I've built an entire library (1000+ books) buying from Half Price Books (physical locations) over the past 15 years or so. They used to put hundreds of books into bargain aisles or shelves for $1 or $2 each. I would buy almost anything that interested me at those prices. Needless to say, I built quite a collection but there was little order to it.
Eventually I culled my stacks and concentrated only on a few categories and built my library back with books from those categories. Sadly, the days of $1 and $2 choice books is probably long gone but I still find an occasional treasure.
Absolutely! It's harder and harder to find places that even have those prices, but if you're lucky enough to find a thrift store that keeps a good percentage of books, in an area where those books are likely to be good, it's a real thrill to keep going back and finding good works. There's one local thrift chain near me, and one particular location of it that will often have really excellent mid-20th century academic books just hanging out on the shelves. Oxford, Cambridge volumes in ethics and theology and politics, still worth having, and far too expensive anywhere else to justify, only $2 for hardbacks. Perfect.
I've built an entire library (1000+ books) buying from Half Price Books (physical locations) over the past 15 years or so. They used to put hundreds of books into bargain aisles or shelves for $1 or $2 each. I would buy almost anything that interested me at those prices. Needless to say, I built quite a collection but there was little order to it.
Eventually I culled my stacks and concentrated only on a few categories and built my library back with books from those categories. Sadly, the days of $1 and $2 choice books is probably long gone but I still find an occasional treasure.
Absolutely! It's harder and harder to find places that even have those prices, but if you're lucky enough to find a thrift store that keeps a good percentage of books, in an area where those books are likely to be good, it's a real thrill to keep going back and finding good works. There's one local thrift chain near me, and one particular location of it that will often have really excellent mid-20th century academic books just hanging out on the shelves. Oxford, Cambridge volumes in ethics and theology and politics, still worth having, and far too expensive anywhere else to justify, only $2 for hardbacks. Perfect.