Scavenge of the week November 26-December 2, 2023

[craig rex]

Last month of 2023. Where has your year gone?

Mine has mostly been spent doing my scavenging online, but I got back out there briefly this week. One of my favorite local libraries was running their annual “better books” sale and they added a bonus day this year with antiquarian books. I was excited for the better book sale for the last month. The last few years, this library set up a room full of “better books” and media items…which are always the things that really get me out of bed. I like weird Japanese movies and all kinds of music. I love selling those types of things even more than I like watching and listening to them. I had some nice scores in those areas and a little scavenger’s envy from seeing things that were in other buyers’ hands which I didn’t get to the sale in time to snag. So I had a plan this year to get to the sale on time…early even!…and I was up bright and early on Friday morning. As though I had a real job. Yuck. I don’t recommend doing this.

To my surprise, some of the other book buying zombies that gathered outside the library at 9:55 AM had a little personality, talking shit about Amazon people and discussing other good book sales near and far. At 10:03, a sleepy library employee finally opened the doors and we all headed towards the stairs to the lower level where the sale was held. No pushing and shoving, no one was trampled. It was almost pleasant.

But good things never last around the unwashed mass who gather at library sales. Once I got downstairs, my mood changed completely. The library had changed everything up this year! There were books laid out on four tables arranged in a sideways M in the lobby…and that was the whole sale! No DVDs. No box sets. Nothing particularly current or interesting. Just big old dumb books spread out on four tables.

Another bookfly asked the lady in charge which room the rest of the stuff was in. There was one room down a hallway to the left (the main room for the regular sale) and one to the right which would usually hold all the oddball stuff. “This is our better books sale,” the head booklady announced proudly. “Everything is $5. The collectible books are tomorrow and they’ll be in that room over there,” she said, pointing somewhere, but I wasn’t listening or looking anymore. No one was. We were all disappointed. I was sure of that. How could we not be? These are your better books? This was all?

This was all. In my mind, a few people marched right back up the stairs out of anger. “You tricked us,” I wanted to say to her, out loud, on behalf of all of us, but I didn’t. It was really poor advertising, but it was just a book sale.

Determined (or desperate), I shuffled down the long side of the first of three tables and stumbled on…a 3 volume rubber banded set of martial arts books. Never judge a book by its cover or a library sale by its first impression. This was a great sign for two reasons. First, I love selling lots and groups of similar items, even if it’s only a few bucks profit. I’ve found that I can motivate myself to photograph and list them, they often sell well and quickly, and they’re easy to donate and forget about if I miscalculated their value. Plus, I’m learning to overcome my tendency to undercharge shipping on box lots. Second reason this set got me excited, I’ve sold enough martial arts books and DVDs to have an idea of quality just on sight…and I liked what I saw. A quick Google told me that one volume from the set sells on Amazon for $30. Cha-ching, Amazon dorks. Scan faster.

I shuffled from one table to another without finding much else, but as I rounded the corner to the third lengthwise table, I noticed one of the other bookbugs had almost two full boxes of books already. I hadn’t noticed anyone sweeping piles of books off the table with one arm, and I had a moment where I doubted myself and my own sanity. Then I spotted a few promising art and music books. A little Amazon research reminded me that my gut is not always right, since neither book sells for more than $10. But that’s all part of the game.

I circled back around to the last table and didn’t find anything that I was too thrilled about. A number of heavy books in all genres that were either a little too out of date or a little too generic to be worth much, which always makes me think about all the books out there that were printed…someone’s life work…and no one is reading them now. Maybe no one has read a copy of this book in years. Books sit all around the world unopened on shelves, in boxes, in storage. Books are meant to be read. But those authors still did it, man, they wrote their damn book and maybe that matters way more than if anyone’s reading the book now.

I had that 3 volume set of martial arts books in my USPS bin and not a single other thing, so after completing a loop of all the tables, I decided to make one more pass-through because it was only about 10:08 at this point. As I moved between the first two tables, it felt like I was looking at entirely different books than I did on my first go-round. Had I lost my mojo not going to sales like this for a few months? Was I losing my mind and this was all a dream? What is a book sale, really?

I saw a 1930s pamphlet about tree ring analysis which I had passed up at the library’s previous sale in the late spring and decided to drop it into my bin. My post-sale research six months ago had gone nowhere, but I figured I was in the black with the martial arts books so why not take a chance this time. I turned around to the other table and moved a little further down the line and saw a thick book with a black cover and no identifying information, surrounded by a few poetry books. Poetry is one of the genres I know really well, so I cracked the book open and saw the title, selected shorter poems 1950-70 which is a sign that it’s a compilation of a bunch of different books. I hadn’t heard of the poet, Emmett Williams. Not a great sign! Then I looked on the copyright page and saw the text limited edition of 1000 and that was enough to get me to pull out my phone. I saw a listing at $100 on AbeBooks and I was sold, the book went into my bin.

I added a thin art book about trumpets and kettles to my cache, almost entirely on my gut, and went to checkout. Of course they charged me $5 for each volume of the rubber-banded martial arts book set instead of $5 total like they should have, it was that kind of day. But it was too early to work the craig rex charm, plus I had a feeling nothing I could have done would have changed the mood in the room, and most of all I was ready to go home at this point. It was not even 10:30, but it had been quite a day.

Of course, when I get home and dive into Terapeak, what do I find but a $450 sale in Terapeak. Sometimes that’s how this life works. That big sale is for a nicer copy of Emmett Williams’ Selected Shorter Poems with the dust jacket, but my copy has a key element in common with that sold listing — a hand signed drawing. The drawing was stuffed in the middle of the book. I didn’t even notice it at the sale. No one did, otherwise it would have been gone in the first 90 seconds. There’s one other copy of the book listed on eBay for $675, plus that pesky AbeBooks listing at $100. But eBay has a much wider reach. I can start my listing at $200 or $300 and work my way down. Even a $50 sale would mean that everything else I bought was covered…and I have $100 no problem in the other stuff I bought. Not bad for 30 minutes plus 15 minutes of driving! Not bad for a total bust!

The antiquarian sale the next day was a complete bust, to the point where I stopped looking for things to buy and starting eavesdropping on the head book guy talking to some old-timer about how he does all this research “on the computer” to set his prices. He seemed to have the right ideas…”some of those Amazon sellers are crazy”…(tell me about it)…”just because someone sets a certain price doesn’t mean it will sell for that price” (preach head book guy!)…but more than a few of his “researched” $20 and $35 books were my recent donations. There was a time a month or two ago when I got very serious about cleaning up my unsold/unmemorable inventory, especially media items since they take up too much space, and I donated a box to this library every few weeks. They let you leave stuff outside the back door which is my preference, I don’t want to talk to anyone, just let me do my thing and peace out. Some of my donations had gone listed and unsold on eBay for multiple years, yet here they were on this table with handwritten price tags higher than my hasty eBay prices. A reminder that “doing research” can mean whatever people want it to mean. I left without buying a single thing, but in terms of dollars and fun per hour, it was a great weekend of scavenging.

What did you find this week?

[Retro Treasures WV]

The Goodwill near my house continues to have great shoes at even greater prices. I thought the days of plentiful bread n butter shoes for $3-4 were gone but here they are again!! Their shelves and racks are bursting at the seams and prices keep getting lower. I’m quite happy about this as they were on the wrong path for a while.

The Goodwill we go to on Sunday near where I work continues to get worse and worse. Here it is Christmas time and their shelves are half empty. They are down to like 5 carts so the store was full of people shopping in their arms.  Their prices continue to get crazier and crazier – they charge $3-5 for used crappy VHS tapes!

They’ve also heavily expanded their “purchased goods” section and the prices on those are crazy as well – I scan them occasionally and they are almost always at or above the online value. They used to do 50% of value but I guess they feel that is no longer needed. Whatever. I just go there on Sunday so I can count my mileage of going to town for shopping and dinner. Any good items I scavenge are just bonus.

Anyhoo, my favorite item of my light scavenging was a Speed Racer Cosplay helmet with sounds. I paid $1 for it  – I’ve sold one before for $50 so it was a no-brainer.

I also found a pair of Hoka shoes, but the soles had a good amount of general wear. I went ahead and got them as they are still a $30-40 pair.

At the “good” Goodwill the best pair of shoes I got was a pair of Ferragamo monk strap men’s shoes.

 

[ChristineR]

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m87480405391/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17808011402&utm_content=t0&adgroup=138718833506&network=g&device=c&merchant_id=154042365&product_id=m87480405391&product_id=298298284958&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAjrarBhAWEiwA2qWdCL9FsTfTFaCUUeqg1nO6YI5QxKzhMC5b-yJwiuTRCtO4HFUUYHUcMRoCA4gQAvD_BwE

I found NIP 1970s sheets in the above pattern. (Not my listing)  My friend had this color scheme and I had the light blue.  So fun to see them again.

Had a goodwill haul of Christmas stocking kits.  The most valuable has sold for over $250.  This is the second most valuable that I got listed already.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/335147270986

[Antique Frog]

I bought lots of used crappy VHS tapes last year, at £1 ($1.20) for 20. The plastic boxes are good for storing small items. Now DVDs are getting dumped, at 10 for £1, but the cases are no use and the discs themselves are Region 2.

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