The Value of Library Book Sales

We had a good haul at the Los Altos "Friends of the Library" book sale on Friday night. I've mentioned previously, that this isn't like a normal booksale and what wonderful bargains you can get.

I'm a firm believer in supporting your local library, who take the proceedings from these library book sales and use them to buy new books, so this time I thought I'd try to show just how good the prices are, by comparing them to trying to buy the books new or used through Amazon. Here's the results:

       Title                              Author(s)          Library   Amazon  Amazon
                                                              Sale       New    Used 
--------------------------------------+------------------------------+--------+------
The Worlds of Jack Vance              - Jack Vance           0.50         --    4.49
The World Swappers                    - John Brunner         0.50         --    0.01
The Six Fingers of Time               - various              0.50         --     --
N Space                               - Larry Niven          0.50        7.19   0.25
The Talented Mr Ripley                - Patricia Highsmith   1.00       10.40   0.99
The Blind Assassin                    - Margaret Atwood      1.00       10.17   0.58
Rebecca                               - Daphne du Maurier    0.50        7.50   0.55
L. A. Requiem                         - Robert Crais         0.50        7.99   0.50
Lullaby Town                          - Robert Crais         0.50        7.19   4.77
Stalking the Angel                    - Robert Crais         0.50        7.99   4.40
The Luck og the Bodkins               - P. G. Wodehouse      1.00       11.53   5.62
Brinkey Manor                         - P. G. Wodehouse      0.50         --    1.75
The Deep Blue Good-by                 - John MacDonald       0.50        6.99   0.44

Mixing Color                          - Jeremy Galton        2.00         --    5.99
Woodburning : Art & Craft             - Elaine Broadwater    1.00         --   11.99
Photoshop 7 Artistry                  - Haynes & Crumpler    3.00       37.40  18.50
DNA : The Secret of Life              - James Watson         3.00       26.37   7.35
Web Graphics Tools and Techniques     - Peter Kentie         2.00         --    0.44
The Mathematical Magpie               - Clifton Fadiman      1.00         --   23.47
The Evolution of Useful Things        - Henry Petroski       1.00       11.16   1.99
Another Fine Math You Got me Into     - Ian Stewart          2.00       10.36   6.91
Yes, We Have No Neutrons              - A. K. Dewdney        1.00       10.17   1.96
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? - George Carlin        2.00       16.29   5.99

201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre & Incredible Experiments       2.00       10.36   4.47
Dolls Houses on the Printed Page (1855-1934)                 1.00         --     --
The Practical Encyclopedia of Magic                          5.00         --    5.89
The Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy                             3.00         --    9.00
Buildings that Changed the World                             3.00         --    6.95
Adobe Photoshop 5.5 Classroom in a Book                      1.00         --    2.80
                                                            -----      ------ ------
                                                            41.00      199.06 138.05

Now this isn't really an "apples for apples" comparison. First of all, trying to buy them new at Amazon only found 16 of the 29 books. Trying to find them used found 27 out of 29, but it doesn't factor in packaging and posting. Typically this is $3.00 minimum per book, so you should probably add in at less another $81.00 here.

So checkout if there is a library book sale near you and see if you too can get some great bargains.

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( May 01 2005, 11:24:23 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink