I cannot be in the heat or the sun for more than a few minutes. My skin stings in the sun. It feels like the sun is cooking my skin, and I break out in hives.
I have perpetually low electrolytes despite my constant efforts to raise them, so I cannot tolerate the summer heat without quickly developing heat exhaustion.
The sale was to be at the fairgrounds with no indoor place to wait in line. Anyone who planned to show up early would have to wait in the blazing hot sun. There was no way I could wait in line before the sale.
I finally decided the day before that I would not go to the sale at all. I didn't think the sale would be worth attending. It was to be a much-reduced selection of the general section of the winter book sale. This meant that the sale would almost certainly have no old series books.
The only possibility was that the sale could have the vintage teen paperback books that I love so much. That did concern me, but I decided not to worry about it. The potential health risk was not worth the low chance of finding any good books.
I was in my last meeting at around 3 PM the day of the sale when I suddenly decided that it wouldn't hurt to check on the sale just in case. If I didn't show up until shortly after the start of the sale, then I wouldn't have to wait in line in the hot sun.
It would be a shame to completely ignore a chance at finding vintage teen books. Some of the vintage teen books of the 1980s are incredibly scarce, because most of them have been thrown away over the years. There was always a possibility that a highly scarce book could be at the sale mixed in with the common stuff.
In my post, The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale, I wrote:
My favorite part of the sale is the table in the general section where the vintage teen paperback books are located. I don't get to these books until around 45 minutes into the sale, since I have to complete checkout in the other section with my initial purchases and then get those books loaded into the car. I doubt that I miss out on too many of the vintage teen books, since those are not nearly as high in demand as the vintage Nancy Drew books are.
I knew that I could show up at the sale after 4 PM and still have a good chance at any vintage teen books. Like at the big winter sale, nobody else would be going after the vintage teen books initially. It was worth checking, even though I'd have to walk in the hot sun from my car to the building.
I had done nothing to prepare for the sale, since I had previously decided not to go. I had no wheeled luggage. I had one tote bag in my classroom, which I had used on the previous day and had forgotten to take home. That was fortunate. I dug around in my closet and in the math department storage closet. I found a couple of textbook publisher tote bags that I could use. At least I had something.
I had some water left to drink in one of my reusable water bottles plus I took a Diet Pepsi with me. I headed to the fairgrounds. I got caught in a traffic jam, but even so, I ended up at the fairgrounds at around 4:15 PM.
I had to walk around 1 1/2 blocks to get to the building. Whew. I made it into the sale and looked around for the paperback books. I found the paperbacks, and they had vintage teen books.
I had my three tote bags, and I quickly filled up all three of them. I took this picture when I felt like I had most of the books I wanted.
After I checked out, I had to carry the three tote bags 1 1/2 blocks to my car in the blazing 100 degree sun. That was grueling. I was hot and out of breath by the time I made it to the car. I dumped the books in the trunk. Yes, I literally dumped the books in the trunk. I was planning to go back inside just to see if I missed any books.
Normally, I would have had the first purchases stowed away in luggage, and then I would have taken an empty piece of luggage back into the sale. This time, I had no choice but to reuse the same tote bags.
I then got inside the car to cool off. I can be in the summer heat for short periods of time so long as I take frequent breaks in a cool place and drink plenty of fluid. I drank my water and some of my Diet Pepsi. (Yes, I'm aware that a caffeinated beverage wasn't the best choice, but it was better than nothing. I wasn't well prepared for this outing, and I had to make do. Besides, I always add sodium and potassium to my water, so that helped a lot.)
After around 10 minutes, I went back inside. I only found a few books that I had missed the first time.
I also looked over the "Old Books" section. Some library editions were tempting, but since they weren't series books, I left them. You can see them in these pictures. A couple of them had patterned bindings, but the rest had plain bindings.
Library editions always stand out. While I was looking at the old books, two other people walked up. One person commented about the books with the bright spines. They said something like, "Those colorful books are the type that the Etsy sellers sell at high prices as decorative items." That gave me pause, and for just a moment I thought, perhaps... but I resisted. I wasn't interested in paying $2.00 each for books that I didn't want at all.
These are the books that I purchased. Click on images in order to see them better.
I don't think I got any particularly scarce books, but it's still a nice selection. The Sweet Valley High books are high-numbered titles that are more scarce than the earlier books in the set.
This sale was a pleasant surprise, and my lack of planning turned out for the best. If I had decided that I needed to go to the sale and arrive early, I would have been stressed about having to take off work and having to try to wait in the heat. By deciding that I wasn't going at all, my work day was completely normal without that additional stress. I made a sudden decision to attend, and I had no competition for the books I wanted.
It was a great experience.
