'Alright, where do I begin? There are three main characteristics of a high-valued book—popularity/demand, condition, and scarcity. I'm able to see the condition of a book without any outside knowledge, so that is currently the least useful in telling me where to start. However, this relatively small store is packed with all sorts of literary geeks—if I can just listen in to some of their conversations and ask around, I'll be able to get a good idea of what's popular and rare.'
Shin darted towards a group of college students, all huddled around a table of books near the back of the store.
"Excuse me, guys," Shin interjected.
The group of college kids turned their heads with a surprising amount of disgust and annoyance.
"What do you want?" said one of the boys. "Can't you see we're analysing the intricacies of Fyodor Dostoevsky's magnum opus, Crime and Punishment? He truly is one of the greatest authors to come from Aria."
"Sorry, I'm new to this whole literature thing," replied Shin. "Do you guys know what would be some popular books I can dip my newbie toes into?"
"Ugh, if you're looking for some simpleton, loved-by-the-masses pieces of literature, you can head to the non-fiction section and check out the autobiography of the Don. I can't believe the public adores that man as much as they do. I mean, he can build all the homeless shelters he wants, but he'll still be a politician at the end of the day. Just look at wha—"
"Yeah, sorry to cut you off, but I'm in a bit of a rush here—ciao!" Shin interjected before hurrying away.
'Great, those stuck-up college students wasted a solid five minutes of my already shortened time—self-entitled pricks. Anyways, here we are—the autobiography section. Wait, what?'
As Shin arrived at the autobiography table, he was confused to see two autobiographies of the Don.
'What? How much could have happened in this guy's life for him to write two whole autobiographies?'
Upon further inspection, Shin realised that the two books were, in fact, different—very different.
'Oh, I see. The book on the left is the autobiography of the 18th Don back in 1536, while the one on the right was written by that freak we met on the street recently.'
"Hey, babe, do you want to know a little fun fact about the 18th Don?" said a nearby boyfriend.
"Yeah, why not?" replied his blonde partner.
"The 18th Don helped found the Emberstan we're currently living in. That's right—back in the 1530s, the 18th Don left Aria for a time in order to travel the Earth and discover new land. No wonder his autobiography is selling like hotcakes—everybody in this country wants to read what he had to say, so much so that the book is in small supply. We'd be lucky if we found a copy here in this little place."
Shin began thinking to himself as time began to run out.
'Popularity/demand—check. Scarcity—pretty scarce. Condition…'
Shin flicked through the book and examined the inside of both the front and back covers. No visible wear or tear could be seen, as far as he was concerned.
'Condition—check,' he thought to himself with a big smile.
Before leaving with the book, he also flipped through the current Don's autobiography, stopping on a random page near the end for a suspiciously long time.
'Oh yeah, baby—this was the last copy. No way Silver's winning this,' thought the ecstatic Shin.