xerlome wrote:

Two or three years ago i broke down and bought Robert Hunter's 4
volume, 1894 "Encyclopedic Dictionary" from an online dealer. I was
silly, i paid too much, and it had worm holes in it. Shortly after
that i discovered a copy in a thrift store. That was one of my last
really great thrift store finds.

I used to find great items one after another. It looked like almost
anything would turn up eventually. Now not only do i rarely find them,
but i rarely see the ones i already have. I see some items selling
online for pretty good money that i used to see all the time in thrift
stores. I'm not kidding you. I don't even want to tell you the titles
because i wouldn't want to give anyone out there any big ideas.


Wow, I've never seen anything like that in any of the thrift stores
near me, not in 20 years. That's pretty cool. I can definitely
understand why having such experiences disappear would be a bitter pill
to swallow. I'd be pining too.

I suspect that it's not just dealers picking them up ahead of you. I
suspect that those who might have donated them before are now going
straight to eBay themselves as well.

In any event, the only solution would be to ask people to stop trying
to make a buck where they have discovered an opportunity to do so.
Painful or not, the odds are not in your favor. Maybe you could join
the party and turn over some of your collection at a profit on eBay
yourself. Maybe you could somehow spread the word that you are
interested in old dictionaries that are collecting dust in people's
attics in your town. Rather than letting the markup knock you out,
take advantage of the folks like me who will pay *you* the markup.

Selling things where they bring the most return is a pretty fundamental
process to be fighting. I hope you recover your lost joy in
collecting, one way or another.

- Todd T.