How long till The Dope declares this ‘hatespeech’?
FWIW, I often buy out of print books online. I’m not a collector, I buy them because I want to read them. Sometimes it’s an old favorite I want to reread and sometimes I’m just searching for the lesser known books from an author I like.
These books are not necessarily cheap. I’m not buying expensive first editions or even “collector quality” books, but I’ve paid $30-$40 for a used book- just because I want to read it.
I’m glad that there are people that scour the bookstores for these titles, catalog them and list them on-line. It’s a service that has value for me.
I’m certainly not going to feel bad about depriving someone of the “right” to buy that book that was worth $40 to me for $2.
If the thrift shop wanted to take the time and effort to catalog their collections and list them on-line, they can get my $40.
Thrift stores that I’ve been to tend to use a color-coded tag system for most things to rotate stock. Like, if they want things to not wait longer than 4 weeks, they have 4 colors of tags for things that are 1-4 weeks old. Generally the stuff that’s been there 3 weeks is discounted and the stuff that’s been there 4 weeks is discounted more. Then at the beginning of the week they do a sweep through the store for anything left with the tag that’s going to be this weeks new tag and… do whatever with it. Trash it, sell it to ragmakers by the pound.
I expect that each copy of Master Microsoft 98 Today isn’t there that long, but there were a lot of them, and no one wants them, so many pass through thrift stores on their way to a dumpster.
The library bookstore once got a programming book from 1991. I put it in the history section, and I’m pretty sure someone bought it. I don’t care what they did with it afterwards.
My tastes in books is both eclectic and narrowly-focused. I read just about anything, but want certain books a lot, some of which might be rare enough to be expensive I hate to “lose out” on a book that I really want to some clown who sees it as a mere commodity. But that’s my personal view and I recognize that doesn’t affect reality one bit.
???
The clown who sees it as a mere commodity is the person selling you that book. Absent that “clown”, the book would have sat on a used book store’s shelf for 4 weeks before going into a dumpster.
Holy crap. I’ve got that one.
I thought about this thread today. Before the world ended, I used to go to thrift stores to buy children’s books so I could leave them places where children wait*. As the pandemic is over in Arizona, everything is open again so I needed more books. I have no emotional investment in these books, so I just grab pretty much at random, flip through the pages quickly to check for damage then toss it in my basket. I can fill my basket in less than ten minutes and be on my way. I hope nobody got mad at me.
*bus stops, food stamp office, doctor offices, little libraries, etc.
You weren’t scanning them so hopefully not?
Quite the contrary, my dear, I think I’m in love💜
I was moving too fast for anyone to be able to tell if I was scanning them or not! I have, however, removed all of those books from circulation forever. I hope there weren’t any priceless first editions cause I sure don’t pay attention.
Awww! You are so sweet, but this is a selfish move on my part. I have a vested interest in living in an educated population. Childhood books have been shown to make a difference in education levels and achievement. It always makes me happy when the books I have left are gone because that means more children are learning to love to read.
If you want to share the title, I’ll try to keep my eyes open when I’m grabbing books. No promises though, once I find all the books that fit my standards, I am done and out.
One of the pluses of the book sharks is for my nephew. He is severely disabled and is in love with a very particular Dora the Explorer book. It’s been out of print for a decade, but I always have a ready supply of used copies for Christmas from online sellers. I have to get him 4-5 copies because he’s pretty hard on books. I’d never be able to find them if I had to scour local thrift stores.
After reading this thread, I was awfully tempted to bid on the item in the above link.
But oops, it’s for pickup only.
Any idea why “Goosebumps” books would be a hot item?
Childhood nostalgia. The original Goosebumps series of books was published from 1992-1997. Tweens who grew up with those books are now starting to hit early middle age.
A lot of 90s pop culture is currently being excavated, retrospected, revived, and rebooted.