I have spent the last two Saturdays going to a few antique stores looking for items for myself as well as for my
Bonanzle booth. I figured with the holidays coming, I would not be able to spend much time on the booth. If I was going to find more stock, it seemed to me that my best bet would be some antique dealers who don't specialize in series books.
Last Saturday, I decided to venture to the little town of Cambridge, MD. It sits on the southern bank of the
Choptank River, and is one of the oldest cities on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It is about a 70 minute trip, but I knew of an antique store and a used book store, both of which have proven to be good places for series books. I walked into the
antique center in Cambridge, to find the workers busy trying to take care of a leaky roof. There must be about a hundred vendors in the old building, and I started looking. First, I found some matte yellow spine Nancy
Drews, most from the seventies, but in good shape and inexpensively priced. I plan on grouping these into lots of two and three and pricing them to move. My surprise came when I walked into the second room.
A book dealer with a huge inventory had moved in, and as I made my way in I saw the children's books in the corner. My biggest yield of the day was made in this booth. I bought dust jacketed
Nancys, 3 Rick B
rants, the Kay
Traceys spotlighted in my blog last week, some Judy
Boltons, and more yellow spine Nancy PCs. Prices were very reasonable, and I found books for myself as well as my booth. I left there with a box full of books.
The used book store proved to have two books I purchased for myself. I picked up a copy of an old
Grosset and Dunlap copy of
Tom Slade in the North Woods. I was interested in this one because the hero goes to the Adirondacks to set up a Scout camp. I vacation in the Adirondacks every year, and have had an almost thirty year love affair with the region. Some winter day I will pick this one up to read. I also found a copy of
The Adventure Girls at K-Bar -O. It is the more common
Saalfield printing, but Jennifer has spoken of the series, and I thought I would give it a try.
On the way home, I impulsively stopped at a store on the main highway that normally has very little since many stop here going to the beach. It was here, however, that I found my second big score of the day. Sitting on a shelf in a corner sat the four
jacketless thick blue Nancy D
rews that I spoke of in my last blog. I was quite happy with the day's haul, and like a hunter with a nice antlered buck in the back of his pickup, I went home feeling quite proud of myself.
Yesterday I took off again for another book hunt. I had decided to try an antique center located between Baltimore and Washington, DC. I had not been there for eleven years, but inspired by my previous luck, I set off. Unfortunately, luck did not repeat itself. The antique center had changed since my last visit, and was full of silver, jewelry and Depression glass. Not a book in sight, and I left for another antique store, about an hour further away from home. I found two first printing
Applewood Judy
Boltons, which I did not have, and some Nancy Drew stationary and post cards. Besides that nothing! 8 hours in the car, and a refilled tank later, I returned home pretty empty handed.
I think I will spend more time on
Ebay next week, and less time on the road. I think the better deals will be there, and it is a lot easier on me. I will be adding some additional Trixie
Beldens and Three Investigators later this week to my
Bonanzle booth. I suspect that there will be little movement over the next few weeks due to the holidays, and hope that the New Year provides more "finds" like my first weekend adventure.
