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Comment by bruce511 | Hacker News Reader

To be honest, I prefer charity shops to professional shops for 2nd hand books.

That said, I still visit professional shops rather more than I should (it depends on the shop.)

Of course charity shops are cheaper, that's part of the appeal, but I have more success in them because they are less discerning.

Over the years I've acquired a LOT of books, so now I tend to limit myself more. Mostly I now collect science fiction, with an emphasis on work pre 1970. These were made cheap, and are usually in "poor" condition now.

Professional shops won't shelve them, whereas charity shops will, so I have more success there.

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Just curious what sorts of older books you find in the best condition.

Ie, even when buying a new book today I’d rather pay $1 or $2 more in price on good paper that won’t turn yellow in a few years, but it seems most publishers aim for the lowest common denominator on shitty paper.

I’ve had some general luck with hardbacks being more robust but it’s not always the case.

Just seeing if you had thoughts on book types or publishing houses with the best paper that has lasted over the years.

Nothing specific. Most everything printed that I have since circa 1980s is fine. I expect looking after them matters more than paper quality.

Thats mostly paperback novels.

Stuff that was printed cheap in the 30s and 40s (ie "pulp" fiction) is taking strain now - which is to be expected.

Books I got as a child seem yo be I fine condition, despite a lot of rough handling at my hands, and my kids hands.

I've had a lot more luck with science fiction in professional shops than in charity shops. In the latter I tend to find only mainstream fiction and non-fiction. It's exceedingly rare to find any sci-fi at all. I wish I knew one where people brought it in.

One thing I enjoy is when people get rid of their computer science textbooks. They are sometimes older editions, but can be had for less than 10% of the original price. It's rare, though, so just have to keep going and take the opportunity when it arises.

I think there are 2 factors which affect my success in finding books in charity shops.

what books are sold: I would like to understand the proportion of books sold by genre. Shops have a very high proportion of thrillers and crime novels.

likelihood of donation: Perhaps some fans are more likely to keep books than others. In my donations, thriller & crime books are donated first, I keep my SF.

This leads to a low chance of success in finding science fiction paperback for me. I guess SF (myself included) are just hoarders.....

This is going to sound bad but another upside to charity shops is that often they misprice their books, so you can get some real bargains.

I'm not sure 'miss priced' is necessarily the case- I think they're priced to move, and obviously there's no cost-of-sales, so its a volume game.

Of course one can find truly valuable stuff, not just books, but I never have...

All mispriced even means here is that it would still move at a much higher price. If the goal was just to make sure everything moves, you could price it all at zero.

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