He was often angry and disgruntled because he thought that all the work he was doing for checkers was not greatly appreciated. I can remember him saying many times that he was going to put all of his checker books into garbage bags and let the garbageman pick them up because he was unhappy with of the way the checker community was treating him. "Checker Trivia" questions of the Day"? Who was this unique checker personality and what was his most important contribution to checkers years ago? (Cont.)
Take care and God Bless. "Mr. Checkers"---Visit with "Inky" at: http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie2.swf----"No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted". --Aesop--
"Don Goodwin"--He made available affordable reprints of scarce checker literature for the checker community. (Cont.)
Take care and God Bless. "Mr. Checkers"---Visit with "Inky" at: http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie2.swf----"No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted". --Aesop--
I think it was a combination of Don's fundamental crankiness and (many) checker player's fundamental cheapness. He put a lot of time and effort into printing and binding, and it's possible that he thought that he was entitled to a larger market for his books. I rather doubt that he was able to make much a living from the business.
I bought a lot of books from him and felt that he offered a good product for a fair price.
I don't think he was displeased. Most players bought books for him, and for long period of time he was the only one professional dealer who served checkers community on daily base.
Alex please allow me to disagree with you!! You were not here during the early 1980's when Don first came out with his reprints--so you did not know the Don Goodwin that we knew through several hundred of his letters to us. Don received a sizeable pension and was not in need of money. He lost a lot of money on the reprints for several reasons; one of which Mr. Whitefork mentioned--checker players are cheap and they were not willing to pay anything for Don's books. Don gave away many for free to good causes and to those that could not afford them. Don reprinted over 500 English language checker books--both in soft and hard cover, but in order to get a good price from the printer he had to have 500 to 1,000 copies of each of them printed at one time, which left him with mountains of checker books to sell (and store) that no one was buying (many players already had many of the books); so here we had a case of over supply with little demand in the market place for that many of his books. Plus at the same time there were several other well established checker book dealers around with whom many players had been doing business with for many many years. Don was very outspoken and he did not hesitate to call a spade a spade if it suited him. Don loved boasting about his sales of checker books until those sales slowed down--then his tone changed about the checker community and so did some of the words he used, which I will not repeat here. Many of us would perhaps react in the same way if we were to walk in his shoes during that period of time. Don's contribution to the checker community will always be remembered; as the sale of his checker books still goes on even today. (Cont.)
Take care and God Bless. "Mr. Checkers"---Visit with "Inky" at: http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie2.swf----"No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted". --Aesop--
Alex the Don Goodwin we knew (and we knew him very well) was very definately displeased with the checker community, which was one of the reasons why he published the the names of the ten most dishonest checker players, which we posted on the "Checker Trivia" previously. Merry Christmas to you and your family. (Cont.)
Take care and God Bless. "Mr. Checkers"---Visit with "Inky" at: http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie2.swf----"No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted". --Aesop--
He was often angry and disgruntled because he thought that all the work he was doing for checkers was not greatly appreciated. I can remember him saying many times that he was going to put all of his checker books into garbage bags and let the garbageman pick them up because he was unhappy with of the way the checker community was treating him. "Checker Trivia" questions of the Day"? Who was this unique checker personality and what was his most important contribution to checkers years ago? 
