Comments on: The BOOKGASM Guide to Used Book Buying

By: Blu Gilliand

Blu Gilliand — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:43:32 +0000

To the guy who found the King/Bachman book: On a trip last year, we stopped at a flea market on a whim. To my delight, they had an entire wall of used hardbacks and paperbacks. I picked up a book by Jonathan Carroll, THE LAND OF LAUGHS, because I’d read THE WOODEN SEA and enjoyed it. Turns out I paid $1 for a first edition hardback that fetches as much as $200 on the secondary market. I haven’t sold it yet, but just knowing I got such a good deal makes me smile.

By: R

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:05:44 +0000

Nah, I was just kidding about the sleazy types. I’ve only been in one used book store in my life, two or three times, and I think I was the only one in there at the time.

By: R

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:21:32 +0000

I’ve been lucky enough not to have this problem, so far. There have been two or three times, though, out of hundreds, when the book never came in the mail, which I assumed was because of the post office. I eventually got refunds.

At Half.com they recently started a new thing where you can give feedback and the seller can’t respond anymore. It’s to encourage more honest feedback from the buyers, without fear of retaliation. From my own experience Half.com is better than eBay. I stopped using them years ago and stick with Half.com.

By: Larry E

Larry E — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:14:10 +0000

Within the last year, 3 local (west Chicago burbs)used bookstores that I visited regularly went out of business. The closest remaining store has a policy of gouging out the cover price so they can jack it up with a handwritten price on the inside cover. The books actually have a white space on the cover where the price has been surgically removed. My absolute favorite used bookstore is an 8 hour drive. I’ve gotten in the habit when we travel of checking Yahoo Yellow Pages for used bookstores in the area we’re vacationing in. One day of a week’s vacation is dedicated to “The Hunt.”

I don’t mind the cat smell in the store, but I have bought books at one store and found out that the smell had been “territorially marked” to some of the books-took them back immediately.

By: stevefaust

stevefaust — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:25:37 +0000

That store literally makes me feel dirty. I sort of want to go back, because I’m sure that there is stuff that I would love to have, but I don’t honestly have it in me to go digging through it all. If they cleared all the crap from the aisles, then I’d love it, but I’m not going to move a literal ton of boxes to get at the books.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:10:49 +0000

R most the people I find at Used Bookstore are not what you would consider list worthy at all. There might be one or two that need to learn what soap and water do. But they are infrequent with some of the places I go to.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:05:43 +0000

Thorpe I’ve never had a problem ever with customer service at any stores. Most of the people I deal with are nothing but nice and helpful. Even when I would go up with a stack of some truly bottom of the barrel reading. I have dealt with the cat smell at one certain store but that is just a small price to pay.

By: Thorpe

Thorpe — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:46:38 +0000

Good used/indie bookstores are a thing to cherish but others…ugh. You probably know what I’m speaking of: the store is a poorly organized mess, with a shop cat that leaves a strong smell about the place. The selection is arranged in an almost surreal manner which makes sense only to the owner with genres or subjects that have nothing to with eacher other getting mixed up. Customer service is either non-existent or totally vile. I recall at one store a friend of mine let his kids pick out whichever books they wanted. The girl got a picture book about fairies and such and the boy picked out a Big Book of Reptiles type volume and when the scrawny clerk was checking out the books he smirked and said to my friend in a snotty tone “Hey dad, way to enforce gender stereotypes!” My Another friend, she went into to a little indie place that dealt in used and new-ish volumes and asked about their mystery section. The woman behind the counter got all high-horsey and said something like “Oh, we don’t carry those sort of books here. Maybe you should check out the bookrack at the Wal-mart.”

By: Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:40:31 +0000

Sadly, the nearest bookstore (new or used) to me is fifty miles distant, so I usually buy through abebooks.com. But I’ve seldom hit any bad deals, except in prices. When I do drive the fifty miles and have a chance to hit the thrift stores, I buy as many interesting books as I find. Thus, I’ve ended up with a couple thousand that I use for swaps with other collectors. But then, there’s the problem with finding other nuts like me (LOL) to swap with.

By: Jeff Hotchkiss

Jeff Hotchkiss — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:26:30 +0000

My local used bookstore has a decent selection and decent pricing, but it also has a cafe in it (it’s in town near Penn State). So there are many sections of books, particularly the sections I like to browse, that have these massive tables in them that students sit at and basically block the entire section. I have to bend around tables/students (who act like they pay rent on those chairs they sit it) or strain my eyes to see what’s on the shelves. So I generally avoid going there. I got tired of it.