I went to a second-hand shop today to look at the books they have collected over the past couple of months. Often it is hit-or-miss in these shops. Most books there seem to come from people cleaning their parents’ house when they have died. Because the fantasy genre has not been mainstream, these “inheritances” almost never have any fantasy related books. But if they do, there is often a whole bunch of them and quite an eclectic selection. And that is why I keep going to these places: You never know what you might find next!
What is your best resource for interesting second-hand fantasy literature?
I love hunting for 2nd hand everything, but especially books, so the somewhat lower hit rate for quality stuff in most places never really bugged me. If you’re doing it just because you happen to be where used books are and you like poking through things the hunt is it’s own reward, and so on.
Besides the standard classics like dedicated used book stores and the nicer Goodwills and so on, the main place I have a lot of success with good finds is bigger donated book sales thrown by libraries. I got lucky that I grew up by one of the biggest in the US that had a huge sale twice a year I could regularly hit up, but most everywhere has at least a few and you can always check book sale finder (which looks like a refuge from 90s era geocities, but is actually good) to check out what’s coming up in your area.
I’ve found AbeBooks to be the best, although obviously it’s not local. But it’s a better resource–so long as you know what book you want–to get various versions of old books. It even tells you what condition it’ll be in so you can be sure to grab a nice version if it’s a special very favorite book for your collection.
I do know that small booksellers use AbeBooks to sell. So while it’s not necessarily YOUR small and local, you’re still sometimes buying from small booksellers and supporting them.
Amazon-owned. I refuse to shop there for the same reasons I don’t buy from Amazon.
