I bought a crusty old collection.

 

The pictures don't do the level of filth any justice

     I get excited about little things, and seeing pictures of crusty old books for a super cheap price real close to my house would qualify as one of those little things. I answered the post above within an hour of it online, and after work the next day, I head over to Dunedin with some old boxes and prepared to load up. From the pictures alone I could see about 350 books of varying quality, so I got $40 out of the ATM and set that as my budget. 

     I did not know what to expect, but I'll describe this the best way I can. The house looked to be 30 years overgrown. There was no front path leading up to the house, and the driveway and front yard was covered in old wood and appliances. This was a pretty nice neighborhood, so to see this was pretty unexpected. The owner met me on the front lawn for my appointment, and led me around to the alternate front door which was framed out of wood and had some pool screen on it. There were book cases inside the front door that was missing, and a sign with an allergy warning in spray paint. I do have horrendous allergies, but I can also smell a deal, so I'm not going to let that stop me. It's clear there has not been anyone inside this house for over 20 years, and there was no power or AC. I've been having an issue seeing in the dark in my old age, so was only able to pull books out by the light of my phone, so was not able to take any pictures of inside the house, as that would require me to put the light away. Because of the aforementioned issue with the light, some of the books I picked up had some horrible spines that I did not notice. You can't win them all! There were actually several bookcases, and the one in the picture above was the worst of the bunch.

The Take

     I left behind hundreds of books in the worst condition I've ever seen, from fire damage to water damage, missing covers and spines, to infestation of something else entirely. Every book was stuck together with the one next to it, and in the case of the Ace Doubles, they might as well counted as one book. The ones I picked up were all in the fair-to-poor range of condition, and as they were only 10 cents each, I picked out the best 200 or so and loaded 5 large boxes, and at the end just starting throwing random books in the boxes to get my money's worth. The new owner of the house counted nothing, offered to give me everything including the book cases, and offered me lemonade, which I turned down. The books I did grab that were in poor shape were first edition classics in their own right- I left two deteriorating first edition I, Robots with missing covers, things I normally would be over the moon about. The Dune books were in surprising shape and will be on eBay soon, as were some old classics that cleaned up with alcohol and a rag. I counted, and of the "listable" books, we have $484 in eBay value for $40, plus some cool books to add to the collection or sell on Instagram on the cheap. Some pretty cool standouts below: 

$50 fill a bag - Small Business Saturday Returns

 

The Paperback Exchange Bookstore is my kind of place.

     The Paperback Exchange Bookstore has been a once a year visit for me since I moved to the Tampa area. They don't get much new in the way of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and heavily rely on the donations from their frequent customers. Once the owner told me they had so many books dropped off during covid to keep them in business and the shelves full for 10 more years. Books are priced by Ebay sold value when the tags were put on them years ago, which is fair to today's market being the prices of everything went up. Condition of the books I would consider.. fair. Items that are labeled as "rare" almost always have pretty bad condition issues and are essentially worth just a fraction of what they are listed at. I did not get to take any pictures inside today as it was very crowded and the aisles are VERY close together; if you want to bend over and look at the bottom shelf, you have to take a knee so you don't hit the case behind you. Walking past someone requires them to leave the aisle you are in, and then you take their place. For those following along, I did the fill-a-bag deal with them two years ago today, the post is here.

The rules are a little different this year:

• Nothing newer than 3 years old
• Price has doubled to $50 - $45 if you brought your old bag
• No "rare" stickered books
• No store credits
• 20% off New and Rare books
• 10% Merch

     White tag books are no longer a dollar each, rare books are no longer BOGO which is fine, there was not that many rare books left in the sections I was in to speak of. A tent was located out back Garage Sale style with boxes of books and movies, and those you could fill a bag for $20. I feel bad for the poor owner, every person that came in was explained the rules and regulations of sale. Details are a little foggy, and the only thing I could find on their facebook referenced a Swag Bag sale, which people have no idea what that means when she talked about. Just call it Fill a bag for $50? Either way, I understood as I've been coming for a little while. 

     All said, I put 51 qualifying books in my bag, I could have fit some more, and she told me to top it off before I left, which I tried to do, but I could not really find anything else that I wanted to take home. At this point in my collection, 75% of it is in boxes and I can't even look at it, so anything that goes in the bag may not see the light of day anytime soon.

Here is the take, a good few little stacks, more than worth the average of $1.00 a book. I think there was a lot more value last time at half the price, but I digress. 

The final small stack is some books I set aside as being better condition, worth more, or just stood out to me initially when I took them out of the bag. 

     Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers was in great shape, and was not considered rare, but I have never seen one in the wild, not even in specialty stores or on Instagram. Phillip K Dick and Zelazny collab really stuck out, and was mixed in with the ton of Zelazny stuff they have piled up. I should mention that if you are looking to complete a series, this store has a ton of those books, all organized by alpha and series. It's really great, and I took advantage of that with a few books today.

     I spotted these really interesting compilation books mixed in, and married them up for a little impromptu reunion. I noticed Piers Anthony on the cover of one, and some of my other favorites mixed in, and those covers! I had to grab them and make them part of the collection. These Anthology books to me are kind of crazy in how many there actually are. I've been collecting for 25 years, and I keep finding new and interesting ones, hardcover, paperback, different themes.. you name it. They keep coming. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Yet another package from Arizona

    Mom comes to the rescue again with some great vintage science fiction. What was thought to be a wife-requested box of flannel pillow cases, turned out to be quite the little score of paperbacks.

   I left the bags on, but you get the idea. I love me some Ace Doubles. I don't have many Farmer ones, and he is by far one of my favorites. He did some collaborations with Piers Anthony, and that's when I started reading some of his older stuff back in high school.

The Mad Goblin cover is really great and embodies the cheap/quick and dirty art of the day. Super iconic. The K. Dick Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is in pretty decent condition, and I have never owned a copy. I called my mom to let her know it sells for around $100 on ebay in used/worn condition, and told her I would never sell it and it's safe with me. It's good to build the Phillip K. Dick collection back up from when I sold some off, and have good examples of that era.

Cheers.