Monday Rambles

Happy belated Darwin Day!

I'll be starting a new on-again, off-again series of posts later this week or early next dedicated to some of the ins and outs of re-selling in a vendor's mall.  It's not going to be a definitive "how to" guide.  I think there is enough that is unpredictable about this business that it's hard to really pin down any but some of the most general principles.  So what you'll be getting is me--just one junker's thoughts and opinions about re-selling and how to do it.

Nevertheless, I'm going to be calling this series "This is how we do it."  So take it somewhat tongue in cheek--pretty much like you do whenever I say that I am a blogger.

Yes, I'm cribbing the series title from this:





It looks like post #700 might be coming up this week!  Yahoo!

Pretty dull week last week.  A former teaching client contacted me about some more classes.  One of my teaching gigs will be ending next month, but not before one of my other ones gets started next week.  I'll be doing double duty for a few weeks.  I hope I'm up to it.  Did a brief housesitting gig over the weekend, but it was just for a few days.

Sales have been pretty standard lately.  Holding steady at the Peddler's Mall without anything spectacular.  Very slow at YesterNook.

Went to a book sale over the weekend.  I've been to this one a lot, but never as a reseller. It's always on the pricey side for a used book sale.  Hardbacks are 3.50, for example.  But, if you're looking for something unique or hard-to-find, it's a good one to hit.  The selection is eclectic and pretty deep.  I've always found a few things there that I'd been searching for.  And, as a source for a reader, the prices are not that bad.

For a seller, on the other hand, they're outrageous.  I ended up spending five bucks.  I got a paperback and three kids books and a couple of vintage pamphlets.  An okay, if not spectacular, haul.  The real finds, though, came from the free boxes.

The organizers of this sale are extremely picky about what they'll take to sell.  In the church newsletter asking for donations, they had a list of items they would not accept, including old cookbooks ("the outdated photography makes the food look unappealing"), old textbooks, and old manuals.  Now, the places where I hang out these days love that kind of stuff.

Even at the sale, they were telling customers how picky they were and how they only want to sell "quality" items.  One of them even said "That's why we have so many set out for free."  Well, you don't have to tell me twice!

The porch of the place was covered with boxes of free books.  I ended up grabbing about 20 of them.  If it hadn't been sub-arctic that day, I probably would have walked off with more, but between the temps and the wind, I was losing extremities, so I had to cut it short.

Now, I didn't find any big ticket unknown treasures in the free boxes, but I got some stuff that will be sure sellers in the booths.  What more can you ask for?

What I paid for:

That Crusoe book has illustrations by the great Lynd Ward in it.  I'll be hard-pressed not to keep it.

Here's what I got for FREE:

The red and white checked book is a sweet, vintage German cookbook.  There are even handwritten notes in German next to some of the recipes!

All in all, not a bad catch!