09/24/2026
I think enough time has passed that I can share with everyone the story about the strangest collection that we have ever purchased.
It was shortly after the pandemic shut down and a customer was looking to sell the collection of a family member who was relocating. It was a large collection, 3 or 4 long boxes of books from the 1970s, including lots of great horror books, some all ages titles and super heroes. At first glance, they were in decent condition, given their age.
But we quickly noticed something was…amiss.
In every single book, the lips of any woman or girl, were colored in with a deep red ink pen. All the ladies. Every book. The cover, the interiors, it didn’t matter where. They had the brightest red lipstick applied with a very strong hand in red ink.
Nobody was spared. Not heroes, not villains, not innocent bystanders. Not elderly spinsters. Not young ladies. Not nuns. NOT EVEN CHILDREN.
If this collector thought you were a girl, you were getting painted. This included Sea Monkey Moms, Blythe dolls and any other advertisements.
Hundreds of books.
We don’t know why. We don’t know if the collector did them all at once, or as he received the books. We don’t know what kind of pen they used, or if they went on to continue coloring the lips of all ladies in any other kind of printed material.
Many are still in our back room, waiting for us to decide what to do with this. Many have already been sold with our “LOW GRADE” distinction sticker. The books are all still perfectly readable, in fact, with some of them, there might only be one instance. But it WILL be there, bright red.
He never missed.
A small chunk of the "Lipstick Collection" will soon be up on our seasonal wall, at shockingly affordable prices, because, well...lipstick reasons. 💋💋💋
