Book about cats fetches $11,000 for Tucson library boosters

“A Book of Cats” by Lèonard Tsuguharu Foujita is making its way to a gallery in Paris after selling for $11,000, said Jeanette Cowles, the Ebay manager for Friends of the Pima County Library. Cowles had originally started the Ebay account in 2020 when they couldn’t do their in-person book sales due to COVID-19.

Cowles said her husband found the book, which was numbered and signed by the artist, in the Friends of the Pima County Library store with $5 written on it. He told Cowles that not every book numbered and signed by the author is worth something, but she should take a look at it for Ebay.

Once Cowles researched the book, she saw it selling online for as much as $66,000. They originally listed the book for $33,000, but reduced the price every month by 20% since it wasn’t selling. Finally, they received an email from a gallery owner in Paris who wanted to buy the book for $11,000.

“We never expected to sell it honestly,” Cowles said. “I figured you know; it’ll sit there for a year and maybe I’ll sell for $1,000 somewhere down the line. So, when we sold for $11,000 I about fell off my chair.”

The vintage books the Friends of the Pima County Library sell on Ebay typically go anywhere from $50 to now $11,000, Cowles said.

The purchase was so surprising, one worker thought the offer was spam mail.

“My executive director’s assistant actually got the email and thought it was spam,” Cowles said. “She walked into my office and said, I have a guy who says he wants to buy a cat book for $11,000. Is that spam?”

Everybody at the Friends of the Pima County Library is “ecstatic” about the purchase, Cowles said. Since the purchase, Cowles said that everyday she has somebody come in who wants to hear the story about the cat book from 1930.

Since taking over the Ebay account, Cowles has made it her goal to bring in $120,000 a year, which is $10,000 a month. Last year, they brought just under $90,000, so with this big purchase, Cowles believes they should be on track to reach their goal this year.

All the money earned from Ebay and monthly sales gets donated to the Pima County library system to help support and fund library programs and services.