The Book Rescuers - Giant Used Book Warehouse in Pinellas Park

 

The Book Rescuers boasts over a mile of book shelves. 

     See for yourself on their facebook page, The Book Rescuers in Pinellas Park claims over a mile of book shelves, and I would say that is not an exaggeration. There is no parking or AC, but the fans down the many aisles of books are blowing away the dust and heat from outside and keeping the customers and the books cool. Tucked away in an industrial complex in Cross Bayou Industrial Park between paint shops and car repair places is a huge warehouse with what can only be described as mountains upon mountains of books.

She didn't catch me taking pictures. I swear.

     No shortage of customers. The pictures on their Facebook don't do it justice, and they have since added DVD's, VHS tapes, old media, records, banned books.. you name it. Their aisle of Fantasy and Sci-Fi was amazing, but the books I saw online that they took in a few weeks ago, were no longer available. Their pricing system is based on little colored stickers, but 99% of the books are yellow-dot, which are $2 each, and those are the only books I grabbed. 

It was hard to get a picture of how large this place is.

     I would say this has the largest selection of vintage Science Fiction I've ever seen in person. Older books were wrapped in plastic, and still $2. Looking for Ace Doubles? 100's of them for $2. 50's and 60's pulp paperback? Fill a whole shopping cart. This is not the store you will complete your Dragonlance collection at like the last store I went to, but holy crap can you find some really old cool stuff for cheap. I did notice a lot of books have seen better days, covers tattered and dirty, some missing whole pieces. Some books I was really excited to see by popular authors were in such poor condition, I had to frown and move on. I was easily able to find 20 books for $40 that have a much greater value; some to add to the collection, and some to list. The Dune books are eBay fodder, Laser books are always awesome and have unique covers, tons of Gibson there I passed on..

     I'll be coming back to this place when I can make it down there, at least once a month. Lot's of good scores, and I left tons on the shelf that I wanted to take. I spent about a half hour, and could have easily spent a couple of hours and really found some gems. Great place overall. Awesome staff, just a really cool find if you are in the Tampa area. 

**Edit** - I visited here again two Saturday's later with my wife, on April 6th and we walked out with 5 books that were worth listing, and my son bought some cool old VHS tapes. They gave my wife a teacher discount! Super cool place and we plan on going back often. 

Until the next adventure..

Endless Quest: Crimson Crystal Adventure Series

    What was really popular in the early 80's and through the 90's was Choose Your Own Adventure books. Dungeons and Dragons and TSR, not be left out of the action, made their own series called Endless Quest. They were printed on acid free heavy card stock paper, had great illustrations from the great artists who also contributed to Dragon Magazine. They were short little adventures with character sheets inside to keep track of your stats and faux predetermined inventory. 

     How do you make it more fun, bring in some science fiction, and skew a little younger? You bring in those same artists and tell them to paint in red over the art, and include a "Crimson Crystal" in each book, essentially just a small red see-through piece of plastic so you can reveal the secret imagery. The pages that have red printing on them are also printed on that same heavy card stock that the Endless Quest books are printed on. At the time, this was a huge level up from the normal Choose Your Own Adventure, and made it much more interactive. For the same $2.00 you would normally spend on a book, now you get little puzzles and more action for your buck.

    TOR, not to be outdone by the masters of roleplaying, licensed very popular fantasy series of the day, and created their own Adventure books, Crossroads. They were longer, had more options, and you could run into the characters you know and love from your favorite authors. I have the two Xanth ones, written by Jody Lynn Nye, signed by her and purchased at a convention in person. All the books I've mentioned in this little article are pretty rare... 

• Crossroads books, any, are around $15 each, from ebay sold auctions
• D&D Endless Quest books are $10 to $20 each, ebay sold auctions, and are always in great condition
• Crimson Crystal books are the rarest of the bunch at $50-$100, more if they have the "Crimson Crystal" intact

    CYOA did their own version called Time Machine, and Archway licensed Star Trek and made Which Way Books. The list goes on and on, all actually pretty rare with single print runs. Famously, the most rare and expensive and is really considered the first Multiplayer Book Game ever, which uses the most complicated tables and algorithms and requires both books to play: Combat Heroes. See the video below to learn more about that unique book series. 

The Book Swap in Palm Harbor - Insane Selection

 

It's not the best, but it has what any new collector needs.

     The Book Swap in Palm Harbor was not what I thought, and I think that's a good thing. It's a true paperback exchange: you return the books and get half as credit towards your next purchase. The shelves were lined with books, and the Fantasy and Science fiction shelves were brimming with great classics, completed trilogies, and all the series you could shake a stick at. If you are looking to complete.. let's say, your Dragonlance collection, come here, they are all in perfect order, alphabetized, and even sometimes banded together for a bundle price.

Science Fiction Section

Huge Fantasy Section

Speaking of prices, they are marked on the cover with an easily removeable grease pencil that leaves no mark behind. They do use sharpie to black out the prices on the covers, which is super frustrating. The prices are a mixed bag; if they are popular, the books are around $4 each. Older less known books, no matter the rarity or printing, are around $2. I was able to use this to grab 6 books for pretty cheap, and have enough cash leftover to hit the Rita's Italian ice up next door. For all the organization, selection, and decent prices, I do have a few gripes:

• No air conditioning. It was 60 degrees outside and I was wearing a sweater. When I walked in, it was easily 85 degrees.
• They do not take credit cards. When I inquired, they mentioned the fees, and that they had been open for 40 years, and have no intention to change. I had to hit an ATM and come back to pay for my books, which took 15 minutes and a $2 ATM fee. I did notice when I was looking, two customers left their books and did not come back to get them because of the payment issue.
• The prices of known rare books or things that sell online are high-ebay list prices, not sold prices. 
• Aforementioned sharpie over the prices
• They have little online presence.. just a facebook, but no ebay store, landing page, nothing. 
• It's picked over. Someone got to this store and took anything of value over $10 out of it. I was lucky to get what I got. 

The Take

Dune anything is selling right now. Whatever old and beat up crusty Frank Herbert books hanging around are selling in less than a day after we put them in the ebay store. I always pick up Fritz Leiber and William Gibson.. Gibson is an awesome read, and bundles well. The other books were rare enough to grab and in decent shape with is a good combo. I have not seen two of these books in the wild, ever. It's worth mentioning if you are a fan of Piers Anthony like me, they have damn near 100 of them, all series, ready to go for an early collection.

**Edit** - I went back here today on 4/12 and the AC was working. I found a couple books I missed the last time, and noticed some hard to find series fantasy books that I would be interested in, but passed on. The lady working the front and I had a nice conversation, and she told showed me some rare books they had, and right away I noticed a Dune Messiah BCE in the stack, which had a price of $125 firm on it. The condition was.. passable, but for a BCE $10 would be all it is worth on eBay. I let her know, showed her how you could tell, and urged her to sell it for $8 with the other BCE stuff they had. 

Thanks for reading. 

Ebay Store & More! (Life Update)

 Our new puppy, Gizmo

Where has the time gone? Hard to believe it is March already, and I've been super busy with work, as it's Tampa Bay Beer Week. I've been sick since Wednesday, so been doing light duty at work, catching up paperwork and attending events in the evenings. We got a new puppy! He is about 8 months old and now and his name is Gizmo, and is a Shi-Poo, so he will stay tiny like Ollie. 

Ebay Purgatory

    I decided to let go of a few of my books, and we have always sold a few here and there when we needed some money.. even if I did just spend it all on more books. It's getting to the point where I have 2-3 copies of different books, multiple printings and editions of the same title. Truth be told, the book cases are overflowing and the closets are full with boxes of more of the same. I picked up over 500 books last year alone! My wife is going to head up this project by listing and researching, and I'll support her by continuing the hobby and finding more rare books out in the wild. Don't worry, I'll still be holding on to the real valuable stuff, and things that are near and dear to me. I'm not selling out, just thinning the herd. 

   Why now? Dune 2 is coming out, and had me thinking about how popular my Dune Price Guide post does around the release of movies, and new books at the store or online cost more and more. I have more Dune books than I can count.. Why not list a few? My wife was looking for a hobby on the side, so it made sense. Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is another hot button, there is NO shortage of old and vintage Hobbit and LOTR books out there, I pick up some all the time. 

Click the picture above to see what's currently for sale. Just a heads up, some of the books are pretty rare, so will go fast!