This Weekend's Book Finds

Each weekend I visit estate sales. I do not visit all of the sales and tend to try to go to ones that are clustered together. Often, there are more estate sales than I can feasibly attend without getting exhausted.

I normally do not see series books, although I am always hopeful. Typically, I purchase various items that can be used around the house.

At one estate sale near where I live, I found some Scholastic and similar books. The books felt grubby and were not in very good shape, but they were extremely cheap. I decided to purchase them.

After attending this and one other nearby sale, I next had to decide if I felt like driving 15 miles to go to a group of sales. I decided to go. Due to missing an exit on the interstate, I ended up more than two miles to the north of where I wished to be and was a bit annoyed about that. Saturday seemed to be a day of wrong turns and wasted time.

It just so happened that I ended up driving by a sale that was in a strip mall, which I had decided not to attend. Since I inadvertently found myself driving by it, I decided that I should check it out, even though I hate estate sales that have been moved to strip malls. I find sales in the actual houses to be much more interesting, and I seem to have more luck in finding items at those.

You probably already have guessed where this is going. I entered the store and discovered a large quantity of Hardy Boys and other miscellaneous children's books. Apparently, I will have to make certain I force myself to attend these sales in strip malls from now on just in case.

The price per book was a bit too high for most of the Hardy Boys books. I determined that no first printing picture covers or $1 box books were present. I noticed some Three Investigators books and one Judy Bolton book and grabbed those. I then had to consider whether I wished to purchase any of the Hardy Boys books. I decided to purchase some high-numbered books that were likely to be first printings. I did not know for sure on any of them and almost considered putting all of them back.

I knew that on Sunday that all items at the sale would be at half price. I was pretty confident that few of the Hardy Boys books would sell at the original price. The trouble was whether anyone else was interested at half price. I had no guarantee that I would be able to purchase any books that were left behind. For that reason, I did purchase the Hardy Boys books that I had selected.

I purchased these books at the original price on Saturday.

The Three Investigators hardcover books seem to be mostly unaffected by the downturn in series book prices. Anytime I can find Three Investigators books, I am thrilled. The Judy Bolton book was also a good find and is probably the third printing.

I checked the Hardy Boys books in Carpentieri's guide and discovered that #46 and #48 are second printings and that the rest are first printings. At least I was correct about most of them.

My main thought was that I had to try to get the rest of the books at half price. I planned to arrive at the sale on Sunday at around 20 minutes before it opened. This is exactly what I did. I nervously waited, wondering if any of the other people were there for the Hardy Boys books. I knew that as soon as the door opened that we would all quickly go and grab whatever we wanted.

I was in luck, since it appeared that all of the Hardy Boys books were still there. After I had stacked all of them on the floor, I quickly glanced around the store. I saw one man balancing a stack of dishes in his right arm as he selected more of them. Everyone was grabbing whatever they wanted fast!

I took the books to the sold table, where a ticket was written up. I then walked around, not expecting to purchase anything else. I saw some Scholastic soft cover books and selected some. Why not, at half price? I paid for my books and left.

This is what I brought home.

I spent quite awhile going through all of the Hardy Boys books to see if any of them are the first printing of the revised text. Many of the books are the second or third printing of the revised text. The only books that are the first printing of the revised text are Twisted Claw, Phantom Freighter, and Wildcat Swamp.

If you are familiar with any of the Scholastic books, let me know whether any are particularly good stories. I already know that some of them are not of interest to me, but others might be.