The Getting Game

This is an offbeat, mad, and very funny book about how to get things for almost nothing. You just have to be at the right place at the right time. Wreckers, developments where houses are about to be bulldozed, hock shops - all are rich sources. George Daniels is the author of many practical and useful books on things around the house. He is also a very funny man. Says he: "Actually this is an account of some of our more amusing experiences in the course of a quarter of a century of 'how-to' writing and editing..." There are chapters on Rolls-Royce (that's the right plural); a pipe organ; renting fabulous houses for practically nothing; acquiring a Steinway; building a luxury car (with bar - what if it does ice up on August days?); making your own boat (or being given one); transferring free or almost free houses down the road a piece; building a house if you can't do any better; the versatile pawn shop; and building up believable pedigrees for your finds. ("A real Schuetz-Maybach - the elder Schuetz, from Friedrichshafen. His son became burgomeister of Iltz.")