Most shops trade “like for like” fiction for fiction, non-fiction for non-fiction, biography for biography. To some a book is a book - find out and take what trades you need. I have store credit at a local used book store. Amazingly, they use 3x5 index cards and files to keep these records. Since people are different and people run book stores you’ll see Dewey Decimal shops and rats’ nests, literally. If you smell a cat in the store you will have to decide if you want any books from that store. I walk away. The books usually smell, too. If its just a mess with piles and boxes of books everywhere with no odor then take your time. You will find something worth buying. Most people leave if they can’t find something quickly and won’t crouch down to move three piles to look at what’s behind. Overwhelmed or not in jeans? Just go back later and look again.
When you are out of town on a car trip add time to stop at used bookstores. Use internet yellow pages and Mapquest before you leave to line up an itinerary.
Buy your trades at garage sales (see below). Simple - use 4 books you paid 25 cents to a buck each and trade for that good used spiral bound Tim McCreight’s The Complete Metalsmith offered at 10 bucks. Planning, search and acquisition are all part of the fun;
2)Library book sales. You won’t believe it but I paid $3.00 for the Oppi Untracht book at a Metropolitan Library book sale a few years ago. I would have paid twenty times that but I had never seen it offered (used). The person who determined the price was a volunteer with no specialized knowledge and saw a used, fat encyclopedia type of book - a doorstop. If you live in a large city your library system or local college probably has a sale once or twice per year. Some libraries forgo the sale and offer books for sale in a section or specific shelf. Ask. Our library takes donated books all year long from the public so the titles offered are definitely not limited to the broken spine castoffs of circulating inventory. Many folks don’t know there are used book dealers who will buy books from anybody so they cart 12 boxes of books to donate to the library. Every year its been worth the trip. Also, look through the donated magazines - sometimes singles but usually bundled in one year sets. Look for Lapidary Journal, Ornament, Metalsmith, The Skeptic, etc.;
3) Garage and estate sales. Rule number one: Stop your car, Rule number two: get out of your car. Say “Howdy, do you have any tools or books?” I’m not a chatty type so when they answer with “What are you looking for?” I say “Tools and books.” Smile. Silence. They say “oh, well, books were all moved into the den last week and Jim put all of the tools in the back yard.” “Thanks!” This is where you can find a good “How to” book on carpentry that would sell for $8-10 in the used book store and here you pay the nice lady 50 cents. Then you take this book to your favorite used book store and they give you two to four dollars trade credit for it. It may seem a bit arduous to get books this way but you are also looking for tools and maybe items for the kid’s little league club or significant other’s interests. If the price seems too close to retail then offer a lot less. Haggle. Make it interesting;
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