U.S. 41 Books in Springhill is a Crumbling Gem

It may not look like much. 

     I saw this store when looking up bookstores in google maps in an attempt to plot out a thrifting trip for the wife and I, and to be honest, passed over it the first time we went up that way. It's kind of out of the way, and reviews were not the best. I would not miss it this time, and after lunch, we made it our last stop on the way back from Tampa.

There was a lot to take in.

     Gary, the owner introduced himself, explained the pricing- which was 50% cover sticker price, and said to yell if I need help. Right away the musty smell of old books and dust mixed with Florida dirt assaulted me. There was no AC, but some fans were on pointed out into the store. Several spots of the ceiling were falling down or weak in places. In short: I was home.

      Everything was in alphabetical order, and the better condition books were in bags. Nothing was "falling apart" as mentioned in some of the google reviews. It was hot for sure, and the lighting was not the best, but this made it feel like a treasure hunt to me. The fantasy and science fiction shelves where brimming with classics and the obscure. I had a hard time just focusing my attention on one area to research and start separating the books. My wife occasionally handed me a book she recognized, and I made a little pile as I walked around. 

     I noticed a part of the building in the back that was all vintage Sci-fi and Fantasy hardbacks, but the roof appeared to be leaking and it was closed with plastic covering anything. I took these pictures so I could look later on and see if there was anything I wanted. There was so much I passed up because the heat was getting to me, but there was nothing I would not do again. I had a really good conversation with Gary, he said he was there 35 years in the same spot, but business was tougher now than ever. We talked about trends, trading books in, and Star Trek. 100% I will make a list and come back here, and you should too. Yeah it's hot, yeah its dusty, but it's perfect. I'll do another post of what I picked later on down the line. 

Until next time. 

First Edition Hunt: Below the Root - Zilpha Snyder

 

     I knew almost nothing about this author or book when I saw this at a thrift store indoor market a few weekends back. I've seen enough books to know when something stands out, so I move it from pile A, over to pile B. 50 cents and I was on my way, with no internet to speak of, it was a small risk to take at that price. 

    Zilpha Keatley was an award winning children's author, but branched out a few times to write some Fantasy. She wrote 46 books in her life, and this one and the trilogy it's in, spawned a pretty good video game by the same name.  Unique for the time, the video game was written by her because she did not like how the first book ended, and has some negative reaction with fans. She used the video game as a sequel to the first book, and she considered it canon, and a correction to the plot device she created. Below the Root is considered a very uncommon book, and the other two books in the trilogy, even more so in any condition. That I have been collecting for 20+ years and have not come across one, is really something. 

     This particular copy sold right away, and the images are from that eBay post. The sale price for this book in "good" condition was $35 + $5 shipping. In perfect condition could go up to $50 for a first Tor printing. In hardcover, you can almost use your imagination as very few copies come up for sale. 

Happy hunting. 

Reseller Retrospective 2: Books sold in the second month of the eBay store

 

The books are taking over.

     Well, it's month two of nearly continuous operation of the eBay store, with a few multi-day sanity breaks in-between. My wife and I have fallen into sync and found our cadence with finding books, listing them, shipping prep, and final shipping to the customer. For those following along, this is a follow up to the previous post, found here. I went out to find books three times in the Month of April, finding several books in the process. In one instance at a hospice thrift store, I found five first/first Stephen King books, including IT, in mint unread condition; those books have been listed but not sold yet. I have found more books to list and inventory than we sold, so overall, I think this could be very sustainable long term. The amount listed below is before shipping, (I charge $5 for PB and $6 for HC) and estimated eBay fees. 

• $12 - Brazen Gambit - Lynn Abbey - First Dark Sun PB 1994
• $15 - God Emperor Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
• $15 - Witch World - Andre Norton - First PB 1963
• $50 - Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert - First/First HC
• $46 - The Man Who Rode Thunder - Williams Rankin - 1965 PB
• $9 - Infernal Idol  - Henry Seymour - 1969 First PB
• $10 - A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay 1973 PB
• $13 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1984 PB
• $40 - Focus on Biology
• $35 - I, Robot - Isaac Asimov - BCE 1950 HC
• $10 - The Mousetrap - Agatha Christie - 1969 First PB
• $15 - The Belgariad Part Two - David Eddings - BCE HC
• $9 - The Abyss - Orson Scott Card - First PB
• $11 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester - First Timescape PB 1978
• $28 - Highlander - Garry Kilworth - First PB 1998
• $11 - Deception Well - Linda Nagata - BCE HC 1978
• $15 - Charnel House - Graham Masterton - First HC 1978
• $12 - Swords Against Darkness IV - Andrew Offutt - First PB 1979
• $22 - Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison - First HC 1967
• $10 - The Forever War - Joe Haldeman - PB 1976
• $10 - Ringworld - Larry Niven - 3rd printing 1971 PB
• $12 - Picnic on Paradise - Joanna Russ 1979 PB
• $25 - The Djinn - Graham Masterton - First PB 1977
• $10 - A Feast Unknown - Phillip Jose Farmer - First 1980
• $6 - Deus Irae - Phillip K Dick/Zelazny - 1977 PB
• $12 - Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut - First 1970 PB

     In the month of April we made $471.73 net from 26 book sales, give or take a few bucks we made on shipping. Our 60 day total is now $1,193.10. The average price of books sold was a paltry $17.80, and our overhead on shipping media mail averaged $5.30 cents per book, which is envelope plus media mail average $4.40 shipping, and the little fake library cards and a protective bag we add in each package to solicit positive reviews and add a personal touch. (See results below)

     It's worth noting we are having issues with book storage, moved some boxes to the garage, and the desks are overflowing. The top of my son's piano has turned into a staging area for books waiting to be shipped or listed, and the plastic totes behind me have turned into the collection for current listed inventory. There has been a few moments where it has taken more than 5 minutes to find a book when sold, so we are working on a better way to keep things organized; more to come on that. I feel that our little sanity breaks of 4-5 days did not help the book sales and keep the inventory fresh, so it's been hard to keep motivated when I work a 50+ hour a month job and my wife homeschools all day. Tough changing gears! We felt discouraged when there was 3-4 days without a book sale, only to be rewarded with multiple days in a row of sales, or multiple in one day. I think it's just staying motivated and consistent overall that will keep this train on the tracks. So far in May we have already sold six books with a value of $193, so it's looking like a record month.

See you in May for Reseller Retrospective Part 3!

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: 

Reseller Retrospective: Books that have sold in the last month

 

My wife's book pricing system on her desk. 

     So it's been about five weeks since I announced that I was going to promote a proper eBay store and not just sell the occasional book here and there. It's been really tough holding back on selling some of them, and then ready to move on with selling some others. It turned out I have a ton more books than I thought, but then also less at the same time. Sooo many damn hard covers.. so heavy and take up so much space. I wish I could get rid of them all. For this quick post, I though I would go over what sold, for how much, and how much we made. The amount listed of each sale is before shipping (I charge $5 for PB and $6 for HC) and includes estimated eBay fees.

• $18 - The Origin of Crabs - Guy Smith - First PB
• $17 - The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe - First Timescape PB
• $30 - The Black Horde - Richard Lewis - First PB
• $20 - Chapterhouse Dune - Frank Herbert - First/First HC
• $25 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
• $16 - God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
• $25 - And The Put out the Light - ECR Lorac - First PB
• $15 - God Emperor Dune - Frank Herbert - 1983 PB
• $10 - Dragon in the Sea - Frank Herbert - 1956 HC no DJ
• $12 - Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert - 1980 PB
• $75 - Encyclopedia of Fairies - Kathrine Briggs - First/First HC
• $12 - Alone Against Tomorrow - Harlan Ellison - BCE HC
• $10 - Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert - 1970 PB
• $15 - Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein - 1968 PB
• $13 - The Belgariad Part One - David Eddings - BCE HC
• $11 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1984 PB 22nd Printing
• $32 - Chapterhouse Dune/Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1980's PB lot
• $12 - Conan The Treasure of the Tranicos - Robert E. Howard - Ace First PB
• $15 - Shadows Linger - Glen Cook - First PB
• $10 - Count Zero - William Gibson - 1987 PB
• $10 - 25th Spc Ed. Dune - Frank Herbert - 1990 PB
• $15 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - Ace 1987 PB

Cute little custom bookmark and stamp

     Total amount earned: $721.37, 26 sold, currently sitting at 162 active listings. Almost selling a book a day, but I noticed that people wait until the weekend to shop, so we always have a few to mail on Monday mornings. I pack the books and my wife lists them, we have a good system. We bought a cute little stamp pad and our talented son drew us a custom logo; I stamp each bubble mailer, and the custom book marks that are library cards we put with each order, and of course everything comes in a protective bag with some cardboard backing. In the time that we have sold 26 books, I have been to three book stores and found at least another 25 books that would count as listable, I.e.: Books with a high rate of sale over $10 in sold auction value. 13 of the books sold were Dune books, which I have a ton of, doubles, different printings, you name it. I've read the books and don't have a crazy attachment to them, and I see and have found a few out in the wild already to replace the ones sold for one or two dollars each. In short, this is something we could keep up for a long time with the current inventory.

The goals of this project are: 

1. Learn how to run a small retail business with my wife without killing each other
2. Learn more about books and what sells (It's Dune, at the moment, but these Choose your own adventure books are interesting and rare)
3. Make money and pay down some bills
4. Use what I know about marketing and sales to be successful
5. Manage a target inventory of 500 books
6. Have fun

     So far we're having a blast, posting more books, and making new memories. I love seeing and touching and opening boxes of books that have not seen the light of day for over 10 years, researching and planning, and of course reading some of them again. 

Click here to visit the eBay store 

Check us out on Instagram

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!