Due to the Covid pandemic flaring up again here in Melbourne over the last few months, I have not really had a chance to head out farther than local thrift stores. The furthest I managed to get in the last 3 months or so has been Carrum Downs, today (having a few spare dollars) I decided to head out to Mordialloc & Mentone… My two favourite stores are there, generally a nice selection of sometimes obscure books.
Leaving the house around midday – I thought there would not be many people on the train… And I was right, I headed to Mordialloc and walked down to the Lions Opportunity Shop. I have been visiting the Lions shop for over ten years, it’s not the nicest looking store but they have a massive selection of books, and the prices are phenomenal. I spoke with them about how I can deposit donations from store earnings (we donate 5% of all sales to charity). After a little chat with the volunteers, I had a look at the book section, lots of great books (A lot of paper backs), I found a few nice Hard Covers as well as 2 reading copies of the Lord of the Rings.
Next I went to the Salvos a few doors down, again as you may know the Salvos stores have had renovations and they look like boutique clothing stores in shopping centres, I Managed to get a few books and walked back to the train station. I waited a few minutes and boarded a City train towards Mentone.
Mentone is home to my other favourite store “Southern Opportunity Shop”, I know it as St Augustines… Again a store I have been visiting for over ten years, they have a massive book section, they are always over stocked and the prices are amazing, looks like they neatened up the store a little since my last visit. I managed to get a bag full of books and left the store, across the road is a very small Salvos store, tiny book section, but they have many antiquarian books – at relatively high prices. I found a few books, nothing in the older books except Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, but the price was prohibitive… it was only a Heron Publication… So I left it for someone else.
I walked back to the trains station, patiently waited for the next train, and returned to Frankston… I couldn’t drag two heavy bags full of books by foot so I caught a Taxi. Below are a few pictures of the books I found today.
I didn’t find anything spectacular, but again great staples for a book shop, remember these stores collect money for amazing charities that do great work in their communities, shop there, if you cannot then leave a donation, be it goods or cash. I hope that by writing this blog I can spread awareness of the wonderful work these organisations do for the community, and hopefully encourage people to look into their local OP / Thrift Store.
Until the next treasure hunt.