Used Bookstores and your expections

[Lit_driven_girl]

I tend to be a bookstore snob. When I walk in if I'm not impressed I won't be back. :blush:

When it comes to used bookstores, what do appreciate about your favorite used bookstore?

Or what are you picky about that you don't see your bookstore doing?

 

[Lady Reader]

I prefer to buy my books new. The only local used bookstore by me doesn't have a very good selection, and they tend to not be very particular when it comes to accepting donations. Some of them are pretty battered looking. I usually only visit when I'm culling my bookshelves

 

[dude]

I hate it when used book stores accept books that have been highlighted and underlined and written in by a student doing a report or whatnot. I can't see how anyone could read a book in that condition. So I expect them not to take those books.

 

[Robert]

Even the best used bookstores are hit & miss at best. I like used books, but used bookstores rarely have what I'm looking for, and if they have what I'm looking for then it's probably a paperback when I would rather have a hardcover. If they have a hardcover, it's probably more then I would pay if I shopped at Amazon.com, AbeBooks, or Ebay.

I keep going back because I do get lucky. Sometimes they have what I'm looking for or they will have something that I want but wasn't shopping for at the time. I also like the advantage of looking through the book to verify the condition of the book before I buy it, and I also like to check to see if it smells bad from cigarette smoke.

 

[Lit_driven_girl]

I really like for a used bookstore to know their what they have. It is one of the most annoying things to me to walk in and ask them do you have this book by such and such and have them say we don't know.

My favorite used bookstore the owner has literally 10s of thousands of books and you can ask him do you have this book and he can tell you that he might have that one or he knows for sure he has other books by the same author. He also knows where everything is.

 

[domani]

The thing I like best about used bookstores is finding books that I've never seen before due to the books being long out-of-print. I don't like to walk into a used bookstore and find mountains of recent books that you can get anywhere.

The thing I like least about some used bookstores is slow turnover. Occasionally I'll find a good store, and pick up a whole bunch of interesting books. A few months later I'll go back and find that their stock is exactly the same as before. I prefer a place that's good for return visits.

 

[Didi_Gogo]

Oh used bookstores... the biggest thing is selection. Sometimes it's just not there! And then I find myself wandering around looking for God knows what. I HATE leaving a bookstore empty handed, especially now that the nearest bookstore to my house is a 45 minute drive. If the selection is so bad that I can't leave the place with out a single book maybe within the first 2-3 visits, I wont go back.

 

[Frozeninside]

I love used bookstores. I live so close to 2 and they both have a good selection one more then other will have a better in certain areas. And well I usually get deals from both

Although there are some used stores that I really wasn't a fan of, selection wasn't a problem it was the lay out. books behind books in like rows of 3. Kind of hard to sell books when the customers can't see them and have to go hunting

 

[Lit_driven_girl]

I just thought of something else. One of my blog posts a while ago was about how much of a bookstore snob I am, etc. In the post I mentioned the fact that I don't like it when used bookstores are run by grumpy old men who are not willing to help. In many cases I've been barked at and made to feel like I should never have opened my mouth to begin with.

Two of my favorite bookstores have very welcoming owners. At the one the lady always hugs me and says welcome home. :flowers:

 

[Fantasy Moon]

The used bookshop that I like to visit has huge sections devoted to romance. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but I just wish that other genres received the same attention. I think it'd be nicer to have just regular shelves for the books instead of housing half of them in boxes underneath the shelved titles.