I'm sure you have seen dozens of items with which oyyu are very familiar, because they have been listed for a year or two and never been sold, obviously.

I have been very fortunate to find a variety of passes over the years, perhaps giving the incorrect impression that they aren't as rare as I have said. But I have spent countless hours researching for everything from magazine articles to books I've written...to items I have found for resale as well as being used in the publications.

I don't mean to sound pretentious or to brag about my ability to reserch. Being trained and experienced in research can be very important--but even more important is the amount of time spent.

If you spend 100 hours on researching something relatively minor in the eyes of many as opposed to another researcher spending 5 or 10 hours, the simple odds favor the person spending much more time, assuming all else is the same. It is very important to have one's "radar" in use all of the time. It is fairly common that I will find something on my "to find" list when I am looking for something quite different. I think this approach makes books better and makes sales better. It often isn't a question of monetary "value," but rather just finding the tidbits of information or the obscure item that never would've been found without the time invested.

Through the course of writing and producing EIGHT books about the Civil War among about 200 books from 1980 to the present, I have spent many, many hours annually scavenging for items and information about the Civil War. And in producing our Young Reader's History of the Civil War, we sought to create books differently from young adult books in the mainstream. If you recall history books from your own childhood, virtually all used line drawings and paintings to illustrate these books. In ours, we used REAL items, such as dozens of items in the sale.

Our books have far more illustrations than most history books and the illustrations may include artwork such as was printed in Harper's magazine (which was famous for its illustrations during the Civil War). But most of the illustrative material in our books were photographs not from archives, but of 3D items we purchased. And once the photos of these items was used in one or more books, we typically archived the photos--and sold the items. Some of the items in this sale were used editorially as far back as in the 1980's.

I have traken this approach since my first book was published in 1980--and which I began working on more than two years before the manuscript was commpleted. I began selling in 1979 and when I founded The HIstory Bank in 1985, it was meant to be TWO businesses intertwined--one doing publishing work, the other selling historical items. Consequently, I believe this approach played a part in the more than two dozen awards for writing, design and publishing--and for our ability to find often obscure items to sell--after we used the item in a book. For those unfamiliar with our books, I have marked down the prices of numerous books to just $10 (sometimes less than our cost) which are available in this sale. I would urge you to consider any that seem to be tailored to your interest in the Civil War.

This specific document is for first class passage from New York to Hilton Head, S.C. in 1864. This and some others in the sale seem out of place--having been issued in the South, typically as Union forces began to occupy these areas as the war went on.

Please take a look at the other passes in this sale, each one very different from the others.

OFFERS CONSIDERED
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