
Re: Where do you buy your books and what do you pay for them?
The easiest place to buy low priced books is Amazon. If I'm feeling lazy I buy from them.
But if I'm serious about buying a bunch of books cheap, I log onto
http://www.booksalefinder.com/NJ.html. This site tells me when and where to find library book sales near me. What I've been able to do is replace many of the mass market paperback editions of great books I bought when I was a kid, with the hardcover versions in excellent condition for $2.00 a pop.
These sales work because libraries put up ads for people to donate their used books. Since the libraries are getting them free, they can sell them cheap. Also, the overwhelming majority of the books are not the library editions with all those black ink markings, but donated books, often in great shape. First editions are not uncommon, nor are old, out of print books. Some sales have a few thousand books, maybe 40% hardcover. Some can easily have 10,000 books 60% hardcover.
You just have to get their on the first day because those people who sell on Amazon show up and grab everything they can make a profit on. That's why the bottom has dropped out of the used book market.
As far as a buying from charity shops, I'd like to, but there aren't many near where I live. There's a Salvation Army shop I've seen, I'll stop in soon.
When I die I want to bequeath a 5,000 book library to my daughter. I'm up to maybe 1,100 or 1,200.