Thrift Store Books.

You know I love to thrift shop, right? Well, there are a few things I haven’t told you about up until this point. Not only do I find awesome wooden balance bike for $4.  Sure, it will be at least a year and a half or so before she’ll be able to use it, but in brand new condition. Plus, we’ve already discussed my hoarding tendencies so I won’t bore you will old time last weeks tales.

Other than looking for things to hoard I also look for old children’s books. Sure, I hoard those too but I also sell them (read: to make money). I’ve been doing it for a few months now and have turned less than $10 worth of investment into over $150 bucks.

“The Rules”

• I never pay more than .50 hardback thanks to thrift store prices (some stores even sell them for .20).
• I always look for first editions and try to only buy ones I am drawn too. I seem to have an ‘eye’ for good illustrations’ and so ‘following my instincts’ seems to be what works for me.
• The must be in good clean condition with little markings. 

The first thing I do once I get home is hop on Amazon. I search the book title by year and determine their value. I seem to luck out most of the time. The cheapest I’ve sold my .50 investments for is: $13 (then I pay the $1.20 media mail shipping) some for as much as $35. 

I’ve sold about twelve or so. Obviously it's not a career and I’m not exactly a book store. Seeing as how I’m already there looking for deals, I might as well stroll the book section and scan it for old titles that catch my eye.  I guess I should also mention I’ve also made a little money on awesome vintage cookbooks so if you’re thinking of keeping an eye out look for those too.

Have you ever bought and sold items from garage sales or thrift stores?

Anyway, all this leads me up to this. Every third or fourth book turns out not to be worth much. It’s never really feels like a loss since I bought books that I liked in the first place. The first thing I do is sit down like a kid and read it. Most of the books I fall in love with and place in the cedar trunk in her room for a later day. But every now and then a book disgusts me.

Yes a children’s book. I’ll ask myself ‘how in the hell was this published’. I’ll read a section out loud to Mr. A and he’ll smile and shrug his shoulders. Every now and then he’ll give me a ‘that’s not bad’ or ‘that’s just the way things were’.

Yesterday I picked up a called Seven Diving Ducks.

The cover was adorable. The illustrations were really adorable. Then I got to the part where the father duck tells one of his little ducklings that ‘there is no room in his family for a sissy’ then later in the book he told the same little duckling that he’d have to leave and go live with the chickens because ‘there was no room for a duck that couldn’t’ dive’.

Sure, I get it. It’s a lesson in pushing yourself beyond your fears. But in my opinion: father duck is an asshole. So for the first time in my buying children’s books I will not be keeping this book. Since its not worth much (since everyone else in the world seems to agree with me) I'm not even going to try and list it.  Honestly I’m not sure what to do with it burn it or donate it?

Burning a book has always seemed transgress but then on second thought, who'd want their child reading books were fathers are assholes? 

Decisions, decisions.