That one Goodwill run where I found 3 signed first editions in one afternoon

Back in March I hit up the Goodwill in Decatur, Georgia and found a signed copy of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" hiding behind a row of old textbooks. Then two shelves over I spotted a first edition of Octavia Butler's "Kindred" with a faded library stamp from 1979. Paid $4.50 total for both, plus a third book I later learned was a signed Patricia McKillip novel. Has anyone else stumbled on a crazy lucky haul like that in a thrift store or was it just a one-time fluke for me?

2 comments

2 Comments

lewis.mila1mo ago

Finding a signed Le Guin in with old textbooks" is the part that gets me. People don't realize how many valuable books get dumped at Goodwill when someone passes away and the family just grabs whatever's there. I'm convinced there's still a ton of signed Octavia Butler stuff floating around in random thrift stores because she was so active in the 80s and 90s giving talks at local libraries and bookstores. That library stamp on Kindred actually might mean it came from a small college library that did a circulation purge.

janaf761mo ago

Well, you know what, I used to think most valuable books were already discovered and catalogued by dealers. But you make a really good point about smaller college libraries. I remember hearing about a community college out in Oregon that cleared out their entire science fiction section a few years back. Nobody thought to check for signatures. It makes me wonder how many more signed copies are sitting in boxes waiting to be rediscovered. I guess I was wrong about that assumption.