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Dawn, whole no. 5, August 1949
Page 4
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4 Layings of plan for a ride-sharing to the CinCon. 4. Starting of work on Fan Directory. 5. Reduction of fanzine rates to NFFF members. 6. Planning to revive the 0-0. To please Sneary, Cox, and other rabid NFFF members, I will go over these points and give my reactions. I. Budget. Fine. Keep the treasurer from running off with the money-- fans are notoriously lax in money matters. Try to make the members pay their dues-- hard to do when nobody cares. Plan how to spend the money that you expect the members to pay and the Treasurer to keep hold of (it) for you. Fairly sensible, if you expect people to know that the NFFF exists. (Proper handling of publicity is something few people know very much about-- I remember the terrible mishandling of the Pacificon publicity by that arch-enemy of the NFFF, Walter J. Daugherty). 3. This ride-sharing idea is old as the first ox-cart. Can fans make it work on a big scale? I think not. 4. A fan directory? Whatever for? Have you asked Walter J. Daugherty's permission on this one? He copyrighted the idea with the NFFF Copyright Bureau, you know. 5. Reduction of fanzine rates to NFFF members. This amounts to asking a fanzine publisher to take a bigger than usual loss on his fanzine. Any experienced fanzine publisher will tell you that. Revive the 0-0. Sensible idea. But why did it fold in the first place? Fecklessness again? Commendable-- with one drawback, i.e., tending to serve an organization that is itself not commendable. Sincerely, Charles Burbee I057 S.Normandie Ave L.A., California I was about to say something but.......... and .....-Ed. Dear Les, Bill, Russ, Ronnie, and Smallosnath, Since there are so many topics that could well fill more than a page or two in this letter, I'll choose one that I am more qualified on which to comment. That will be about prozine back-issue prices, dealers, and current up-swing in discussion on this topic shows that it's far from dead. Well, let's go. I've been buying from dealers for almost four years and I believe I am fairly well qualified to express my own ideas and opinions on the subject. I warn you nowthat this may be a bit more on the dealer's side than the fan's. First, there is no reason why a fan should be rooked. Not if he has any reasoning powers in his head. I mean mostly new fans, since the older (not in years, in fandom), fan should know better from experiences he's had due to insecure and faulty reasoning in the beginning. Now when a newfan starts out, he is very liable to want to get as much of the past glories of stfiction into his possession as soon as possible with what means he may have. That involves buying from a dealer. So, if he has any sense in his head and if he sits back and thinks about it awhile instead of rushing his dough off to the first dealer's ad he sees, he'll notice thar there is more than one dealer. In WT there have always been at least two or more ads and now there are as many as six or more in ASF. Also, if he gets any fanzines ( which he's probably done if he's gone so far as to buy old science-fiction mags) or if he corresponds with any other fans (which is very much possible), he should have an even wider margin of safety. He can and ought to inquire about dealers and their prices. If you want an item badly enough you've got to be patient. It'll turn up in various places, on dealer's lists or in fanzine ads, for various prices. If you are patient it'll finally come low enough for you to buy. I don't mean the OUTSIDERS AND OTHERS will turn up at 5 bucks. The wider your contacts in fandom, the more chance you have of getting wind of choice items. I thought it would be impossible to complete my files of ASF, even paying high prices. But after two years of waiting amd buying, it is nearly complete and some issues needed are within easy reach and low cost. All the 1930 and 1939 issues I've got cost a lot less than two dollars apiece whereas in many places, they'd cost a good deal more than that. Now there are at least two dozen places in this country that you can buy books and magazines. From big dealers like Korshak to comparatively "small" dealers like J. T. Oliver. Books and mags are usually carried by each one. Some, of course, specialize. Now if anyone of you mean to tell me you can't find what you want at a reasonable price at one of these places, you may as well give up. You can't expect that item to come your way just the price you want it, without digging around for it. You want a book, a comparatively rare one. Don't send $10.00
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4 Layings of plan for a ride-sharing to the CinCon. 4. Starting of work on Fan Directory. 5. Reduction of fanzine rates to NFFF members. 6. Planning to revive the 0-0. To please Sneary, Cox, and other rabid NFFF members, I will go over these points and give my reactions. I. Budget. Fine. Keep the treasurer from running off with the money-- fans are notoriously lax in money matters. Try to make the members pay their dues-- hard to do when nobody cares. Plan how to spend the money that you expect the members to pay and the Treasurer to keep hold of (it) for you. Fairly sensible, if you expect people to know that the NFFF exists. (Proper handling of publicity is something few people know very much about-- I remember the terrible mishandling of the Pacificon publicity by that arch-enemy of the NFFF, Walter J. Daugherty). 3. This ride-sharing idea is old as the first ox-cart. Can fans make it work on a big scale? I think not. 4. A fan directory? Whatever for? Have you asked Walter J. Daugherty's permission on this one? He copyrighted the idea with the NFFF Copyright Bureau, you know. 5. Reduction of fanzine rates to NFFF members. This amounts to asking a fanzine publisher to take a bigger than usual loss on his fanzine. Any experienced fanzine publisher will tell you that. Revive the 0-0. Sensible idea. But why did it fold in the first place? Fecklessness again? Commendable-- with one drawback, i.e., tending to serve an organization that is itself not commendable. Sincerely, Charles Burbee I057 S.Normandie Ave L.A., California I was about to say something but.......... and .....-Ed. Dear Les, Bill, Russ, Ronnie, and Smallosnath, Since there are so many topics that could well fill more than a page or two in this letter, I'll choose one that I am more qualified on which to comment. That will be about prozine back-issue prices, dealers, and current up-swing in discussion on this topic shows that it's far from dead. Well, let's go. I've been buying from dealers for almost four years and I believe I am fairly well qualified to express my own ideas and opinions on the subject. I warn you nowthat this may be a bit more on the dealer's side than the fan's. First, there is no reason why a fan should be rooked. Not if he has any reasoning powers in his head. I mean mostly new fans, since the older (not in years, in fandom), fan should know better from experiences he's had due to insecure and faulty reasoning in the beginning. Now when a newfan starts out, he is very liable to want to get as much of the past glories of stfiction into his possession as soon as possible with what means he may have. That involves buying from a dealer. So, if he has any sense in his head and if he sits back and thinks about it awhile instead of rushing his dough off to the first dealer's ad he sees, he'll notice thar there is more than one dealer. In WT there have always been at least two or more ads and now there are as many as six or more in ASF. Also, if he gets any fanzines ( which he's probably done if he's gone so far as to buy old science-fiction mags) or if he corresponds with any other fans (which is very much possible), he should have an even wider margin of safety. He can and ought to inquire about dealers and their prices. If you want an item badly enough you've got to be patient. It'll turn up in various places, on dealer's lists or in fanzine ads, for various prices. If you are patient it'll finally come low enough for you to buy. I don't mean the OUTSIDERS AND OTHERS will turn up at 5 bucks. The wider your contacts in fandom, the more chance you have of getting wind of choice items. I thought it would be impossible to complete my files of ASF, even paying high prices. But after two years of waiting amd buying, it is nearly complete and some issues needed are within easy reach and low cost. All the 1930 and 1939 issues I've got cost a lot less than two dollars apiece whereas in many places, they'd cost a good deal more than that. Now there are at least two dozen places in this country that you can buy books and magazines. From big dealers like Korshak to comparatively "small" dealers like J. T. Oliver. Books and mags are usually carried by each one. Some, of course, specialize. Now if anyone of you mean to tell me you can't find what you want at a reasonable price at one of these places, you may as well give up. You can't expect that item to come your way just the price you want it, without digging around for it. You want a book, a comparatively rare one. Don't send $10.00
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