Paper Back Exchange Pickups & Blog Update

 

     I've recently moved again within Florida, (which I'll explain later on in the "Blog Update" portion of this post), and today I find myself in North Tampa in New Port Richey at The Paperback Exchange Bookstore. Great little store with both used and new books, an exchange and accounts membership, and a huge selection of everything that I like to see when going to used book stores. 

    I love little narrow aisles with nine foot tall shelves full of fantasy and science fiction. I love the old stuff, and there was no shortage of it here. The owner Joanie let me know she was in the middle of overhauling the section, so there was boxes piled up in about the last 20% of the section I was in. Not a problem at all. Right away I could see that there was two kinds of books, those that are marked with a regular price which was about $3-$4 on average, and those marked "Rare" that were $5-$10 on average. Anything that I was interested in, or was from the 80's and back was marked as rare weather it was or not. It looks like about 5 years ago, Joanie went through the thousands of books and checked them quickly on ebay, and took their average listed price on there and that is what she is charging. I don't have an issue with this, the prices are stated clearly, and she was up front about the trade-in and membership values from the very start.

     If these were $1 books from the flea market, I would be filling up shopping carts. I would get excited about seeing something pretty awesome, then turn it around to find out it was $15 or more. I would look it up on ebay right there, and sure enough, that was a somewhat accurate ebay sold value. While looking online and taking my time checking things out, Joanie let me know that it was $25 Fill-a-bag sales on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday next week coming up on everything I was looking at. Fill a bag! I will 100% be back here to get some of these great old pulp trade paperbacks.

    Right before I left, I saw a few more sections of books, 1/2 off the whole area, and all hard backs and magazines. I didn't see any crazy value items, but some old 1984 mags and 70's BCE hard backs were a really good value. 

    I ended up only buying one book to get my name in the system to qualify for the upcoming sale. Being a paperback exchange, I'm going to put some books together I don't want so I can get some credit started. Conan the Conqueror #5 for $5? That's quite the deal, and anything Conan is super hard to find these days. She had some other Conan stuff, but was priced kind of high for the deals that I look for. I messaged my buddy @ Collectible Science Fiction and let him know the deals to be had and shot him some pictures. No k.Dick or s.Lem so I didn't think he would need anything, but was just trying to be a bro.

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Life update! 

I saw this mix tape for sale the same day I went to the book store and thought it was appropriate.

     I guess I should catch everyone up on what's going on with me. This may take a second, so let's just use bullet points and explain the timeline.

• I moved in December 2017 from our home in Cape Coral leaving behind our forever home, and my custom made bookcases. We rented the house, and eventually sold it 2 years later. This would be the last time I made a post to the blog because of all the chaos. I started a new job, quit that job, started another which transferred me to the other side of the state. Left without options, I moved.
• We moved to West Palm Beach in  2017/18 and I started my new job there with a new title in a place I was not familiar. We were renting, and the price of housing was crazy, so we couldn't get something with another room for a library.
• December 2018 moved again to another place in West Palm. Still no office or Library. Before I moved, I sold about 75 books to the great dude over at Collectible Science Fiction, and he paid me a fair amount. Yes, I still have 99% of my collection and I did not sell anything super valuable with the exception of my Dune first edition paperbacks, which we traded in kind of a first edition of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep 1st/1st.
• December 2019 moved yet again! No library and have not been buying or looking at my packed up book collection for about 2 1/2 years now. We lived here until 2021.
• January 2021 moved AGAIN to another place in West Palm. Horrible housing market made it so expensive to get something bigger, even with my decent wage and living situation. No Office/Library.
• Moved AGAIN in November 2021 to my current residence in Tampa Florida.. after the previous landlord sold from under us, and my company sold at the same time. However this time, I have an office/library to store and display my books! I'm down to two active bookcases, but I'm going to get two more soon. After 4 long years, the marathon is over.

     I have 26 large packing boxes full of books in various closets, and I went to my first Goodwill in Oldsmar and bought a bag of cool books just last week. It feels so good to be settled and away from West Palm with a great job where I won't have to move, in a nice area with a larger home again. My hobby is not something where you can do it with a very limited amount of space, and always moving, I didn't want to unpack everything just to have to start over again in a few week. In the next post I will show you the state of my current library, and any new finds in the new area I reside. I moved 5 times in 4 years. Never again!