Where Are the Books?

On February 21 and 22, I attended the 2020 Friends of the Library book sale in Oklahoma City.  This is always a huge sale that has upwards of one million books.  That's a lot of books.  In the month leading up to the sale I nervously followed the unfolding pandemic and wondered if the sale would be too risky to attend.  When the week of the sale arrived, there were still no known cases of Covid-19 in Oklahoma.  I decided that I could attend and would probably be okay.  It was fine, but the virus was definitely already circulating in Oklahoma at that time.  We just didn't know that until later.  

There will be no library book sale in 2021, for obvious reasons.  In a way, I'm glad that it won't happen, so I don't have to feel bad about missing it.  That is, I will miss it, but at least I can take solace in knowing that no one else is getting my books.  Oh, snap!  Where are my books?  I refer to the books that I would have ended up finding at this next sale if it were to occur.

The library system has not been accepting donations since early March.  If the books aren't being donated, then where are they going?  It's not like everyone is just keeping their books until after the pandemic is over.

I have been checking some local bookstores around once every four to six weeks.  The inventory was quite depleted during the summer since the stores weren't buying books.  The inventory has now improved, although it is not completely back to normal.  

Based on what I saw and purchased on Friday, I now know that some of the books that would have been donated to the library book sale are being sold to local stores.  Just the sheer number of books that I found makes it likely.  But I also know that some of the books I found yesterday would have ended up at the library sale this next February if all things had been normal.  I will explain.

Let's take a look at what I purchased.

I found some Nancy Drew Twin Thriller editions and softcover Trixie Belden books.  The Twin Thriller editions are in very nice shape.

I purchased a bunch of Baby-Sitters Club books.  The previous owner had purchased most of them from Thriftbooks.

I purchased them because of the increase in value caused by the recent Netflix series (an excellent series, by the way).  Baby-Sitters Club is hot right now.  Hopefully, the books will still be hot whenever I finally decide to sell books again.  If not, then I can probably break even.

I found a biography of Ann M. Martin, who created the Baby-Sitters Club series.

I found some Sweet Valley High books and other assorted vintage paperback books.

Everything mentioned up to this point might or might not have ended up at the library book sale in normal times.  There is no way to know.  It should be noted that vintage teen books like Sweet Valley High almost never show up in my local stores.  I find them at the library book sale and nowhere else.  I am definitely seeing more of that type of book in local stores, which does make me wonder.  I just purchased some last month, so for the first time since probably the 1990s, I have purchased vintage teen books in local stores during two consecutive months.  Hmm...

The rest of the books pictured in this post absolutely would have been donated to the library system if they were taking donations.

All of the local school districts donate their library discards to the library book sale.  This has always been the case.  I now know what one local school did with their books.  They were sold to one of the local book stores.

I purchased a large number of Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine books that were very recently discarded (definitely between August and now based on clues found inside some books) from a middle school in the Oklahoma City area.  The books would have shown up in my favorite part of the sale, which is the section with vintage teen books. 

The vintage teen books section really is my favorite part of the sale, since the books typically never show up in the local book stores.  The library sale is the only place where I ever find them.  Not this year.  Now they are going to the local stores.  I am so excited that I managed to find some of my books that I would normally have purchased at the library book sale.  

I purchased these hardcover Perma-Bound Christopher Pike books.  I did purchase some duplicates; I don't mess around.

I will keep all of the Pike books except for the duplicates.  I now have hardcover reading copies!  This is so thrilling!

I also purchased these R. L. Stine books, most of them hardcover Perma-Bound editions.  The R. L. Stine books came from the same middle school.  I accidentally placed one Point Horror book by another author in this set of pictures. 

I will be selling all of the Stine books, since I don't care for his writing.  I do understand how much others love Stine's books, which is why I purchase them when I find them.  The Stine books will be placed up for sale whenever I decide to begin selling again, probably in late May 2021.