They happen twice a year, in April and
September.
I went yesterday and today, and found some worthwhile books both days. Yesterday, for instance, I bought a copy of of Alan Bullock's Hitler and Stalin for three dollars, and today I bought a copy of Laurie Mylroie's Bush vs. the Beltway for just fifty cents.
Although the book sales are run as a benefit for the Seattle Public libraries, most books there are priced below market prices. A portion of the books are put in a separate "Better Books" section and individually priced, with most costing less than five dollars.
The rest of the books cost one dollar for a hardback, 75 cents for a large paperback, and 50 cents for a standard paperback — on Saturday. On Sunday, all the prices are cut in half.
Naturally these prices — and the large number of books for sale (about 100,000) — attract arbitrageurs, people buying books to sell elsewhere for a higher price. Eric Lacitis of the Seattle Times describes their scene in this article. But despite their number, there were still many bargains to be found by the ordinary buyer, especially if, like me, the buyer has idiosyncratic tastes.
But I did find it distracting from time to time to see a book scout zipping through the books, scanning the bar codes into a PDA or cellphone, and looking up the prices instantly. One woman told me that she was using the prices on Amazon, but according to this company, it is possible to link to a whole set of on-line book sellers, at least with the right software.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(This New York Times article tells us (warns us?) that we will be seeing many more cellphones equipped with barcode scanners in the future.)
Posted by Jim Miller at September 30, 2007 05:01 PM | Email ThisMost come from the Seattle and King County Library systems.
Many of these books are no longer availabe to anyone except me in the entire state.
The books of which I speak are not just erudite titles. Many are of general interest, but the criteria for disposal is a simple matter of the number of times that they have been checked out.
I feel that there should be a large building for storage of the last copy in the system of at least any timeless technical or reference book.
I consider the absurdly low prices on some these books to be just plain theft from the public, but change the law after I'm done buying, please.
Posted by: Bart Cannon on October 1, 2007 03:45 AMI usually go to the CD room while the wife looks for other stuff. I learned too late that there is a DVD section as well.
Ditto on the weird and rude people. My wife saw one woman in the weird category who carried around a large binder with various tabs that read "Books I've Read", "Books I haven't read", and, bizarrely, "Books I DON'T want to read". Geez, you must really read in depth when you can't remember if you read a particular book or not. . . . .
Posted by: Frank Black on October 1, 2007 01:18 PMCome by my place and see what you missed in the way of science and technology titles!!
Though this one IS erudite, you'd love African Cave Taphonomy.
I've been to sale with friends with specific interest. I've found them many titles while seeking out my own interests. One must slow down and suffer through all the distractions in order to locate the gold.