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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.
CAVEAT: As (we hope) most of you are aware, we carry physical books and not e-books, but this is neither because we're Luddites or because we're counterrevolutionaries. In fact, we don't feel the need to doomsay one medium or the other, because - they're different media. They're great for different things. We do have concerns about a certain monopsony involved in both physical and e-books, but that's different, and it's not something we're weepy and flaily about - it's something to reason out for policy purposes.
Meanwhile, we have every reason to believe that our medium, the physical book, is wonderful and practical, and we're also not adverse to poking fun at the monopsony and its product, which as we all know has room for improvement. This is a joke one person here wrote for a friend. Laugh or don't, but let's not argue. Thanks.
1. Our
inventory has doubled since the old days on Washington Street and now
contains 50,000 carefully selected, cleaned, and organized books. We
circulate at least half of those books every year.
2. From a
staff of one, we've grown to offer three full-time and three part-time
positions, with more to come. We are always open during our posted
hours, and we offer online services beyond those hours.
3.
We've had the honor of working with Goodwill Industries and other groups
to offer employment experience to several young interns, every one a
winner just needing a chance.
4. We've come to be friends with
our Northside neighborhood and proud advocates of our fellow
independent, locally owned businesses (check out the page linked below).
5. We've raised over $18,000 for non-profit organizations like Local Foods Connection and for an academic endowment.
6. We bought and now have the privilege of curating one of the most
striking historic homes in Iowa City, the 1847 Wentz House, which is on
the National Register of Historic Places.
7. Most importantly:
We've come to know many regulars, including young people just getting
started with reading, and we are privileged to remain a part of their
lives; we've also had the opportunity to circulate our community's used
books and to keep favorite authors' out-of-print titles available for
our City of Literature.
Thank you so much for making all of this possible!
Check out more info on our new location, including tours of the building and the neighborhood, below.
http://www.thehauntedbookshop.com/shop/haunted/index.html
219 North Gilbert St showing off its summer
look. Notice the enticing flowerbed on the right (behind the tree) where
our friend Abey of Amazing Services has been at work planning new
greenery!
In other look news, we'll soon be sporting a lovely
sign featuring the logo by Claudia McGehee. Tune in later this week for
more details.
Don't
panic! The travel-related sections - travel narratives, books about
ships/air travel/cars/trains, polar adventures - moved upstairs to the
Gold Room, and Law, Economics, and Business are now in the downstairs
hall. Just trying to find your favoritest spots for things you like.
CONFIRMED: Sighting of space enough for a reader and 20+ seats. Iowa Summer Writing Festival, we are ready to host your readings, and we are really excited!
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