Buyer's remorse: why we've all been there (and how to avoid it)

Collectors often 'regret' letting a book slip through their fingers, but what's just as common (but less owned up to), is that many regret buying some of the books they own altogether.

In the world of book collecting, regret can be a powerful and controlling emotion.

Regretting not buying a book is a feeling that can haunt collectors for some time – especially if it’s a book they fear won’t come up again, or certainly not for many years (see a previous blog I’ve written on this).

Not wanting to feel regret is what often causes collectors to buy a placeholder book (see again a previous blog) – one that probably isn’t perfect, but does the job until a better one potentially comes up (if indeed that ever happens).

But even though placeholder books might be looked down on, they are seldom regretful buys, because while not perfect, they at least plug a gap. But what I’ve not commented on before is another form of regret – buying a book that – in the cold light of day is one that you really wonder why you bought it at all!

As a bookseller, I don’t want anyone who buys off me to regret doing so.

But it really does seem like lots of people (when they really admit to it), do seem to have more than a book or two in their buying history that they look at and wonder what on earth possessed them to buy them in the first place.

Why we buy, and then regret?

With next week being the return of the UK’s premiere book fair – Firsts – with four floors of dealers tempting people with their latest offerings, there’s a good chance the same thing will happen next week – people buying a book that they thought they needed, but (after the event), question what took over them.

So why do collectors buy, and then regret?

And what can they do to make certain that the money they hand over is money they won’t lament a few months down the line?

In the conversations I’ve had with book collectors, regret normally comes down to a few things:

-       Guilt about a large sum spent: Sometimes it’s not the book that is the cause of regret, but the money spent on it – especially if the following week a big bill comes in, or some other unexpected life event happens that makes one wish they had that money back again.

-       Fear it will take one down a new collecting rabbit hole: Another big source of regret is again, less about the specific book, but more what it represent – that it’s the one book that trips a new, more expensive branch of collection into action. It might be that a collector buys their first proof, or signed book, or limited edition book, and it creates a collecting itch that needs scratching. I’ve known collectors avoid certain books for years, fearing just this temptation, and then they do concede, and a whole new expensive road is created.

-       Thinking you ‘needed it’ – but don’t really: It’s easy to get sucked into thinking you need a book, just because it has a scarce variant (such as the extra skull ‘notch’ on the front board of Goldfinger first editions) – but then you realise your existing book is fine just as it is.

-       It was the sales pitch/display that did it: Maybe the book looked great behind a glass screen – it looked ‘special’, kind of unavailable, and put on a pedestal. It was alluring. Then the sales patter drew you in, and wowed you more. Perhaps because you learned it was one of a kind, or special for some other reason.

-       You didn’t have a focus at the start: Perhaps when you first began your collecting, you hoovered up everything you could, without a specific focus. But now, as you’ve become more experienced you realise you should have discriminated a bit more, and have piles of books that you now feel are either superfluous, wasted money, or take up room.

My 'regret'

In the spirit of being open and honest, I’m going to tell you about one regret purchase I’ve made.

Some of you may remember a blog I wrote where a clutch of Sangorski & Sutcliffe-bound first editions made for Asprey came onto the market.

I mentioned they’d been snapped up quickly…well, I told a small white lie, because it was me who bought them! (Although, to be fair to me, I wrote the blog before they'd actually arrived).

I jumped on them because I’d never seen so many for sale all at once (six), and having seen a couple of other titles from the same set a few years earlier, I felt that if I didn’t get these, I might never see any again…. and …. you just never know, there’s a chance the rest of them are out there still.

So, I now have six beautifully-bound Asprey first editions, and they really are lovely.

But was I possibly a bit rash in getting them all? Maybe,

I think, on reflection, that I probably shouldn’t have bought these. I think the chances of finding the rest are slim-to-impossible, and I look at them on my shelf and silently chastise myself for getting them.

If I don’t find the rest (unlikely), I face possibly having to try selling them individually at some point in the future, and it’s a harder sell trying to move on a single book, that will always be a bit of an outlier in someone else’s collection.

Any future buyer would really have to buy a particular title because it’s their favourite book.

For most people this set only really makes sense if they’re all together, and I think I’ve set myself an impossible task in trying to find the others.

So do I think they’re wonderful books? Yes, I do.

But do I wish I maybe hadn’t been so hasty.

Possibly!!

I guess collecting is all about discovering which books you really want to concentrate on owning, realising you’re probably likely to buy a few duff items along the way, and then learning from your mistakes – to hopefully not do it the next time.

So how do you ensure you buy with certainty and level-headedness?

To this question, I say do your research; look at what else there is on the market, and be confident you won't repent at leisure.

I can confidently say jamesbondfirsteditions.co.uk is the most competitively-priced outlet you’ll find (especially for the quality of the book you’ll receive), but I would also add that you need think about things properly before you commit to making your purchase.

I know, it sounds basic, but there can be a tendency amongst book collectors to panic, and think that someone else might beat them to a purchase if a new, superb book comes onto the market.

Yes, this does happen – and I often get lots of queries when new stock comes up.

But I will also hold a book for a limited period of time if someone is genuinely interested, and just wants to make sure they are not being rushed into a decision.

The key point I want to get across is that buying Bond is can be an expensive business. But I want people to buy because they covet a book, and will treasure it, and won’t have buyer’s remorse.

I will also let you into another personal secret....

One of my ‘best’ ever purchases (see picture, left), actually came about precisely because someone else had buyer’s regret.

I’d been looking for a first edition, first impression of Casino Royale for some time.

By chance, I visited a London bookshop, and they said they had one.

In fact, it had just come in – not new stock, but as a return. Someone else had bought it, and decided (for some reason), that they wanted to return it.

The bookseller, keen not to have to re-sell the same book he already thought he’d earned from, was keen to cut me a deal, and basically get rid of it.

Sometimes dealers are like this. After thinking they’d made a sale, a returned item can sometimes feel like a cursed item, and the instinct is to just let it go, even at a loss, or not much mark up.

I took advantage by being able to buy a book that someone else had initially bought, but no longer wanted. And it now has pride of place in my own personal collection.

And (to my mind), there’s nothing wrong with it.

Maybe, in the cold light of day, the previous buyer felt they'd made a rash buy.

Maybe a partner questioned the frivolous spend their other half had undertaken!

Whatever the reason, the book is now mine, and I don’t regret buying it at all.

I hope you don't regret any future purchases you make.