books: finds

Made the thrift store rounds for the first time in a couple of weeks.

It's an odd activity to enjoy, digging through junk people gave away, junk that's always been somewhat picked over before it even gets to the shelf- the paranoia of thrift store workers that some ebayer will 'put one over' on them has grown positively Nixonian over the years.  And of course all the other internet sellers in the area are also scouring the thrift stores- it's amazing I find anything interesting, ever.

I had a run-in with one of the minders at the expensive place a while back, she was screwed up on her prices and charged me hardcover rates for all my stuff except the one pocket book.  I pointed out her error and she got bristly and defensive, arguing that the sign reading "all hardcovers $2" meant all the BOOKS IN THAT SECTION were $2.  The price difference wasn't really worth arguing about, around ten bucks, and maintaining good relations with the various thrift store crews is just good business so I let it slide, but it left a bad taste.

This time one of their developmentally challenged adults who knew his job was manning the counter.  Didn't find anything valuable, but picked up a cool book on napkin folding and a nice hardcover copy of The Inner Game of Tennis, one of those books most people have never heard of that always sell for us.
I had one near miss- a really pretty hardcover of Yann Martel's Life of Pi that was almost a 1st US.  Missing one little letter on the copywrite page, the difference between a $200 collectible and a $10 store copy.
Such is life in the book world- there's nearly always something, which is why the genuinely collectible books are worth money.

The Old Lady Thrift Store was more forthcoming- picked up a bunch of good pocket books and a couple of interesting hardcovers, a so-so copy of Randall Jarrell & Maurice Sendak's book The Animal Family that looks like a 1st edition, a book on building bicycles that's worth about $40 (anything on bike repair or construction is usually good) and the crown jewel of the outing, a nice signed hardcover history of the Fillmore-Piru Citrus Grower's Association that I'll list for $75.

It's like mining for gold, sifting through tons of books to find a couple of nice ones.