The spine looked identical and the dust jacket even had the same price on the flap but the tiny number line on the copyright page gave it away and I almost set that thing on the counter before catching it, has anyone else had a book club edition sneak past them like that?
I swear every time I check the kids books at my local Savers in Portland it's nothing but Disney movie tie-ins and those cardboard baby books. What happened to all the chapter books from the 90s like Boxcar Children or Babysitters Club? My daughter is 8 and reads way above that level.
I went to the annual library sale in my town last Saturday. They had those mystery boxes where you pay $40 and get a whole banker's box of books. I grabbed one and when I got home I was sorting through it and found a signed copy of a popular mystery novel from 1995. Looked it up online and it goes for around $200 on eBay. Anyone else ever get lucky with those blind boxes at library sales?
I went to the Friends of the Library sale in my town last weekend and found a like new hardcover of a book that was still on the bestseller list a year ago. It was marked $2 and had no damage except a tiny crease on the dust jacket. I was pretty stoked because retail is like $30. Anyone else have luck finding recent bestsellers at these sales?
She said I was overpaying for library discard sales cause I didn't know they mark down 75% on the last day. Now I just go on final sale Saturdays and grabbed a stack of hardcovers for $3 total.
Got burned last weekend at Goodwill when I found a book I'd been hunting for months, only to realize someone had ripped out the last 20 pages. $3 down the drain. Then I hit the local library sale on Sunday and walked out with a first edition Stephen King for $2 that was in perfect shape. I don't know why I keep wasting time at thrift stores when libraries price things to move and actually check the condition. Anyone else notice library sales are way more consistent?
Was at a library sale last Saturday in Portland. Grabbed a stack of hardcovers. $2 each. Got to the counter and the volunteer said "Three of these are ex-library copies." Marked down to 50 cents each. I felt dumb for not checking the card pocket first. Now I flip every book over before I even grab it. Anyone else use this trick or got another way to spot library discards fast?
I was at a library sale in Des Moines last Saturday, digging through a box of old sci-fi paperbacks. Found a signed first edition of something by Ursula K. Le Guin for 50 cents, got super excited, and when I pulled it out the spine just crumbled. Pages went everywhere on the linoleum floor, and I felt like a total idiot standing there holding loose pages. I ended up carefully gathering them all and asking the librarian if they had any bags, which they did. She even helped me find a rubber band to hold it together. Has anyone else had a book fall apart on them mid-score or am I just unlucky?
The canvas tote ripped right through the seam when I bent over to grab a vintage Stephen King from the bottom shelf at Goodwill, and now I am using a plastic grocery bag until I find a sturdier one at the depot sale this weekend.
My wife and I moved from a house to an apartment last summer in Arlington. I had about 15 boxes of books in the garage. Most were from library sales and Goodwill runs over ten years. I got overwhelmed and tossed three boxes in the dumpster thinking I could just buy them again. Six months later I went looking for a specific cookbook my grandmother used to own. It was in one of those boxes. Now I keep a list on my phone of everything I buy so when I do thin the collection, I know what I can actually let go of. Anybody else regret getting rid of something they thought was common?
I usually hit up Goodwill for books (you know, $2 paperbacks), but a friend dragged me to the Multnomah County library's annual sale. Hardcovers were $1, and they had way better selections - like organized by genre instead of just dumped in a bin. I grabbed a like-new Stephen King hardcover for a buck. Thrift stores around here price hardcovers at $4-5 easy. Does your local library do sales like this?
I keep seeing people grab every paperback they find. Passing over hardcovers like they're trash. But I scored a $3 hardcover of a Stephen King first edition last week at a library sale. It's worth about sixty bucks. Meanwhile my friend loads up on beat up paperbacks that fall apart after one read. Does the weight and size bother you that much? Or am I crazy for grabbing hardcovers every time?
I was at the Friends of the Library sale in Eugene last weekend and saw two copies of The Hobbit. One was a beat up hardcover from 1973 for 2 dollars and the other was a clean paperback for 50 cents. I grabbed the paperback because I actually wanted to read it again and not just stare at it on a shelf. Got home and the binding cracked on page 20, so maybe I should have just spent the extra cash. Anyone else regret a budget book buy like this?
I decided to collect all 7 Harry Potter books in hardcover from thrift stores only, no online orders. After hitting 12 different Goodwills and library sales over 3 months, I finally snagged the last one (Order of the Phoenix) for $2 at a church rummage sale. Anybody else set weird rules for themselves when book hunting and regret it halfway through?
I used to only hit thrift stores for cheap books until I stumbled into a library discard sale last Saturday. They were selling hardcovers for 50 cents each and I walked out with 12 books for 6 bucks total. The trick is to ask the librarian when they clear out their overstock, most libraries do it quarterly. Has anyone else scored at a library sale or is everyone just fighting over the same overpriced Goodwill shelves?
I was at the county library sale last Saturday, digging through a box of old cookbooks, when I heard one librarian tell another that they always put the best stuff out on the last day of the sale because that's when serious collectors show up. She said they hold back the hidden gems until Sunday morning to make it more exciting for the regulars. That got me thinking about all the times I rushed in on day one and grabbed junk while the really good books were probably sitting in a back room. Now I always ask the staff when they restock or put out new batches, and I wait until the final day if I can. Last month I snagged a signed copy of a local history book for three dollars because I showed up late. Has anyone else noticed their library or thrift store holding back the best stuff for certain days?