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.