# Ever had any luck with finding rare books in thrift stores? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754 "2012-06-20T15:19:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754/61 "2012-09-03T05:11:25Z")
I bought a limited edition Kalevala for $4 and a few AD&D modules for $1 each at Goodwill. That’s about it for rare books, but it shows that the local Goodwill doesn’t pay much attention to book values. It’s just a matter of showing up at the right moment before someone else snatches the goods since it’s a busy store. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754/62 "2012-09-03T19:02:52Z")
I’d like to point out that I spend a lot of time in used bookstores, and Goodwill-type stores, and I’ve bought hundreds if not thousands of used books… … and not one has been a neglected Shakespeare first folio, or a five-buck copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_. Nor are any of my finds autographed “Mark Twa-- ah,screw it, I’m Sam Clemens!” Just books I wanted to read. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754/63 "2012-09-03T19:10:34Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’d like to point out that I spend a lot of time in used bookstores, and Goodwill-type stores, and I’ve bought hundreds if not thousands of used books… > > … and not one has been a neglected Shakespeare first folio, or a five-buck copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_. Nor are any of my finds autographed “Mark Twa-- ah,screw it, I’m Sam Clemens!” > > Just books I wanted to read. Really? Smug much? Glad I didn’t tell the story about how I flipped a first edition, second state copy of _As I Lay Dying_, a first of _Player Piano_ and another book plus cash in order to score a First edition do To Kill a Mockingbird. \ 😉 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754/64 "2012-09-03T19:59:58Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Really? Smug much? No, actually the opposite. I keep looking for a “buried treasure” (local comic book guy’s term-- he found a rare Silver Age Superboy comic in a box he’d bought for $10). But I feel like a loser after all these stories. Hmm, I would love to work my way up to smug. maybe I’m getting there, and I didn’t know. But I love to live vicariously, so keep those first edition Harper Lee stories coming (now, if you’d only found a copy of the sequel, like I did…) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754/65 "2012-09-03T22:02:51Z")
> [@digs](#): > > No, actually the opposite. I keep looking for a “buried treasure” (local comic book guy’s term-- he found a rare Silver Age Superboy comic in a box he’d bought for $10). But I feel like a loser after all these stories. > Hmm, I would love to work my way up to smug. maybe I’m getting there, and I didn’t know. > > But I love to live vicariously, so keep those first edition Harper Lee stories coming (now, if you’d only found a copy of the sequel, like I did…) Sorry - please forgive my complete misread of your comment. Fwiw, I had far more “finds” when I was shopping at small booksellers more than thrift stores. They’ve picked over a lot of stuff so the hit rate for interesting stuff is higher, but they still can undervalue things here and there. That’s how I got the As I Lay Dying for a fraction of its value and traded it towards TKaM for a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754/66 "2012-09-04T02:09:16Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Sorry - please forgive my complete misread of your comment. No harm, no foul… my last line could’ve seemed smug. But I do just buy stuff I want to read. Drives my local comic book guy nuts. I’ll buy a _Legion of Super-Heroes_ from the 60s and then roll it up and put it in my back pocket. I tell him that’s what I did when I was ten: “So I’m gonna jump on my Schwinn Sting-Ray and ride down to the malt shoppe, order a Grape Nehi, and actually read this!” Last time CBG said “So, you don’t want to buy a Mylar acid-free sleeve to go with that?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-had-any-luck-with-finding-rare-books-in-thrift-stores/625754.md?page=3)