HELP?! Pricing [pocket]Books
My dad gave me the 3rd degree because I've splurged on books two times within the last ten days. Can't help it. I'm insatiable. Anything at all. It's been a week since I started on my medication, and the pills make my mood "stable" enough to be lazy all the time. I figure the only way I can keep me from killing myself is to read. Things to do to keep myself busy that don't require me to write. Breather.
Problem is, the books keep piling up, and I'm running out of space. To quote my father, "Kung saan-saan nakakalat libro mo. Wala ng mapaglagyan." The bookshelf inside my room is already overflowing with stuff. I suppose the termites and other insects are having a grand time feasting on the pages of the books; it's been more than a year since I last cleaned the shelf to some semblance of order. Since the shelf was installed 9 years ago, I've documented the title and author of the books I have to keep track of my collection. And judging from both my notes and my memory, I have more than 100 "missing titles," one of them my first ever hardbound, some of them an absolute favorite.
So that's when the decision to sell some books crossed my mind. Might as well make money from these little treasures, right? Forget what my mom said years ago, that books are my investment. I need fast cash, fast! Duh? I can have a standalone rent-a-book service, but I don't think I'm trusting and naive enough to go through with it (seeing that some people don't know how to return things they don't own).
What I'm really itching to get rid of are the Sweet Valley books, all 30+ of them. Well taken care of. Most of them are, strictly speaking, 2nd to 4th hand. A few are "brand new," in half a decade sense of the word. Most have been with me for more than 10 years, and other than the yellowed pages (age), some creases (used), and minor scriblings (my name or something else), they're in good condition.
The question now is this: How much should I sell them?
Well, actually, I still have a lot of floating and swimming question marks in my mind. I've never done this before. And the most reasonable price (plus, considering that they're practicallty collectibles) I can come up with is somewhere between 30 and 50 pesos. Which is a lot cheaper than *some* 2nd-hand SVHs I've seen that look like they've been sexually abused by my dog Popoy (believe me, not a pretty sight). Goodness, have you seen eBay? Tsk! And what about shipping? Ugh, clueless, I am.
Still thinking if my Baby-Sitters Club and Bobbsey Twins collections should go as well. I've almost 100 books here, and much as they're a childhood favorite, they've become child stuff and kalat na lang. How about Dean Koontz? Barbara Michaels? Mary Higgins Clark? V.C. Andrews? And I want this Paulo Coelho book (The Alchemist) to say bye-bye too. If I sell it for P200, may bibili kaya? And I can do without these Tagalog pocketbooks!
Hay, kabaliw.
Problem is, the books keep piling up, and I'm running out of space. To quote my father, "Kung saan-saan nakakalat libro mo. Wala ng mapaglagyan." The bookshelf inside my room is already overflowing with stuff. I suppose the termites and other insects are having a grand time feasting on the pages of the books; it's been more than a year since I last cleaned the shelf to some semblance of order. Since the shelf was installed 9 years ago, I've documented the title and author of the books I have to keep track of my collection. And judging from both my notes and my memory, I have more than 100 "missing titles," one of them my first ever hardbound, some of them an absolute favorite.
So that's when the decision to sell some books crossed my mind. Might as well make money from these little treasures, right? Forget what my mom said years ago, that books are my investment. I need fast cash, fast! Duh? I can have a standalone rent-a-book service, but I don't think I'm trusting and naive enough to go through with it (seeing that some people don't know how to return things they don't own).
What I'm really itching to get rid of are the Sweet Valley books, all 30+ of them. Well taken care of. Most of them are, strictly speaking, 2nd to 4th hand. A few are "brand new," in half a decade sense of the word. Most have been with me for more than 10 years, and other than the yellowed pages (age), some creases (used), and minor scriblings (my name or something else), they're in good condition.
The question now is this: How much should I sell them?
Well, actually, I still have a lot of floating and swimming question marks in my mind. I've never done this before. And the most reasonable price (plus, considering that they're practicallty collectibles) I can come up with is somewhere between 30 and 50 pesos. Which is a lot cheaper than *some* 2nd-hand SVHs I've seen that look like they've been sexually abused by my dog Popoy (believe me, not a pretty sight). Goodness, have you seen eBay? Tsk! And what about shipping? Ugh, clueless, I am.
Still thinking if my Baby-Sitters Club and Bobbsey Twins collections should go as well. I've almost 100 books here, and much as they're a childhood favorite, they've become child stuff and kalat na lang. How about Dean Koontz? Barbara Michaels? Mary Higgins Clark? V.C. Andrews? And I want this Paulo Coelho book (The Alchemist) to say bye-bye too. If I sell it for P200, may bibili kaya? And I can do without these Tagalog pocketbooks!
Hay, kabaliw.
posted by Kanoko @ 12:14 AM
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