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Do enough library sales and you’ll see some weird shit, especially if you show up at the beginning of the sale. People have their specialties, their little territories, and they hustle to stake out their spots. They get grabby. They get pushy. They get shouty. They move faster than other unhealthy looking people. Some sales have strict rules about hoarding because of how ugly this behavior can get. I’ve never seen violence at a library sale, but I’ve seen the cops called to remove an irate customer. I laughed at that guy (he was literally pushing people out of the way and spilling books everywhere) but I have mentally gone off the rails a few times at these sales. It can get frustrating to be the victim of other people’s pushiness, especially when their pushiness costs you potential profit. Before Chicago, I had only ever gone to sales in the tri-state area so I assumed this is what things were like everywhere.
But I didn’t see any of that at the Chicago sale I went to, and half-price day was downright calm. Everyone proceeded in an orderly manner to their different areas of interest, and there were only a few scattered Amazon sellers instead of the usual dozens. So the rest of my story isn’t full of the action and chaos that I was expecting and maybe secretly hoped for. I didn’t have to shove anybody out of the way or engage in bare-knuckle boxing to get my preferred box sets and obscure media items. The doors opened at 9:59, I was about tenth in line, I walked quickly through the double doors over to the room with the music and grabbed as many big box sets as I could carry to the storage area. I lost out on a few items I wanted (Leonard Bernstein box sets) to an enterprising guy about my age with a scanner and less stuff in his hands, but I pretty much got everything I wanted. Maybe the high prices (most box sets were in the $50 to $100 range before the half-off discount, some higher) scared everyone off. Maybe there aren’t as many Amazon people in the big city. Maybe people had better things to do on a summer Sunday.
I dropped off my big pile in the storage area and headed off to the other rooms to see what else I could find. I was really hoping to make an offer on a collection of 150 leather bound gilded Notable Trials books which “probably weren’t going to sell at full price” according to the volunteers on Friday, but I wasn’t the only one with that idea. Another Amazon seller (not the music guy) beat me to the Notable Trials books, went straight there when the doors opened and bought every last one at their full half-price price of $5 each. So all my thoughts of making a $300 offer and hoping they’d accept or counter went out the window. That was a letdown. But one of the volunteers mentioned there were a few more Notable Trials books floating around the sale which had been categorized into the different sections that the sale was organized in.
They felt like a souvenir at that point, something to remember the trip by, so I headed off to Room 1 to begin my second hunt. I consoled myself with a complete DVD series which I had been eyeing the day before and after a little bit of hunting at different tables around the room, added a few Notable Trials books to my pile. I’d done enough research to know that in bulk these books sell for $10 to $20 each, so at $5 I was going to buy as many as I could find. Plus I grabbed a Thich Nhat Hanh book to read on the train home. If I was going to spend all this money, I was going to learn how to accept my decisions, damn it.
I wandered back to the third room, the one with the music box sets, to see if there were Notable Trials books lurking on all the tables I’d ignored while grabbing armfuls of classical music. I found a few more gold-edged books and I was really feeling good. I was well over $250 at that point, but this was a rare day. Then a volunteer rolled a cart into the room with more classical box sets. Jackpot!
I lurked around the corner for a little bit, but the Amazon guy immediately started scanning as soon as the cart lurched into the room, so I meandered over, too, and casually inspected the biggest box he wasn’t touching. Because I don’t scan, I was quicker than him (eat my road grit, liver lips) and grabbed a few things which were an obvious bargain at half price. The volunteer was thrilled (less work for her) and told us there was more coming, so I figured I’d just enjoy the ride and not think too much about why they were restocking expensive items on half-price day. In case you’re waiting for a gotcha moment, I am too. At library sales there is always the risk of missing or incorrect discs, something broken or weird goo inside things (never eat the goo), but there was no gotcha moment this time. The sets were all in pristine shape. Why were they putting out $100+ items on the shelves for the first time on half price day? I don’t know for sure, but probably the answer is that there is no good reason. Not everything is as efficient as it could be. Not everyone’s first goal when it comes to selling is maximizing profit.
I decided to catch some flies with honey and made friends with the Amazon guy, who was surprisingly outgoing. Then again, I was too. He talked about stuff like sales rank and I didn’t, but we were both happy about our good luck at finding such a unique sale. He had never seen one like this either. I always fly solo at these sales, so it was a nice change of pace to chit-chat with someone while searching for treasure. I spent the next few hours chatting about Amazon vs eBay, his brief interest in selling cards during the pandemic and how we got into selling full-time. This was all while waiting for the volunteers to restock from a seemingly never-ending supply of classical box sets. We browsed other sections, him with a little enthusiasm and me not even faking it much, but really we were waiting for the next big score. And there were some big scores. The largest box set I grabbed was a 200+ disc Bach 333 set which basically took up half the library cart, must have weighed 40 pounds and was priced at $250 ($125 since it was half-price day). My new Amazon buddy said something about sales rank, but I was doing Google-fu on my phone at that point (too much $$$ not to do the basic work) and wasn’t listening. I had seen there were a few sold listings in the $400 and up range in the last few months, and that was enough to keep me hunting for the good stuff and researching to confirm my hunches and carrying piles over to the storage area and coming back for more. I had my plan, and it was coming together better than I had hoped the night before, and I wasn’t going to let Amazon guy or my own crippling self-doubt talk me down.
Eventually the sale ran out of box sets, though the nice volunteer helpfully told me there were more in the library’s book store and showed me pictures “in case I wanted to come back when they opened on Tuesday.” I didn’t tell her that I was basically out of money, but I was swimming in debt-infested waters. I had filled up an entire big trolley and was one of a handful of customers at the sale who basically became a mini-celebrity on that Sunday. I blew way past my budget even with it being half-price day and spent $558.50, which meant between the two days of the sale I had spent $721.50, my highest total ever. I buy hundreds of cards online every week but it’s almost always $50, $75, $150 at a time. I never really had the money before this past year to spend such a large amount and not have to check my bank account to make sure I had enough to cover next week’s bills. I know that’s not most people’s story who sell online, and I wouldn’t recommend it if you can have the option to accumulate savings and not have debt, but dead-end job after dead-end job is what led me to reselling in the first place.
Add in the Ubers to the cost of this haul and my total was right around $750. After a short Uber ride with a very amused driver and their full XL trunk, I sat on the bed of my hotel room and stared at piles and boxes of classical music box sets plus a small box of other good stuff. My train home was Tuesday, and I had about 48 hours to figure out how I would get all this stuff back to New Jersey. My suitcase was already stuffed from all my purchases on Friday, but I remembered so many old podcast episodes which focused on J&R’s adventures in different cities and knew I could figure this out.
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I am enjoying your big haul blow-by-blow account. I had a good laugh at your description of library sale customers who “move faster than other unhealthy looking people”. I grew up in Philly but did not go to library sales when I lived there so did not witness the tri-state area grabby pushy shouty phenomena you describe.
Speaking of Philly, I was there this weekend visiting family and went to the Berlin NJ Flea Market which was always one of my favorites back in the ’70’s. I had some folks with me so could not seriously shop for inventory but did find a few things that’ll help pay for the trip. I was very happy to see they still had the raw bar / seafood place inside so I enjoyed a dozen raw clams, as I always used to do (though sometimes getting oysters, of course). I told a lady running the front who looked older than I am and who I thought maybe had been there a while that the last time I had eaten there was 40-something years ago and it was nice to be back, but she was unimpressed. “That wasn’t us” she said tersely, which kind of left me at a loss for words. Perhaps I brought up a sore subject.
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The library sale competitiveness is really an epidemic. I am going to take the Amtrak into NYC in a few weeks to check out a sale in Manhattan. As much for the laughs as the hope of finding any gems. I really think this haul was a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
I have lived right outside for Philly for about five years but never been to Berlin flea market! I grew up in the central part of the state so I always gravitate to Columbus. But I will check that out next time I have a weekend free. If only to go to the raw bar. Nothing like a good dozen oysters with a nice mignonette.
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Wow the whole Chicago trip sounded like a great adventure. I’m amazed that you managed it all using public transportation.
Did you end up with multiple boxes or large bags full of your haul. I stress out when I’m not sure if all my stuff will fit in the car.. Did you ship it home or find room on the train.
Either way, it appears you made a nice score.
Congrats.
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I love using public transit, only wish it was more widespread in the US. Chicago’s Ventra was great though. In addition to all of the scavenging, I was able to explore the city and the only Uber I took was to/from the library sale.
This weekend, I will add some more pictures to my flickr album of the trip and include the link in my next post early next week. From the first day when I spent $160 I had a few large boxes and that would have fit in my suitcase. But there was just too much stuff from the big haul on half price day. I had two boxes of books and small boxes and then probably a half-dozen large box sets, and the big sets were large (like 12″ x 12″ x 4″) and 10 to 15 pounds each. Plus the Bach set. So I shipped it all home. More about that adventure soon.
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One of my biggest character defects is getting way too competitive so it was nice to see how you and the Amazon seller got along and co-existed as boxes came out. My blood pressure racing hearing about the boxes coming out. This is why I do better when I find caches that no one else notices.
At a library sale I’d expect many more book scanning guys. Why do you think it was just you and that one other guy going all in?
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One of my biggest character defects is getting way too competitive so it was nice to see how you and the Amazon seller got along and co-existed as boxes came out. My blood pressure racing hearing about the boxes coming out. This is why I do better when I find caches that no one else notices.
Yeah, I also get those deep base urges to be an asshole. I’m generally not a competitive person in most areas but flipping has been my ticket out of poverty (or misery, take your pick) so it’s one area when I can get really fired up. I also hate aggressive behavior, so these sales often feel like a test of my patience. I skip them sometimes because I just can’t handle the bs.
When that second cart full of good quality items rolled out, the Amazon guy was on top of it right away and I realized I could either work with him or against him. I got lucky that he was a nice guy and it helped a lot that we were buying using different parameters. I wanted the rare stuff and he wanted the stuff with more robust Amazon sales data.
We exchanged info, so I will text him before I write my next post and find out how he did with the stuff he bought. And I won’t gloat too much, even if this is a place where I know everyone else would understand. Always trying to do better.
At a library sale I’d expect many more book scanning guys. Why do you think it was just you and that one other guy going all in?
I’m really not sure. I’d love to figure out the answer. Maybe it was something about Chicago or the midwest? Or because it was summer? Or in a city? I plan on testing some of these theories in the future. I have the time and flexibility and money to take some trips and make some memories now. But sometimes we have a fluke lucky find and I think this was mine for the year.
There was a third guy who went all-in because he bought all the notable trials books I was interested in, but he didn’t touch the music as far as I could tell and I was there most of Sunday. A lot of the stuff I bought does not do well on Amazon (found this out from my buddy who showed me the software he uses) and the prices were high, even with half off some of the stuff I bought was $50 or $100. I think a lot of book scanning people do the buy for $1 sell for $5 to $50 trick over and over again, especially with FBA where you’re shipping everything to Amazon for them to ship to the end buyer.
Plus these sets were bulky, you can probably fit 25 books in a box to ship to FBA versus one of these big box sets.
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@craig-rex The thing that struck me about the box sets is that they are collated by conductor, rather than by composer. Makes it easier for the record company regarding contracts, might make sales a bit slower as you’re selling to a buyer who wants to hear Harnoncourt or Celibidache performing a range of music, rather than, say, Bach’s oratorios.
I made the mistake of buying some Gilbert and Sullivan recordings at a flea market a while back. Cost me £20. They sat on a shelf for a couple of months until I finally managed to convince myself that I wasn’t going to sell them, so I donated them to a thrift bookshop.
They were on 78rpm records, weighed over a hundred pounds.
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The library sales in my area are nothing like big city library sales! My local library actually maintains a wall in one of their meeting rooms with a perpetual library sale.
Last summer the library near my day job had a big sale. Hardly anyone was there. The idea of a line at opening is hard for my small town brain to even comprehend! I walked in on my lunch hour and scored multiple boxes of good stuff – Vintage star wars novels, manga. I need to get those books listed now that Ahsoka is out and they’re gonna be dropping more and more Expanded universe stuff in (Thrawn baby!).
My hopes are high for them dropping some serious nerd stuff from the 90’s books.
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