$100 for Beltsville Shell?

A few weeks ago Jim Ziepolt reached out to me to see if he could buy another copy of Beltsville Shell | You Are What You Drive. I had to tell him, "No".  We are completely sold out.

But I promised Jim that I would look on the used book market for him. When I did, I was astonished at what I found!

I found 4 copies for sale.  

The first one was being offered on E-bay by Better World Books West (in LA) for $75.89.  

Three additional copies were available on Amazon. Wizzys Fine Books had a copy for sale at $65.00 plus $3.99 for shipping. I had autographed it to someone, not sure who.  There were two other copies, each for more than $100! I had no idea that the prices had gotten so high.

When I shared this news with some of my buddies, Thomas Payne, a huge fan of Beltsville Shell reminded me about the copy of Beltsville Shell that has circled the globe.  I always love getting updates on this special copy.

Story of the Traveling Copy of Beltsville Shell 

Thomas sent the message below, the two maps that show the places in Australia, the UK, and Europe that one copy of Beltsville Shell has visited, and the two photos.

Thanks, Thomas!! 

 

Cary,

"It's not surprising at all that Beltsville Shell book prices keep climbing. It's a classic! There's a reason I own 4 copies plus the copy used by the brotherhood of the traveling book. That copy is almost guaranteed to be the most widely traveled copy ever as well as the most ever read single copy. At last count we had close to 80 signatures from those who had read that single copy.

Besides touring the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia and Australia, it's been to New Zealand twice and made 3 circular, national tours of the Unites States. It traveled from each coast, stopping in multiple states along the way and as far south as Miami, Florida and then it zig-zagged its way across Canada during its 6-year touring history. Along the way, each reader signed off after reading it and included date, city and state and then mailed it to the next reader on the waiting list. There are very close to 70 signatures from everyone who shared reading this one, single copy, costing Cary hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in lost sales!! :) And through it all Cary was extremely supportive.

At one time during its touring, I took it to a professional book binder to have 6 additional pages bound and added to it to accommodate all the signatures, making it the only copy in the world with 190 pages. Along the way occasionally a reader would include a souvenir with it such as a book marker, sticker or embordered patch. One European reader included a 13 mm wrench; a very common size used in Europe and another made a custom cloth pouch to help keep it in good shape during shipping. After having a couple of close calls losing it in the mail, in 2018 I decided to retire it from its touring. It's now residing on permanent display in the "Restored 1930's Auto Shop" in Philo, IL, which as we all know is "The Center Of The Universe" along with all the items that accompanied it. All told it's been on 3 continents, 9 countries, 19 states, 3 Canadian Provinces. It's made a round trip across the Atlantic and crossed the Pacific Ocean twice! This one copy alone has spread the fame of Cary Thomas and Beltsville Shell worldwide. No wonder used copies are in such big demand. It's a modern-day classic!

The attached picture shows just some of the items that readers sent along with it along with its custom-made pouch."