A round-up of some recent photos of books I put out at the thrift store. Even though I spend 20 hours a week with the books, I like to gaze upon them away from work too.
Last month, Big Boss agreed to flat-pricing books at .49, .99, and $1.99.
Now I only put price stickers on books if there's any question about their category, like the fashion history books above.
Technically they could be .49-cents Kids' Books because they're from the children's books publisher I used to work for, but they're brand new, and cool, and of high-interest for adults, so I stuck Adult Prices on them ($1.99 for hardbacks).
Technically they could be .49-cents Kids' Books because they're from the children's books publisher I used to work for, but they're brand new, and cool, and of high-interest for adults, so I stuck Adult Prices on them ($1.99 for hardbacks).
Flat pricing saves time, so I get more books out, faster. It also means some of the paperbacks especially are way, way underpriced. January earnings from book sales went UP, as I'd hoped & sensed they would---even though we closed a couple days for the sub-zero weather.
Gardening books don't sell much, no matter the weather though...
(I still haven't got enough 5 x 7" frames to put out all 23 of the category signs Art Sparker made for us.)
And, my favorite thing = this cow, below.
Oh, and there's still the 33-cent Bargain Books section too, for good but beat-up books, or books that don't sell after a couple/few months but that I determine deserve one last chance.
14 comments:
Gonna put my oar in and recommend that you salvage some artificial flowers and put them out with the gardening books mid march, maybe even keep the particularly attractive gardening books in reserve till then - a change is as good as a rest!
Good ideas, Sparker--thanks! I love to do that sort of thing--and we do get artificial flowers, so I'll do that.
You see I put those little bird houses with the books--and framed your Gardening sign in a flowery frame...
This is the season people start planning gardens here, but so far... no movement.
It's a mystery to me, actually.
Elaine and I took a bunch of stuff to the ReStore yesterday, and I spent some time looking at the books before concluding that the ReStore has only books that no one wants.
But your stuff — it’s like a whole bookstore!
MICHAEL: Thanks! It's true, we get a lot of great donations!
It surprises me, and people do often comment on it. I hope/think this translates into continued good book donations.
And by separating out Crime (James Patterson) and Romance (Danielle Steele), I make it easy for those who want them to find them, and keep the other shelves clear of their clutter. (I mean, there are so MANY of these, they can be like grapevines, taking over!)
The other day my predecessor in Books brought me some of the strong, uniform-sized boxes we use for book recycling (they get resold).
I still had more than enough of them, but am always happy to have more.
"I never had extras," she told me. "I used to have to be careful not to run out."
This confirms my suspicion that she was recycling a ton more books than I do--almost all the Cool, Old Books---the ones on the bookshelf with the cow, in the last photo.
Your bookstore within the store continues to look more and more wonderful!
I think gardening books are a bore, and that's why they don't sell to any but the most hardcore gardeners. Having a garden, I've been given a number of gardening books as gifts over the years...and I've never found one that I've looked beyond the day I got it.
The cow is great...but Noah's ark is also pretty cool!
Your book store is HUGE. Space is a problem at my store, especially since I think it's important to put some books face-out on on the shelf because nobody is going to read spines. You have to love books to be good at this job, and it's clear that you love books. Maybe your predecessor wasn't a book person? I think of my shop as a chocolate box, and every bookcase has to look delicious. I don't have room for cool props like you have but oh, if I did I would be in heaven. You must love to go to work.
We've had three William Wegman books -- the guy who takes photos of his Weimerrandsrs doing cute stuff -- on the shelves for a year. I'm surprised that no one wants to buy them, but I can't throw them out yet. And I've had an Anne Geddes book on display for 6 months -- I was sure that that one would go in a heartbeat. I have 4 Susan Branch books, which I thought would get snatched quickly, on display for half a year also. My Kennedy stuff doesn't sell. Go figure.
A collagists came looking for material and she wants dictionaries for her art work (damn...I just threw out 4 of them, of course). We had some acting books on the shelf for three years so I tossed them last month to make room for a crap load of poetry books we got in, and yesterday a woman came in looking for ... wait for it ... acting books.
My last book that I wrote was about gardens. Every day I think about how much I would love to re-write it (I was a little depressed when I wrote it -- my dog died) but I must say that gardeners are the nicest people to write for. I got waaaaaay more print and social media coverage for that book than either of my other 2.
Love seeing displays of books and the other times added into the shelves. Also hearing about what goes on in other bookstores is so much fun. I think one has to love books in order to work in a bookstore! So sad that the predecessor didn't care about the old books as much.
When displays are engaging people want to buy. Having worked at Pottery Barn for 6 months we often heard people say- didn't know you had this" when it had been on the shelf for over a month. They were just lost among everything else.
ps. If no one picks up "The Price of the Prairie" or "Ruffs and Pompons" I'll take them.
Kirsten
BINK: Well, it may be that simple: gardeners DON'T WANT gardening books!
And maybe it's like recipe books? Cooks tend to use the Internet for recipes more? I do!
At any rate, cookbooks don't sell much either.
VIVIAN: Yes, I'm thankful for how much space I have--even, sometimes when books sell fast, too much space!
After a busy Saturday, the fiction section especially will look scrawny, and I won't have enough books to plump it up.
I love hearing about your adventures in the book trade!
(Another book topic!)
Yeah, our Anne Geddes book hasn't sold in a couple weeks either, even featured on a display shelf. Maybe the market was flooded a while ago. And Kennedy collection has been just sitting there for a while too.
But I did sell a Wegman book...!
Have not gotten a single Susan Branch book donated in my 8 months there.
I'm just starting to entertain the idea of selling good but unsold books on behalf of the store to Half Price Books or a local indie secondhand store.
Less work than ebay, and I could take the money as store credit and buy things I know would sell.
Maybe you could do that with the Wegmans?
Your "Gardens of Folly & Awe" book looks gorgeous and fun:
I'm sure it would sell in my store!
And you're working on Monet, right--a perennial delight.
KIRSTEN: If those books are there when I go in today, they are yours, at a whopping $1.99 each. (Media mail will add another $3 or 4.)
I don't know what was going on with my predecessor.
I think she loved books, but when she trained me in for a couple days, she told me certain ones didn't sell, while my experience is that they do sell...
She was 75, and had had ill health--
I think she wasn't physically up for hauling books around as much as the job calls for---and on hard concrete floors too.
I go home sore plenty days.
She'd also been there 10+ years--maybe my enthusiasm will wane? I sort of doubt it, since it hasn't waned in the 50-some years I've been acquainted with books, but who knows what age and illness will do.
She also felt unsupported in the job, and it's true that none of my coworkers read, so you're kind of alone.
But she got mean and judgmental---told me Big Boss was "illiterate", for instance, which isn't true at all!
He reads the Bible all the time.
Not her cup of tea, maybe, but it IS a book... :)
I would like to buy the book 'Succulents Container Gardens'! Will send money! I just bought a book on creating "gardens" using very realistic-looking artificial succulents, but I prefer live plants.
It is good, I think, that you post images of your inventory and that you keep more than you recycle!
CROW: I emailed you photos to make sure it’s the right book—title is slightly different than you wrote but happy to send it if you do want it!
—Fresca
Sent you a cropped image, showing the one I had in mind, but it might have been sold already.
Darn!!! I jinxed it, saying no one bought gardening books—it got bought... Sorry!
—Fresca
What an interesting assortment of books you've got! I love books and I can't stand to throw them out. I don't know how well I'd cope in a thrift store where a certain amount of discarding is inevitable. I'm afraid I'd just bring everything home. (I have enough trouble weeding shelves in the library, but at least then we donate the books to charity!)
STEVE: We do get an interesting assortment--it's fun to open the boxes of donations: trash, or treasure?
I must take a photo of some of the books I send to recycling.
It's easier than you might think--I never discard cool books--I either let them sit on the shelves, and they eventually sell, or I send the on to the Women's Prison Book Project, of a local church's rummage sale, etc.
But some are EASY to get rid of: Books about how Christian women should obey their husbands.
Many are multiples: Tom Clancy, I'm looking at you!
And many more are boring, outdated, or both:
Microwave recipe books, guides to Caribbean vacations from the 1990s...
These all get sent to book recycling (to be sold onward, for pennies a pound).
Dangerously mildewed and moldy books, and we do get those, go straight in the trash--also a very easy call!
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