All the Assholes In The World & Mine
That's my favorite piece by Buk. I hope you've hung on to that one.
I actually held a copy of it in my hands. Was ready to buy it. But it wasn't priced properly, and the gent at the counter didn't know the actual price. It was marked at five bucks. I pointed that out to him (that that was not the right price). He didn't know the price, and told me I had to wait an hour for the boss of Gotham to come back.
I was heading to Penn Station to catch a train, which wasn't a far walk from where Gotham used to be in the diamond district, and couldn't wait. I already had a stack of Buk books, including Buk-Purdy (letter version), so I gave him my card, told him my relationship with the owner, and split.
I called back the next day, and it was gone.
That was the only time I had ever seen a live copy, and it pisses me off to this day. I was a good customer, so yeah, I was irked.
But getting great titles back then in NY was tough, at least for me, so I had to bite my tongue.
That fucking hour wasn't that important, looking back. It was just the "catch the next train to Long Island" mentality; one of the stupid sheep.
Probably could have picked it up for $100 bucks or so. I paid $125 for my copy of
"Eight Story Window" around the same time. So I think it would have sold in a similar zip code.
Damn. That fucking hour.