Cernunnos Morrigu (cmorrigu) wrote,
Cernunnos Morrigu
cmorrigu
  • Mood: annoyed

Used Bookstores suck

I mean, come on. I bring in one of those xerox boxes that used to hold reams of paper filled to capacity with books. I drop them on the buy counter, and wander into the store... When I'm called back, I'm informed that they won't take half of the books, and will only give me $5 for the rest. Now, let's do some simple math. I believe there were over 80 books total in there. Just to be safe, we'll say.. 60. Now they only took half of them (30) and paid me $5 for them. That's about 17 per book. The store is named "Half Price Books" and the sell books for, you guessed it, half the cover price. Most of the ones they kept were scifi novels in like-new condition. These retail for $5-8 apiece. Again, to be safe, we'll say $6. So that's $3 per book, 30 books, minus the 17 they paid me. That's about $85 profit. Couldn't they have at least given me like 50 a book? Come on, that's just insane.

It reminds me of another used bookstore experience I had... In the town I previously lived in, just before I moved.. I gathered together a box of books I didn't want to deal with, and decided to take them to the bookstore in hopes of getting some cash for them. Out of the entire heaping box, they wanted like 8 of them. And, in my opinion, not even the best of the bunch. Anyway, they would give me either $1.50 cash or $5 store credit for the ones they wanted. I found one book - a like-new copy of my favorite book ever - that I wanted, and called it even. They offered to dispose of the rest of the books for me, but wouldn't pay any more for them. So I ended up going back home and throwing them into the dumpster. Which really hurt, because I respect books so much. But I'll be damned if those cheap bastards are going to make money off of my books without giving me anything for them.

In any case... That's why I tend to keep the books I buy. I usually buy very carefully, only getting certain authors or series books that I'm sure I will like. I don't mind only having to pay half price to get them, but selling them back is just a big ripoff.
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