Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Selling Tips for July

July has arrived, and with it the busiest season for the book buying team at the Haunted. Here are a few reminders and tips about selling your books to save you time and maximize your return:
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1. The buying team is available from 11am-4pm, Monday-Saturday. (Shopping? Don't worry, the store is still open 10-8 Mon-Sat and 11-7 on Sunday.)

2. If you're on a tight schedule, please consider calling ahead (319-337-2996) to check wait times in case there is a line. We do not allow you to leave your books here if you need to be elsewhere. We will look at your books and offer a price while you wait.

3. When calling ahead or setting an appointment during buying hours, please be accurate about your number of boxes/bags. Be aware that we can't make a firm estimate for your books over the phone - we need to see the books to calculate our offer. We can give you guidelines about what we are and are not accepting and whether they are the kind of thing for which we pay at a higher rate, but not dollar figures.

4. To save yourself and other patrons time and effort, please pre-sort your books.
  • We never accept former library books, books with mold, mildew, water, or other liquid damage, highlighted books, or any general-market books with missing dustjackets or damaged binding.
  • We do buy some books that are used as textbooks, especially in the humanities (literature, philosophy, religion, history, cultural studies, languages, etc.), but we do not buy textbooks like "Chemistry 7th Edition" or "Archaeology Annual 2010."
  • We are not buying westerns, romance novels, or book club editions, and we are not buying very many bestsellers in hardcover at this time.
  • We do not buy encyclopedias, magazines, journals, CDs, LPs, or DVDs (unless a CD or DVD is supposed to come with a book).
5. We can offer assistance carrying your books into the building if enough staff are available to do so. Just ask.

6. Yes, we do sometimes visit collections offsite. At this time, most appointment slots for July have been filled, and we would like to save the remaining ones for those of our patrons who have mobility concerns and/or large collections (more than 700 books, which is between 20-30 shelves or paper-sized/cubic-foot boxes).

7. Rudeness to other patrons, blocking access at the back of the building,  foul language, or inappropriate treatment of staff will not be tolerated. We understand that pressure happens, but we expect you to offer your best to others while we are doing our best for you.

Let's all be helpful to one another during this busy season so that you can get through as smoothly as possible and so that we can serve as many patrons as possible. We sincerely appreciate your taking the time to read this, and double bonus hero points and thanks to those of you who are helping others sort, box, carry, drive, and keep cool this July.



DON'T FORGET: WE'RE AT 219 N GILBERT STREET. That's halfway between Market and Bloomington.