| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.110 |
I was chatting with an old bloke the other day who worked in a charity shop. I had an old horror book in my hands at the time and he said 'Are they worth much?' I said yes, sometimes, but really sought after even if they're not. 'We just bin them if they're that old,' he said. So now not only do we get crap in Asda we now get it in Oxfam. And those old books are leaving our world forever. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.75.192.70 |
That's actually unusual for Oxfam from my experience. The Oxfam in Reading has a superb SF/Fantasy/Horror section and knows exactly the value of their stock to fans and collectors. Ali and I spent a blissful weekend in Hay on Wye recently, the Mecca of second-hand books. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.110 |
Oh, this chap didn't work there. Sorry about that. Oxfam is the best; I was just using shorthand. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.106 |
Hay on Wye? How long would it take to get there by train from London? | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Erm. Dunno? Not sure it even has a train station to be honest. It's on the border with Wales. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Depends what train you took. If you took the midnight train of death you might never get there. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.106 |
Ha, I see you have to get to Hereford first and then take a bus . . . | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
The midnight bus of death? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
On another board I use, they've been talking about this - charity bookshops throwing away (or pulping for recycling) old books which they consider to be "too old". I have noticed there does tend to be fewer and fewer old, interesting books in charity shops in recent years. But now you've got me confused with the comments above - DO Oxfam and the like just pulp these books, are there some places where they sell them and not others, or is it simply that the old horror books are going elsewhere (eg. eBay, etc)? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Oh damn - 'do tend', not 'does tend'. Oh for an edit button! | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.176 |
All the charity shops in my area tend to stock just bestsellers (ie, Richard and Judy recommendations, the rest of the usual suspects). I bet the oldest book in there was published in the mid nineties... I think you can still pick up gems in dedicated used bookshops, though. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.106 |
Most of the stuff in the charity bookshops over here is junk, but from time to time there'll be the odd French or German Lovecraft paperback I hadn't previously seen and quite a bit of science fiction, some books dating back to the sixties, yet - is it possible? - in pristine condition! A couple weeks ago I detected a lone copy of Obsession. Last Sunday, at a jumble sale, I found three Lovecrafts. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.184.218 |
Most of the charity shops round my way have a collectables or antiquarian section. And I've picked up loads of old ('60/'70s) SF/F/H stuff. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.109.252.30 |
Sadly (I think), Oxfam are something like the third biggest bookseller in the UK now. Disturbing to hear of their "chuck em out" policy . . . I'll have to reconsider where my donations go in future. Incidentally, Oxfam are selling four collections of short stories, specially compiled for them, in their stores. A fiver a time, i believe, of which £3-50 goes to charity. The same book is being sold in Waterstones with only 50p going to the charity. I got me a signed first edition Ed McBain in a charity store for a quid last week. Groovy. or it would be if GF's story about taking such gems for little dosh from such places didn't keep following me around . . . | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.61.140 |
Hee, hee . . . | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.109.252.30 |
Ho ho... | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.166.29.192 |
>>>Most of the stuff in the charity bookshops over here is junk, but from time to time there'll be the odd French or German Lovecraft paperback I hadn't previously seen and quite a bit of science fiction, some books dating back to the sixties, yet - is it possible? - in pristine condition! A couple weeks ago I detected a lone copy of Obsession. Last Sunday, at a jumble sale, I found three Lovecrafts. Tucked away in the Belfast Oxfam i found a dusty old tome with something like 'Revelations' and 'Glaaki' on the cover ? Gobbledigook i know but i just had to have it. Anyway, as i was ....hhhhmjgbggggggggg8ugmo5# | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.106 |
That photograph (!) on the dust jacket of L'horreur dans le musée, one of the aforementioned Lovecrafts, is positively nightmarish. Can't bear to look at it, a delightful experience I haven't had since I was 12. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.110 |
I want to open a genre bookshop, get all the old books the shops chuck. Really, this makes me feel like doing it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.110 |
anyone remember the first FP in London? Sweet place. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.118.211 |
I think that you'd love that Tony but the costs of setting up and running it would be hefty. Unless you do it by internet. Then you have to find the money to stock it. You would have fun seeking old and new books out though:>) | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.112.217 |
anyone remember the first FP in London? Denmark Street? Yep, used to go there, and to "Dark They Were and Golden-eyed" in St Ann's Court too... | ||
| Steveduffy (Steveduffy) Username: Steveduffy Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 86.159.105.54 |
I miss Compendium, in Camden Town. I might as well just have given them my paycheque at the end of each month. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.163.171.146 |
I used to visit Compendium in Camden Town every week in the early seventies. | ||
| Steveduffy (Steveduffy) Username: Steveduffy Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 86.159.105.54 |
Loved that shop. Mike Hart, who worked there in the 80s before moving on to (I think) Murder One, was one of the nicest and most knowledgeable booksellers you could hope to meet. I was choked to hear he'd died a few years ago. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
I found a mint condition copy of that excellent Clark Ashton Smith anthology 'The Emperor Of Dreams' for £2.50 in my local Oxfam recently - and a right brick of a book it is too. Funny thing is someone on here had recommended it to me not long before. That tends to happen me a lot, weird... | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.106 |
synchronicity! |