American Atrocities

[bellthecat]

Damn, damn, damn, - almost got a great bargain on ebay. Someone was selling the 1896 book "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities" only they had described it as "Turkey and The AMERICAN Atrocities" (!), so nobody but me and one other bidder had noticed it. It is worth around 60 dollars, but was in at a reserve of only 4. The other bidder had been silent for days, so I thought I had it for only 10.50 - then he sneeked back ONE MINUTE before bidding closed and put in the highest bid.

 

Steve

[Kazza]

Ooooh! That was lowdown mean trick - I don't think you could have seen it coming unless you were very sharp or experienced with auctioning!

 

The book title interests me however - when I saw this topic I was expecting a big write- up about an event, or an article, or anything like this. Armenians seem to have (and promote ) this image of being, "look at poor little armenia, about political situations (and the armenians know how to, pull that innocent, hard done by look! My little cousins do it!) but look, everyone has their stories to tell, everyone can talk about atrocilites that were comitted. One search provides me with a third of the armenian sites obssessing about the genocide in UNHEALTHY, and ways that are obssessing around in circles in a way that is non-productive and negative, A third of the sites that are from grey wolves talking nonsense, and a third from armenians talking of themselves being "The master race" and talking about their own atrocities. Is it any wonder other nations and cultures can become annoyed by this? The third point makes me ashamed actually.

[MJ]

http://www.worldbookdealers.com/books/shap...k0000077431.asp

[wh00t]

Why didn't you set your proxy bid to the highest price you were willing to pay for it?

[bellthecat]

Because I wanted a bargain more than I wanted the book! But, realistically I would not have gone above 20 dollars, as the shipping to Britain would have added another 10 probably, and I don't have much money to spare at the moment. And if the guy who got it in the end knew its true value then he would have gone higher than 20.

Steve

[bellthecat]

Wow!!! 326 dollars!!! I got my 60 dollar value estimate from what I had seen it sell at before on internet auctions. But that price is from a British dealer, and the book is American, and probably a lot less scarce in America than in Britain. But I an kicking myself anyway, as I might have been able to resell it in Britain for a big profit!! Damn, damn, damn, etc..

Steve

[bellthecat]

I'll confess I've done it myself a few times - and it is difficult to counter because it takes a couple of minutes or so for the data to make its way onto the website, so you may think you have won in the final minute, but a bigger bid has been received from someone else.

quote

The book title interests me however - when I saw this topic I was expecting a big write- up about an event, or an article, or anything like this.  Armenians seem to have (and promote ) this image of being, "look at poor little armenia, about political situations (and the armenians know how to,  pull that innocent, hard done by look!  My little cousins do it!)  but look, everyone has their stories to tell, everyone can talk about atrocilites that were comitted.  One search provides me with a third of the armenian sites obssessing about the genocide in UNHEALTHY, and ways that are obssessing around in circles in a way that is non-productive and negative, A third of the sites that are from grey wolves talking nonsense, and a third from armenians talking of themselves being "The master race" and talking about their own atrocities.  Is it any wonder other nations and cultures can become annoyed by this? The third point makes me ashamed actually.

There seem to be a lot of American books like it published in the 1890s, after the massacres then. They normally have more lurid titles than this one, and are written mostly by missionaries or US newspaper reporters. They are really hard to find in Britain though, even old libraries don't have them.

I saw a jem of one on sale in the spring, the cover was just like out of a pulp western novel. A wooden hut, with the Turks replacing the red-indians, breaking down the door, scimitars rather than tomahawks, inside a helpless Armenian woman dressed identical to some western homesteader, beside her an American standing up to the "savages", pistol (Colt45 I bet!) in his hand.

Steve

PS, I agree with you about the websites, and don't most of them seem to say the same thing in exactly the same way.