Update on My Activities

I am trying to psych myself up for listing books on eBay.   I am having trouble doing so, due to my fear of contracting COVID-19.  I am afraid of going into my post office or anywhere, for that matter.  I was happy that my post office smelled of Lysol on Saturday morning, but I remain concerned.  My fear is not good for my mental health, although my caution is better than being cavalier about it like all the people who packed Walt Disney World on its last night open.

I tend to be a worrier.  My school district said on Friday, as we released for spring break, that it intended to have school on Monday, March 23.  My thought was, Sure you are.  I wasn't going to worry about it.  By yesterday, I had a niggling concern about it, which increased today.  I can't help it; that's just how I am.  I had no intention of going back on March 23 and had even left the stack of worksheets and sub directions on my desk.  The plan was to start using my personal leave, if necessary.  But I didn't want to let my students down.  They need someone to actually explain the problems to them.

Fortunately, the Oklahoma State Department of Education voted today to cancel all public schools in Oklahoma through April 6.  Whew.  That, at least, made sure that every district will close, which would not otherwise have been the case.  Best of all, we are not allowed to grade papers.  That made me laugh.  I left my few papers at the school with no intention of grading them before school resumes.

I personally think that the school year is over.  I don't see how we can go back before the end of the year, which is supposed to be on May 22.  It's odd to think that I could actually, for all practical purposes, already be on summer break.  I'm not going to enjoy this extra time, since I'm so worried about all the people of the world.  It weighs on me.

I have such great students this year.  I'm mourning a bit, since I believe the year is pretty much over.  I figure that at some point, probably in June, we will go back to wrap things up.  This is so sad.

I also wonder about my salary.  I do have money in savings, so I will be okay, regardless.  Also, I understand that the federal government is apparently going to see that workers do not take losses.  Therefore, I am not concerned about the money.  I am merely curious.  Will the district continue to pay me even though I have served only 75% of my contract?  These are interesting times.

I have felt, since January, that this is the most significant world event of my lifetime.  I never expected to live through anything like this.  Everything about this event is surreal, and the United States has not quite reached the really bad part.

Enough of that.

I read Christopher Pike's Spooksville series a few years ago.  I really enjoyed those books.  I love everything Christopher Pike, for that matter.  I am such a Pike fan girl.  Squeee!

Anyway, a television series based on Spooksville aired from 2013 to 2014 and was cancelled after one season.  I decided, since I am now on extended quarantine, that it was high time that I watch the shows.

I purchased the entire season of 22 episodes on YouTube for $24.99.  The series can also be purchased on Amazon and other places, probably at $24.99.

I have so far watched three episodes and am on the fourth.  Honestly, the books are better.  Isn't that almost always the case?  The one exception is Twilight, where the films are better.  In fact, having read the books makes the films really good, since I understand Bella quite well.  But I digress.

The problem with the Spooksville television series is that Christopher Pike's humor is not present.  That is an epic fail.  I love Pike.  He is so funny.  Take away his voice, and the story falls flat.  Ugh.

I will keep watching, however.  The shows might get better.  They are interesting enough to watch, even though nowhere near as good as the books.

I also started reading the Harry Potter series again the other day.  I have read most of the set more than once.  I have read the first book several times.  I have stayed away from Harry Potter ever since I read the seventh book for the first time due to a distaste that I developed as a result of the hype and some comments made by J. K. Rowling.  I found an old blog post from 2013 where I explained my grievances.

I read the first four Harry Potter books at about the time that the fourth book was published and volumes five through seven during the following several years as each of those titles were published.  I dearly loved the first four Harry Potter books, but I was somewhat soured on the series due to some dissatisfaction with the final three books.

Part of the problem was the extreme hype surrounding the series.  I hated trying to enjoy something while news reporters who likely had no interest in the series prattled on about various plot details.  It was so annoying.

I recall joining a Yahoo! Group and reading all of the speculation surrounding one of the characters.  I was then greatly annoyed by a Rowling interview in which she effectively shot down the speculation by making a statement about not understanding how people could be drawing certain conclusions.  That effectively ruined it for me.  Sometimes authors need to keep their mouths shut.

The funny thing is... Rowling's comments from that interview were purposefully misleading.  Again, authors need to keep their mouths shut and let their books do the talking.  She ruined it for me.

Furthermore, Rowling's books became wordier and wordier with each new book, and it became apparent that little editing had been done for the last three books.  The fifth book was particularly awful in that at least one-third of the text could have been removed, thus making the book far less boring.  The epilogue at the end of the seventh book was stupid and should not have been included.  It would have been far better to have had more falling action than to have included that nonsense.

Someday I might read the Harry Potter series again, but it is going to be a long time before I consider doing so.  I have too many bad memories of not enjoying parts of the last three books.  If the books had been carefully edited, that would never have been a problem.  It's a shame, really.

So here I am.  It has been nearly 13 years since I read the seventh and final book in the set for the first and only time.  I can carry a grudge for a long time.  It is only due to COVID-19 that I am reading Harry Potter again.  Otherwise, it might have been another 13 years.

Upon this reading, I did not enjoy the first book very much.  Overall, I found it boring.  The plot moves too slowly.  I have started the second book and am liking it very much.  That's a good sign.  I probably can read through the entire set, although I expect that I will have to skim a lot in books 4 through 7.  I wish that the publisher had actually edited those books and reduced the length somewhat.  Remember:  Less is more.

Sweet Dreams #43 Tender Loving Care and #44 Long Distance Love

Sweet Dreams #43 Tender Loving Care, Anne Park 1983

Juliet resents Neil from the moment she sees him.  He's just another runaway her social worker mother has taken in.  But there's not much Juliet can do.  First he moves into their spare room, then he enrolls at Juliet's high school!

At first, Juliet's determined to keep Neil out of her life.  But the harder she tries to stay angry with him, the more she finds herself attracted to him.  Then Neil asks her for a date and she accepts... but she's scared.  Is it safe to love him?  Or will he run away again, just when Juliet has opened up her heart?

Admittedly, I skimmed small amounts of the book, so I might have missed something.  Nevertheless, I don't recall Juliet being concerned about Neil leaving.  I was concerned, but she doesn't seem to be.  Juliet just resents her mother for paying more attention to Neil than to her, which is why Juliet is reluctant to get close to him.  These summaries often twist things around.

I did not enjoy the way some scenes with Neil are done.  That aside, the book is overall very good.

Sweet Dreams #44, Long Distance Love, Jesse DuKore, 1983

Will absence make the heart grow fonder... or will it be a case of "Out of sight, out of mind"?  Pamela Gray worries that her boyfriend Bobby will forget all about her when she leaves for her new boarding school, hundreds of miles from home.  On the one hand, she's happy and excited at the thought of all the new experiences awaiting her at school.  On the other, she's afraid that Bobby's love won't withstand a long separation.

As for Pam herself, she's sure that no one else could possibly take Bobby's place in her heart—at least, no one she's met so far...

The summary does correctly reveal that Pam will be the problem in the relationship.  I don't like Pam's flippant behavior towards Bobby in this book, and I don't like Pam at all.

I read part of the book, then skimmed the rest.  I do not like this book.

Book Prices, Increasing My Handling Time, and COVID-19

This post is only slightly on-topic for this blog, but I think important.  I also hope not to be ridiculed by the overwhelming number of people who continue to think that the unfolding global pandemic is a joke, something that will never affect them, or just a bunch of hype.  In fact, just close out of this post now if you think this is nothing.  You'll save both of us some time and aggravation.

I purchased this book over the weekend in a local store.

I paid more than $10 for it.  I specifically mention $10 because of a recent post on Facebook where someone saw a bunch of hardcover Three Investigators books in a store priced at $10 each.  They felt that the books are not worth that much.  I disagree.  Most all hardcover Three Investigators books, unless in very bad shape, sell for well above $10 each online.

The above book is not a book that I need.  I felt that the store's price, while not low, was at an amount where I could easily sell the book for more than what I paid.

....................................................

For some time, I have considered dropping my top-rated seller status, because eBay's requirements are a bit much.  I must ship the next business day.  This is a problem because eBay goes by the Pacific time zone.  eBay doesn't care where I live.  I am in the Central time zone, so I must ship all items which are paid by 12:00 AM Pacific time, but that is 2:00 AM my time.  This means that I am actually having to ship the same day for items purchased between midnight and 2:00 AM my time.  At least Etsy has the cutoff time at midnight for my time zone, as it should.  Etsy is also less stringent and will not penalize me if I do not mail the package the next day.  eBay's requirements are stressful.

Then along comes COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019).  I have been following this event carefully since late January.  I am using Reddit for my information, backed by other sources.  The reason I ended up on Reddit was that the media were ignoring the story back in January.  Oh, they mentioned it here and there, but what little I heard told me that this was something that could escalate into something truly awful.  Reddit was the only place where I could actually find information that was not heavily censored.  In case you aren't aware, in January and in early February, social media sites were censoring coverage of the virus.

Reddit gave me the information I sought.  While true that Reddit is full of fear-mongering and some misinformation, it has a wealth of factual information, much of which cannot be found easily elsewhere.  All stories are aggregated into the Reddit subs by its users.  The result is amazing coverage of COVID-19.  I cannot emphasize enough how much information is shared in the subs on Reddit each day.  Even now, with greatly increased media coverage, I still would not know as much as I do if I were not reading the subs on Reddit.  I am distressed that most people just know a fraction of what I know about the situation.  That's why most people think the pandemic is a joke.

Coronavirus subs have been formed for different parts of the world, regions of the United States, and for each of the 50 states.  Here are the Coronavirus subs that I visit the most.

This sub is the most strictly moderated due to the very large membership.  It has been sanctioned by Reddit as the place to go for COVID-19 information.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/

This next sub has an unfortunate name, but it is equivalent to the above sub.  The moderation is just a little looser.
https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/

This sub focuses more on the scientific aspect of the disease.
https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/

This sub is for the United States.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusUS/

At the current stage of this event, Redditors are very angry at the governments of most nations, which are not doing enough to stop the spread of the virus.  Some governments are doing nothing.

My obsession with this topic is not healthy, but I cannot tear myself away from it.  I actually have not read any books in about a month.  All of my reading is on Reddit.  The information changes hourly.  I have seen videos of and read about events that I never could have imagined happening in my lifetime.  The American media, while now covering the virus, are not mentioning most aspects of this pandemic.

I have read so many apocalyptic disaster novels that I see where this situation could go very wrong and be disastrous.  No, this is not the zombie apocalypse, and society probably will not collapse.  However, hospitals will almost certainly experience a surge in patients and will not have enough beds.  People will likely die due to lack of care.  This could get very bad.  Hopefully, this will not be an utter disaster, but we do need to plan ahead and consider what we will do should certain events transpire.

No doubt some of you are scoffing and thinking, "But this is just a cold."  Common colds affect me horribly.  It was just a cold that I had last May that caused me to be very ill and have close to 100% voice loss for most of two months.  Colds mess me up badly. 

More of you are probably thinking, "But this is just the flu."  No doubt this virus is like the flu, although it appears to be more lethal than the regular flu.  Even if I am wrong about that, common colds affect me horribly.  I haven't had the flu in close to 20 years, and my thyroid worked somewhat better back then.  What would any kind of flu do to me?

And last, there is the argument that the seasonal flu has killed far more people than COVID-19.  It certainly has.  The difference is that the flu has completely infiltrated our population and has been around forever.  Of course the flu has killed more people!

Using the high-end numbers from the CDC, influenza has killed up to 61,000 people in the United States each year out of up to 45,000,000 cases per year.  This is a 0.1% death rate.

So far, COVID-19 has a worldwide death rate of 3.4%.  This probably won't hold, but let's go with it for the United States.  This means that if 45,000,000 are infected with COVID-19 in the United States, then 1,530,000 people will die.  That's far more than 61,000 people dying of influenza.

We certainly do not know how this will play out, but the numbers I just gave should explain why many of us are very worried.

This event is quite unfortunately progressing exactly as I have expected since late January.  I want to be wrong, but everything is happening just as my fellow Redditors predicted.  We watched the outbreaks unfold in South Korea, Italy, and Iran.  We saw exactly how the numbers changed at first in those three countries.  The pace was slow as first, then a bit faster, and then it exploded.  We are in the second stage in the United States right now.  The pace is picking up.  I believe that spring break is the dividing point between normal and abnormal in most of the United States.  Many people leave the country for spring break.  What will they bring back with them?

I have been thinking through contingency plans for various scenarios.  I drop packages off at the post office up to six days per week.  I must limit my potential exposure to the virus when I can.  Therefore, I have changed my handling time on both eBay and Etsy to two business days.  I will only drop packages off on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.  If the situation should get bad enough in central Oklahoma, then I will quit selling online so that I don't have to go to the post office at all.

Etsy will not penalize me for two-day handling, but two-day handling violates eBay's top-rated seller standards.  I will lose my top-rated seller status within two months.  This mainly means that I will not get a 10% discount on fees.  The discount really isn't that much, and eBay can keep it.

I am concerned that I work in a school.  Schools are incubators for all viruses.  This is not good.  If the schools are not closed once the outbreak worsens, then I might start using my sick leave to avoid the virus.

I keep thinking at random moments that maybe I have spent too much time on Reddit.  Maybe the Redditors are all wrong.  Maybe this will just go away.  Maybe we will look back on early 2020 and think of what fools we were.

But maybe we are right.  It never hurts to be prepared, even if the worst does not come to pass.  I wish the best for all of you.

Sweet Dreams #41 The Truth about Me and Bobby V. and #42 The Perfect Match

Sweet Dreams #41 The Truth about Me and Bobby V., Janetta Johns, 1983

Candy's finally in the right crowd.  But there's a problem—she's the only one without a boyfriend.  So she invents one, to stay popular with her new friends.

But Candy's lie backfires when the gang wants her to bring her beau to a dance.  Where can she borrow a boy for the evening?  Does she dare ask Jonathan, her handsome volleyball coach, to help her out?  What about her brother's wild friend, Flip?  Candy has to come up with a plan—quickly.

This book is about an African American girl who has to adjust to a new school.  Her best friend is Bobby V.—a girl— from her old school.  Candy's new friends mistakenly believe that Bobby V. is her boyfriend, and Candy doesn't correct them.

Candy gets more than she bargains for when she manipulates her brother's friend, Flip, into pretending to be her boyfriend.  Flip is a jerk, and he decides that he likes Candy.  He tries to keep the relationship going, much to Candy's horror.

On page 115, Flip declares that he made a "jackass" out of a police officer.  Use of "jackass" or even "ass" is quite unusual for modern books, because for some reason, both words are considered more significant cuss words than they once were.  Both words are seen as more significant cuss words than "damn" or "hell," which also don't tend to show up in these books.  In the old series books of 100 years ago, "ass" and "jackass" do show up at times.

This is an excellent book.

Sweet Dreams #42  The Perfect Match, Marian Woodruff, 1983

Alexis Randall's the new matchmaker in the school.  In fact, her computer matchmaking service guarantees a dream date.  Alexis even feeds her own name into the computer.  And soon she's in love.  Tom is everything she has ever wanted in a boyfriend.

But when kids start complaining, and her own romance goes sour, Alexis begins to have doubts.  Maybe there's more to love than a perfect match.

No, just no.  I read the beginning of the book, then I quit.  I'm not interested in matchmaking.  The story also didn't seem that interesting to me.

Sweet Dreams #39 First Love and #40 Secrets

Sweet Dreams #39 First Love, Debra Spector, 1983

Tracy and her mother agree on one thing—this is going to be Tracy's summer for romance.  her mother has big plans—a worldly, sophisticated guy, an outsider to their small seaside town.  But Tracy's got her eye on David, the assistant chef at the restaurant where she works.  And David likes her too.  They'd be a perfect couple, if only Tracey's mother would give him a chance.

Then they cook up a plan so delicious, Tracy's mother is sure to come around.

Tracy's mother is so annoying.  She thinks she knows better than Tracy what kind of boy that Tracy would like, and she picks out boys who are poor matches.  Ugh.

This is a very good book.

Sweet Dreams #40 Secrets, Anna Aaron, 1983

Ginny falls for Hal the first time she sees him.  Their dates are lots of fun.  But their joking is a substitute for real talk.  Ginny doesn't really know how Hal feels about her.

Maybe if she reaches out to him, gets involved in his interests, Hal will open up to her.  She even asks him for hang-gliding lessons.  But Hal's still holding back.  Does he like her, or doesn't he?

I quite unfortunately read almost half the book.  I was enjoying the story well enough, even though I didn't find it that great.  By halfway through the book, I realized that it was hopeless.

The way that Ginny and Hal behave with each other is just annoying.  The jokes are awful, and the two end up fighting.  What kind of romance is that?  What a waste of time reading half the book.

I quickly skipped through the second half of the book.  I won't spoil the ending, but Ginny sounds like an idiot on the last page.  I am glad that I didn't read the second half, because the ending is not satisfying.  Ugh.

Sweet Dreams #37 Portrait of Love and #38 Running Mates

Sweet Dreams #37 Portrait of Love, Jeanette Nobile, 1983

Samantha's not sure she's gong to like Santa Barbara.  It doesn't have skyscrapers or the Yankees.  And the cheesecake is lousy.  But it does have Tony Pappas, boy artist.

Tony likes Samantha, but there's a big problem.  Art is Tony's first love.  And worse yet, Samantha's mother is teaching painting—to Tony.  The two of them spend hours talking and working together.  Samantha feels like the odd man out.  How can she get Tony's undivided attention?

This is another book where the girl likes a boy, but I feel nothing.  How can I care when I feel nothing?

I read enough of the book to determine that I wasn't interested.

Sweet Dreams #38 Running Mates, Jocelyn Saal, 1983

Carole and Steve were a couple once.  But that seems like long ago.  Carole thinks Steve is just too conservative.  She wants to change things.

And what better place to start than the election for school president?  If Steve can run, thinks Carole, so can she.  And may the best candidate win.

Carole's surprised at Steve's support, despite their rivalry.  He seems to be changing, opening up, and Carole finds herself falling in love again.  But what will happen when the votes are counted and only one is a winner?

I was not very interested in this story, but I skimmed the book up to page 95.  I try to give each book a decent chance before I quit completely.  When Carole's parents actually laugh at her for running for class president, I decided to quit.  How disgusting.

The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale

I continue to be frustrated that many collectors who post in the Facebook groups believe that all series books should be priced low or that all series books can be found cheaply.  These people apparently are able to find series books at extremely low prices.  Just recently, someone mentioned a thrift store that sells its series books for $0.10 each.  I am astonished that a store would sell books at that low of a price.

Here in Oklahoma, all thrift stores price the books at $2.00 and up.  Yes, quite unfortunately, even softcover children's books in bad shape are $2.00 each.  I am dumbfounded that others can find books for $0.10 these days.  This must be an extreme anomaly.  I doubt that more than just a handful of thrift stores scattered far and wide would price any books that low.  $0.10 is how a thrift store might have priced a book 40 or more years ago.  I personally have never seen a lower price than $0.25 in a thrift store, and the last time I saw that low of a price was around 30 years ago.

I mentioned a couple years ago in my post "The Expectation of Low Price Regardless of Scarcity" that just about the only people who mention prices in the Facebook groups are those who find books for $0.10 up to $1.00 to $2.00 each.  Since those are almost the only prices mentioned, collectors have unreasonable expectations regarding pricing of series books.

The reality is that books cost most of us a lot more than others think.  I recently wrote the following in a comment on Facebook.

This is how I look at it. If the book is there and at a price that I can afford that is not completely insane, then I will purchase it if I need it.

For example, let's say that a book sells online for $10 to $20 on average.  Keep in mind that postage often must be paid in addition to the selling price, so the $10 to $20 book might be more than that.

Sometimes the book might sell for $5 online, but postage gets added to the total, so that book will end up being around $10.  Tax is now paid by a majority of online buyers, so there's that as well.  Online prices once were not taxed, which made online purchases cheaper.  That's not the case these days for most of us.

Let's say I am in a store and see the book I described above for $25.  The book is in nice condition.  I can examine the book in person and see all flaws.  I am there, and the book is there.  I will purchase the book if I need it.  I don't worry about how I might possibly find the book for $10 to $15 someday.  Someday might never come.  I have the book in hand, so I purchase it.

I mention all of this because I'm going to be more upfront than usual about what I paid for some books this last weekend.  I usually do not disclose prices, because many people have this odd idea that no one should make even a slight profit on anything that they sell online.  They get upset if they think someone might even have made $0.50 on a transaction.  Seriously, they do.

You would be surprised at how much online sellers sometimes pay when they source their items.

I purchased the above books in a couple of stores.  Remember my comment about books not being priced at below $2.00 each in Oklahoma.  You now know by what I stated that I must have paid at least $2.00 per book.  The cheapest ones were the softcover books.  But what about the others?  It would have been great if they had been $2.00 or so each, but they weren't.

The original text Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books are getting very hard to source.  I enjoy selling them and helping others to build their collections.  This gives me great personal satisfaction, but the original text picture covers are now, for the most part, 50 years of age or older.  They are now very scarce in excellent condition and are getting hard to source even in rough shape.

The picture cover books seen in the above photo are a bit rough.  I paid $6.00 each plus tax for the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys picture covers.  That is a bit steep for the condition, but I am really struggling to source the original text picture covers at this time.  I was completely out of extras of several titles.  When I sell the above picture covers, the markup will not be very much due to the condition.

The local Friends of the Library book sale was this weekend.  This year, the sale had around 800,000 books.  It is always a large sale with between 500,000 and 1 million books.  I always go to the sale on the first day, and I was the 12th person in the line for the section I always go to first, which is where the more collectible books are located.

The Nancy Drew and other series books were in three locations in the same part of the building.  I must move quickly and make split-second decisive decisions on what to pick up.  I must avoid selecting books that I would need to put back.  I don't have the luxury of thinking about a purchase with a few thousand people filing into the building behind me and some of them coming for the books I want.  My position in line only gains me just a few minutes.

My mind is frenetic, and I feel like I have ADHD in those few minutes.  I keep my movements controlled, since being rude is unacceptable.  Most of the people are very polite and apologize when they accidentally brush against someone else.  The behavior is by and large quite good at this sale.  There are always a few incidents, but mostly everyone is polite.

I mentioned making split-second decisions.  I don't check prices, except for a few scattered books, probably only a few per 50 books selected.  I know that the hardcover books will be $2.00 to $4.00 each.  Softcover books will tend to be $1.00 to $1.50.  I don't have time to verify prices, so I trust that the prices are the same as always.

I won't get into all of the particulars of my experience this year, but I always scan quickly, looking at the spine designs and selecting what I want.  If I see books that obviously have very heavy wear, I try not to select them.

I visit each location where the books might be located, just looking for patterns in the spines.  After I make my initial selections, I go back to each location, going slower and reading titles.  This is when I notice books that are of interest that are much less noticeable.  These types of books are also ones other people won't get at first glance.  I have to be quick in finding the Nancy Drew books so that I can have first choice, because the Nancy Drew books always go very fast.

Here are pictures and some comments about what I purchased.

The softcover Nancy Drew books seen above are in very nice shape.  These thrill me the most of the books I purchased.  I will be comparing the above books to the ones in my collection, in case some of them are in nicer shape. 

In the below photo, the original text Nancy Drew books are in rough shape, as is typical these days.  Fortunately, I didn't have to pay $6.00 each for these books.

Some of the tweed Nancy Drew books seen below are in rougher shape than I would like.  However, I always end up with some books that I really shouldn't have bought.  As mentioned, I don't have time to think over purchases, so I end up with some books that I wish I hadn't purchased.

The flashlight edition Nancy Drew books seen in the above photo are either high-numbered ones (#58, 60, and 62) or are the textured flashlight editions.

The Weed Walk is a scarce book by Margaret Sutton, who wrote the Judy Bolton books.  The Mystery of the Shaky Staircase is a very scarce book by Margaret Scherf, who was the ghostwriter for the original text of Nancy Drew #27, The Secret of the Wooden Lady.

The Whispering House caught my eye, and I opened it just to see if it might be interesting enough to purchase.  This was after I had already gone over the books more than once and was browsing more leisurely.  As soon as I opened the book, I saw that it was signed by the author.

I still don't know if the book is good, but I wasn't going to leave a signed book behind.  And yes, as you can clearly see, the book was priced at $2.00.

The Oz books are probably not worth much more than what I paid, but at worst, I should be able to get my money back.

A bunch of the Nancy Drew Twin Thriller editions are seen above.  Some of the books have $3.00 written inside, which I truly believe was supposed to be the price for those books.  Other books do not have a price written inside.  At checkout, the volunteers decided that the books were a "set" as defined and sold by the library sale and came up with a rather low total cost for the "set" of books.  They made this decision based on stickers that were on the covers of some books, seen in the next photo.

I cannot be certain, but I don't think the stickers had anything to do with the library sale.  In any case, the set of Twin Thrillers was cheaper than it should have been.  You'll notice that I'm not revealing what they charged me.

In the long run, pricing errors average out.  One time, I was quite overcharged for some books without realizing it until later.  These things balance out over the years.

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.

Most of the books seen in these pictures will be sold eventually.  The prices will be marked up, but I deserve that.  For those who might think I shouldn't do that, consider my true cost for the books.  I paid for a library membership.  I took the day off work and had to pay for my substitute.  I waited in line for hours for the sale to start.  I shopped at the sale for around three hours.  I went back the next day and spent another hour at the sale.  I drove round trip 25 miles each day when I attended the sale.

My final cost is higher than the sum total of my sales receipts.  Keep that in mind when you peruse the listings of online sellers.  The sellers have to source the books, and much time and effort is involved, in addition to the cost of acquiring the books.  The buyer pays a convenience fee to the seller, who did the legwork in finding the books.  I am eternally grateful to all the sellers over the years who have found good books that I ended up purchasing for my collection.

Sweet Dreams #35 Forbidden Love and #36 Summer Dreams

Sweet Dreams #35 Forbidden Love, Marian Woodruff, 1983

Patti's been hoping Tim will notice her, but it's purely accidental when she backs into his car in the school parking lot.  Boy, is she embarrassed.  But instead of being angry, Tim asks her for a date.

It's the beginning of a wonderful relationship until both of their parents start arguing about the accident.  And the argument turns into an all-out war. 

Tim and Patti continue to see each other, meeting secretly.  But they hate sneaking around.  Their parents are acting like babies.  Why won't they just listen?

This book didn't interest me, so I read very little of it.

Sweet Dreams #36 Summer Dreams, Barbara Conklin, 1983

Katy's summer promises to be the most challenging one of her life.  She'll be taking care of Michael, a little blind boy, helping him get over a recent tragedy.  It won't be easy.  But Steve will be helping her.  Katy's been admiring Steve for a long time.  Together they'll spend golden days building castles in the sand, teaching Michael to laugh again.

But it's not turning out as Katy had hoped.  Michael's almost more than she can handle, and Steve, though friendly, remains distant.  As the summer draws to a close, Katy wonders if her dreams will crumble along with their last sand castle.

This book has a good hook with the blind boy and Katy struggling to take care of him.  After the first few chapters, this book firmly grabbed my attention.

The summary of this book is misleading.  I don't understand why the publisher cannot just tell the truth.  This book does have an interesting story, and a truthful summary would suffice.

Steve isn't distant.  His relationship with Katy just progresses very slowly and naturally.  As for Michael, he's really not more than Katy can handle since she has a little help.

This is a very good book.