So Melbourne is finally out of a strict pandemic lockdown finally, many months stuck at home dreaming about book hunting. I finally got a chance last week to get a small taste of thrift stores.
I used public transport to get to Yarraville last Thursday to pick up a cheap bit of music equipment, currently the Frankston line is having several stations built, as a result busses operate part of the way, 5 hours to Yarraville and back, ready to catch the bus to Frankston, hundreds of high school kids were also waiting, they were loud and I’d had enough people for the day so… I decided to pop into the two thrift stores in Mordialloc. I’ve mentioned their names and location previously so I wont go into great detail.
The Lion’s shop which has alwasy been a nice place to get old books, was ok this time around, mostly paper backs but I did come away with a few books, i don’t remember which ones came from where, but there was not a great deal there when I went this time around. The Salvos In Mordialloc was much the same, not much to choose from, don’t get me wrong if you want to find a great book to read, if you like modern best sellers and paper backs, almost every Op Shop will have you covered. Trying to find rare hard cover books is a little different, it’s a hit and miss, with luck playing a great part. Anyway to not go into more detail I managed to come away with a shopping bag of books, which I carted back to Frankston.
Today I managed to get a lift to Savers & Vinnies in Carrum Down.. Savers had some books not a great deal, and I decided to leave them be for somebody else, and I mean by it had some books, there were titles like Justin Bieber’s biography… just not my cup of tea, even though I know they would be great for the store.
Vinnies was great, I picked up maybe 3-4 books including a much sought after by me ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” US first edition… I had been planning to import a copy or of the set from the states, its not super rare… but its not exactly easy to find either, not hard cover and not 1st Edition.
Got driven back, and still hungry for more book hunting I walked to Frankston CBD, I usually avoid the ‘Save The Children” Shop as prices are steep but I decided to check them out, they seem to have lowered their prices now to a standard one would expect from an OP / Thrift Store. There were several 80’s 90’s hard cover books in pristine condition, I got lucky and one of the books (Once I could get back to a computer) was valued between 120-200 AUD$ making it a great place to have stepped into. I left, stopped at the tobacconist and bought my favourite mini cigars, savoured them as it had been about 2 weeks since I last had one. I decided to visit the RSPCA shop next.
The RSPCA shop again 95% of the stock were paperbacks, if I had access to more storage I would have bought several collection of books by various authors, and I mean 7 or more books by the same author in pristine paper back condition, alas I am limited to how much I can store. I did however spot a set of “Lord of the Rings” paper backs and decided to grab them, at the counter the lady told me the total was 3$, I objected, and said the books were labelled at 6$, she simply said they were half price, and if I would like I could pay 6$, so I did. Almost every time I come to this shop I end up paying a little more, in the form of a donation… I’m vegetarian and RSPCA does a lot of great work, helping animals etc.
Last stop, as I was getting tired of walking everywhere… was the Frankston Salvos, great collection of books, I managed to find a few great staples for the store, and almost missed a deluxe boxed set of Homer and Virgil paper back books – a bit pricey but very much worth it even as reading copies for myself. I did just realise that I forgot to visit the Frankston Vinnies, but never mind, too much after such a long break from thrfiting. I dragged back a now heavy bag of books… and will be adding them to the store in the next few days.
Below are the books I picked up as mentioned in this blog.
Until the next book hunt, wishing all Melbourne and Sydney folk, happy hunting for their favorite treasure 🙂