Last week I was leaving a library sale in Columbus with a stack of about 8 books. It was drizzling and I had the cookbook on top, a spiral bound community church cookbook from 1968. I slipped on the curb and the whole stack went face down into a shallow puddle. The cover was laminated so that was fine, but the first 12 pages absorbed water and the old mimeograph ink just turned into purple smudges. Now the recipe for 'Depression Era Meatloaf' is just a blurry blob. The rest of the book is fine, pages 13 through 200 are perfect. I dried it between paper towels and pressed it under a stack of encyclopedias for two days. It's readable but that one recipe is gone forever. Has anyone else had a thrift find get damaged like that and you had to decide if it was worth keeping anyway? I'm leaning toward keeping it because the rest of the content is still good, but I'm wondering if I should just pitch it and look for another copy.
Picked up a 1984 horror novel at a library sale for a buck and a half, thought it was a steal. By page 40 the spine cracked clean down the middle and pages started raining out like confetti, I had to hold the whole thing together with a rubber band just to finish it. Has anyone else had a thrift find that disintegrated before you even hit the halfway point?
An old guy at the library sale told me I was throwing away money on service calls when I could learn from vintage repair manuals. I grabbed a 1984 GE fridge manual for 50 cents and followed the steps to replace a $12 start relay myself last weekend. Has anyone else found an old manual that actually paid for itself ten times over?
I was at the county library's annual book sale last Saturday in Harrisburg, and they had a whole table of books for 50 cents each. I grabbed one called "The Laughter of Dead Kings" by some author I never heard of, Elizabeth Peters. It's an old mystery set in Egypt with a quirky archaeologist protagonist, and I read the whole thing in two days. Now I'm hunting for more of her books at thrift stores, but nobody I talk to knows about this series at all. Has anyone else stumbled onto a hidden gem author this way?
Walked in there last Saturday. Saw a dusty copy of “The Integral Trees” by Niven. Cover was ripped. Smelled like basement. Picked it up anyway. Best 50 cents I ever spent. Now I grab anything that looks beat up. Has anyone else found a gem just because the cover looked trashed?
Ended up being the best trash I ever read. Cost me $1 at a church sale in Denton. Has anyone else ever scored big on a total random cover pick?
I picked up this beat-up copy of "The Complete Walker" by Colin Fletcher at a library sale in Des Moines for 50 cents. Everyone online keeps going on about ultralight gear lists and fancy titanium cookware, but this book from 1968 says to focus on your boots and your attitude first. I tested his method on a 12-mile trail last weekend and my pack weighed half what it used to, without buying any new stuff. Has anyone else found an old outdoor book that actually beats modern advice?
Picked up a 'Bless This Mess' cookbook from 1954 at a garage sale in Tucson, and it swore by using 'scalded milk' straight from the cow - but there's no way they accounted for modern pasteurization temps, because my dough turned into soup each time before I figured out to cool it down first. Has anyone else hit this trap with vintage recipes that assume different ingredients?
Picked up this beat up paperback called 'The Genocides' by Thomas Disch for 50 cents last weekend. Set in rural Indiana where giant alien plants take over farms. Never heard of it before but it was bleak as hell. Anyone else stumble across old sci-fi that feels way ahead of its time?
I picked up a 1975 paperback called "The Coming Crisis" at a Goodwill in Des Moines for 50 cents. It talked about a massive supply chain breakdown hitting around 2020. Three years later I went back to that same store and the clerk told me the author died broke in 1982. Has anyone else stumbled on an old book that got something scary right?
I found this old book called 'Mushrooms of the Northeast' from like 1965 at a library sale last month for a dollar. Figured it would be outdated crap but I flipped through it and the illustrations are hand-drawn and super detailed. Took it on a hike last weekend and identified 3 different mushrooms just from the way the gills attached to the stem. No app has ever been that clear for me. Has anyone else had luck with old field guides over modern ones for identifying stuff?
So I'm flipping through a box of old kids books at this sale last summer. Found this beat up copy of The Forgotten Door, cover is barely hanging on, pages all yellow. I remembered reading it as a kid and loved it. But this guy next to me noticed it and offered to trade me a first edition of something else I'd never heard of. Said his copy was worth way more. I stood there for like 5 minutes holding both books. Ended up keeping the Door because it felt wrong to let it go. Read it to my daughter that night and she actually liked it. Anyone else ever get stuck between what's valuable and what means something to you?
I found this beat up book at a library sale in Akron last fall that had a whole chapter on fixing toilet flappers with stuff you have in your kitchen. My toilet started running two weeks ago and I was about to call a plumber. Followed the diagram to swap a rubber gasket using an old yogurt container lid as a shim. It actually held for 8 days so far. Has anyone else had luck with these old fix-it books from the 70s?
I grabbed this beat up old cookbook from a library sale for 50 cents, like from 1953, called "Quick Meals for Busy Families." Flipping through it, I found a whole section on how to make Velveeta cheese last for months without refrigeration. It said to just leave it wrapped in wax paper in a cool closet, and it would keep for up to 6 months. That blew my mind, like people just trusted that cheese wouldn't go bad in their pantry. Has anyone else come across old food storage advice that sounds crazy now?
Found a beat up copy of 'The Forever War' and a pristine 'Gateway' at the Friends of the Library sale in Portland for 50 cents each. I only had a dollar in my wallet, so I grabbed the Haldeman instead of the Pohl. Got home and found out it had pages 45-60 ripped out... whole chunk of the boot camp scene missing. Has anyone else got burned by a thrift store book that looked fine on the outside?