71 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

I dint know about you but I'm in and out of local charity shops all the time. Just this morning i made a donation of some bit and pieces and spied this book on the shelf which I then picked up up for £5.

 

(click on the pic for a larger image)

Has anyone else had any luck in these shops? 

Edited by Gary C, 27 May 2018 - 18:21.

[kayemod]

I dint know about you but I'm in and out of local charity shops all the time. Just this morning i made a donation of some bit and pieces and spied this book on the shelf which I then picked up up for £5.

 

Has anyone else had any luck in these shops? 

 

I think you'd have to be very fortunate to find a proper bargain in these shops, and I think that these days it's only really possible in small one-off places. The main chains like Oxfam and too switched on, they check values of likely looking items, and price them accordingly, and although it spoils our fun, who are we to blame them? Like you, I often go into these places, but they usually seem to have a pretty good idea of what they're sitting on.

 

People like Vitesse are to blame, I doubt if much escapes his eagle eye for the charity he assists, but I have found seriously under priced stuff on ebay. If they run to the end unnoticed, they sometimes go for nowhere near what some specialist shops are pricing them at on AbeBooks, I've just bought a mint unopened copy of Innes Ireland's All arms and Elbows for £9.50, but please don't tell anyone.

[Bloggsworth]

Not that switched on - I went into the North London Hospice shop and they had a Thorens TD125 record deck for which they wanted only £15. I told them it was worth 20 times that much, but they weren't bothered, that was the price. I already have a Linn, so didn't need it, but crazy pricing system...

[Tim Murray]

Around fifteen years ago I came across a copy of Bill Boddy’s History of Motor Racing on sale in a small charity shop in Cheddar for a mere £2. ‘Bargain’, I thought, and snapped it up, only to find when I got home and checked on line that its average second-hand price was - around £2.

[Richard Jenkins]

I found an original From Starting Grid to Chequered Flag by Paul Frere in Minehead, Somerset, some 20 years ago. 50p if I remember rightly.

[Ray Bell]

I got an autographed copy of A Boot Full of Right Arms from an op shop in suburban Brisbane once...

It was actually a review copy which Evan Green had put a message into. No doubt it was no more than 50c worth, but a fantastic read.

As my late wife was a serious hound of op shops there've been many great finds over the years. I'll try to think of some others.

[Vitesse2]

People like Vitesse are to blame, I doubt if much escapes his eagle eye for the charity he assists, but I have found seriously under priced stuff on ebay. If they run to the end unnoticed, they sometimes go for nowhere near what some specialist shops are pricing them at on AbeBooks, I've just bought a mint unopened copy of Innes Ireland's All arms and Elbows for £9.50, but please don't tell anyone.

As regards motor sport/transport books we get very few donated. Pricing for most of our books is determined by two other volunteers, although I do give them help if required. I also individually price local history stuff, which is often quite rare, even if recent.

 

My policy when putting them on eBay is always to put them up at a competitive price. And I do always bring motor sport and similar to your attention ...

 

I'd rather have the money in our Paypal account than the book sitting on the shelf!

 

My colleague who runs the charity's specialist bookshop in Bath, OTOH ... If I had the run of his shelves I could double or even treble my eBay sales without affecting his turnover! But as my Area Manager puts it, "he's a bit precious about his stock."

 

My personal purchased bargains, BTW, were a mint 2000/2001 Autocourse for 50p (I think they'd mistaken it for one of those 'official F1 annuals' which were £3.99 in The Works) and a copy of Wheels Across Australia by Pedr Davis for £1. How that found its way to a charity shop in Midsomer Norton I'll never know!

[Vitesse2]

Around fifteen years ago I came across a copy of Bill Boddy’s History of Motor Racing on sale in a small charity shop in Cheddar for a mere £2. ‘Bargain’, I thought, and snapped it up, only to find when I got home and checked on line that its average second-hand price was - around £2.

There were several run-on prints of that with artificially high cover prices, produced for bargain bookshops. Flooded the market ...

[D-Type]

I always take a look.  Apart from the inevitable Hamilton and Mansell biographies and various "Complete encyclopedias ~",  there are a few bargains about, but nothing particularly earth shattering, eg Niki Lauda's  For the Record or Alain Prost's Life in the Fast Lane.  But I'm always hopeful.  My best acquisition was Robert Edwards's Stirling Moss biography, which I already had - but this one is autographed by SCM. 

I agree with the suggestions that the cream is being skimmed off nowadays.

[Lee Nicolle]

I often do Sunday Markets and have seen all manner of books of interest. Both motoring books as well as manuals etc.

A while back I had a run buying manuals at the markets and putting them on Ebay. $5-$10 purchases were making $6-$70.And a couple of cases I kept the ones I had bought and sold my old more battered versions.

Just dont see them any more and if they are at swaps they are asking a lot more.

I have bought automotive parts at markets and these day more and more market stuff at swaps. eg the one I went too yesterday had large amounts of pot plants. 

I also buy near all my reading material at markets, even bought 2 novels yesterday at the swap,,, and a Falcon intake manifold from the same seller.

[Lee Nicolle]

I always take a look.  Apart from the inevitable Hamilton and Mansell biographies and various "Complete encyclopedias ~",  there are a few bargains about, but nothing particularly earth shattering, eg Niki Lauda's  For the Record or Alain Prost's Life in the Fast Lane.  But I'm always hopeful.  My best acquisition was Robert Edwards's Stirling Moss biography, which I already had - but this one is autographed by SCM. 

I agree with the suggestions that the cream is being skimmed off nowadays.

I bought the Nigel Mansell book at a market probably for 50c,, and my Mike Hawthorn Championship years was actually school reading

[kayemod]

I bought the Nigel Mansell book at a market probably for 50c,, and my Mike Hawthorn Championship years was actually school reading

 

 

I think Nige has written quite a few "autobiographies", he's earning a reputation similar to Geoffrey Boycott's in Yorkshire, about whom a knowledgable sports enthusiast friend, told me there are about ten. Some of those probably weren't originally intended to be autobiographies, but inevitably with Boycs, that's what they turned into, a bit like his regular contributions in The Daily Telegraph..

[Gary C]

this was another of my finds earlier in the year;

 

 

[Gary C]

Last year I found this, the original 10 vhs set of 'A Gentlemen's Motor Racing Diary', complete with it's presentation box, brass plaque on the top and issuing certificate...all for just £10!  I passed them on to RTH.

There ARE bargains still to be had!

 

Edited by Gary C, 28 May 2018 - 07:25.

[Stephen W]

A friend of mine ended up with "two boxes of old Autosports" which he took to a car boot sale along with loads of other stuff from his late father's house clearance. He put a price tag of £1 each on the Autosports with the offer of 3 for £2. People were offering between 10 & 50 pence but he refused to barter. He hadn't sold any by lunch time so put them back in the boot of his car. He contacted me and said after all the hassle did I want them. I said yes and ended up driving back from the Bo'nees hillclimb revival week-end with the passenger's foot well full of Autosports!

 

I have had a few 'bargains' off EBay by making what turned out to be the only bid on an item. 

[Vitesse2]

Not that switched on - I went into the North London Hospice shop and they had a Thorens TD125 record deck for which they wanted only £15. I told them it was worth 20 times that much, but they weren't bothered, that was the price. I already have a Linn, so didn't need it, but crazy pricing system...

Electricals are always difficult for charity shops. Some won't take them at all. And these days they should all be safety tested, although some do try to sell them without PAT labels. Not a good idea. We have a volunteer who spends four or five days a week PAT testing everything from table lamps to vacuum cleaners and electric guitars. Last time I was in the shop he was testing a Flymo! And you just wouldn't believe the amount of non-working, useless or downright dangerous electricals and electronics we get donated! Old lamps and radios with cloth-covered perished rubber-insulated flexes, sometimes still with round-pin plugs attached! 1970s slide projectors and electric sewing machines, original Kenwood Chefs, unguarded unearthed drop-side 1950s toasters ... and last week we had what appeared to be an unused cordless Microsoft keyboard donated, still in the box. Unfortunately, the dongle for it wasn't in the box ...

[Seedy]

Working in the local Oxfam Bookshop


Since retiring I have volunteered for one day a week in our local Oxfam Bookshop. Having sold race & rally books at autojumble for many years I could hopefully add some experience from what I had learned.


You just never know what’s going to be donated. In the five years I have been there have been few quality transport books donated. But fairly obvious reasons they tend do tend to be donated in batches so lots of railway, cars, bikes, aircraft etc. ALL books are carefully checked many get chucked to recycling because they are of poor condition. Generally most of the transport books are coffee table books – lots of photos and little text. Really difficult selling these books £1.99 if you are lucky. The F1 annuals (not Autocourse) & car manuals just do not sell even at £1.99. More specific books are priced accordingly BUT only IF the person pricing the books knows what they are looking at. Fortunately, I have spotted a number. If in doubt we check on the usual online places. If it’s valued at over £15 it will go online, if nots it’s priced to sell in the shop at a price that’s at the bottom end of an online value.


We have had a lot of the green Goodwood year books very recently. They were tried on line but failed to sell, so I took them to Beaulieu and sold 5 at £5 each. Also we have a number of very nice Morris/Wolseley Workshop manuals from the 1930s. Again these failed to sell on line so I took these to Beaulieu as well, selling two of them. The problem with these sort of books is that in the shop you are looking for a potential buyer that might just come into the shop, but put in front of a few thousand potential buyers you have a better chance. It’s about product placement.


Back to the stack of railway books. Based in the south we can shift books about local railways, Southern, S&D, GWR etc, but trying to sell any about railways in the Midlands or the North is much harder. The books are in the wrong shop. Trying to make that happen is impossible as the infrastructure is not in place.


Ever wondered why books are say £2.99, £3.99 etc…well I was told it’s because the till has to be opened to give you the 1p change. So when the government looked at stopping the 1p & 2p coins you can understand why the charity shops jumped up in dismay!!


All charity bookshops rely on donations of free books. So any profit made is a plus. The quality of some donations beggars belief – eg you can’t sell a children’s book that has been scribbled in, travel guides more than 5?? years old, encyclopedias (it’s all on line now), first aid guides more than a few years old, paperback fiction/crime that has been read within an inch of its life. Not every book that gets donated gets sold. A lot just get paper/card recycled. Some books do get shifted to other local Oxfam Bookshops.


The books on the shelves in the shop are culled after 4 – 6 weeks to keep the shelf fresh. BUT if there is no restock we might knock the price down a bit and give it another go.

Have a look at Oxfam online for vintage clothing, books etc. The charity shops are geared up for spotting interesting stuff. But it does depend on how good the shop & staff are, everyone is different. Don’t forget everyone is a volunteer. Chris

[Charlieman]

And you just wouldn't believe the amount of non-working, useless or downright dangerous electricals and electronics we get donated! Old lamps and radios with cloth-covered perished rubber-insulated flexes, sometimes still with round-pin plugs attached! 1970s slide projectors and electric sewing machines, original Kenwood Chefs, unguarded unearthed drop-side 1950s toasters ... 

That's the sort of stuff for which the safety regs say "perform a visual inspection first". It sorts the chaff from the wheat very quickly. A lot of newer equipment -- last 20 years in particular -- is untestable with a PAT device owing to detachable sealed unit PSUs. "Sealed for death" as we used to joke.

 

I've had very little luck finding motorsport book bargains in charity shops. I treat them in the same way as the book remainder shops, as a place for reasonably priced buys that I wouldn't actively seek. I bought one of the Prince Bira biogs -- a wartime edition -- for the same price that other sellers had it on Abe books. But it was a tempting clean copy of something I knew I'd enjoy. The only bargains have been early edition factory workshop manuals. I guess it's tricky for volunteers to price these and most that were bought in the day didn't wear well.

[PRD]

I picked up a copy of Our Noige's original ghosted biography in the Oxfam book shop in Exeter and found that it had been signed by the man himself. I pointed out to the assistant that they could probably double the £1.75 they were asking for it

 

I always have a look to see what's going and very occasionally there is a motor racing related book that's worth picking up. The most recent was a copy of 'Porsche - the man and his cars' by Von Frankenburg (translated by Charles Meisl) with a good dust jacket for £8.99. But as discussed above that's very much an exception, however there's a 2008/9 Autocourse in the Oxfam book shop in Tavistock for less than a tenner if anyone is interested 

[kayemod]

I picked up a copy of Our Noige's original ghosted biography in the Oxfam book shop in Exeter and found that it had been signed by the man himself. I pointed out to the assistant that they could probably double the £1.75 they were asking for it

 

Double? Half would be more likely, have you read it yet?

[Bloggsworth]

"...unguarded unearthed drop-side 1950s toasters..." We had one at school - Only time to toast one side of the bread, for 6th formers only, and slices of toast flying around the dining room like prototype frisbees (No - Not a Public school, a London County Council boarding school, Woolverstone Hall in Suffolk. The locals assumed it must be a borstal if they were sending London boys there!)

Edited by Bloggsworth, 28 May 2018 - 15:30.

[PRD]

Double? Half would be more likely, have you read it yet?

 

I read it years ago, I didn't feel the need to repeat the experience , so didn't buy it

Edited by PRD, 28 May 2018 - 15:54.

[RS250]

You finished it?
Hero.

[Sterzo]

Spotted "Moss" by Robert Edwards for (I think) £1 in the local Oxfam shop on the southern fringes of London, so advised the volunteers it would be worth far more if they sold it to a book dealer. No idea if they did.

 

Big frustration many years ago: local library used to sell off little-borrowed books for a few pence. I was the only person to take out their ancient copy of SF Edge's autobiography - twice, with four years in between. Before it went on the 'for sale' shelf, I offered them the new price (from memory, ten or twenty pounds). Their response was: no procedure, not what they normally did, etc etc. A month later it had gone, probably sold for twenty pence to someone who read it and threw it away.

Edited by Sterzo, 28 May 2018 - 21:24.

[David Birchall]

No good books at our local thrift store yet but I did get this heavy leather jacket by 'Redskins' a French company apparently for $5!

Oh bugger!  no photos on this forum...

Edited by David Birchall, 29 May 2018 - 02:36.

[Michael Oliver]

this was another of my finds earlier in the year;

 

 

Might have some film to go with that, Gary!

[Gary C]

your own, Michael?

[StanBarrett2]

For me an amazing find.

 

At a rummage sale I picked up a magzine which I would usually never look at.

The title of the magazine…………… L’Uomo……………..

Why I picked it up I don’t know, the muscles, biceps, abbs and thighs usually don’t tickle my fancy.

 

But stuck in the middle of the magazine this clipping out of an issue of Race Car Engineering.

The magazine was cheap………….and yes I threw it in the nearest bin………….kept the clipping.

 

Being the cutaway drawing nerd that I am............

 

macoran

[kayemod]

I was expecting you to tell us that the magazine featured muscle cars, but no, it was the car equivalent of Michealangelo's David.

[StanBarrett2]

Not a muscle car in sight...oh yes a Porsche ad...If I remember........

[Updraught]

Hi Gary:

 

I purchased that book new and still have it!

[zold]

Around £2 from Oxfam. I know Mr. Nye posts here so I won't pretend I have read it cover to cover, but it's a great book with some lovely photographs.

[Michael Ferner]

I know Mr. Nye posts here so I won't pretend I have read it cover to cover

Good for you to mention that - Mr. Nye is apt to test his readers!!

[Bloggsworth]

If anyone finds a copy of Pierro Taruffi's "Technique of Motor Racing" with pencil drawings by, my brother, inside the front and rear covers, it is mine; awarded to me when I won the General Science prize at school; It was stolen many years ago...

[Colbul1]

My best finds were at a British Heart Foundation shop in Reading.  I picked up a copy of 'Georges Roesch and the Invincible Talbots' by Anthony Blight, and 'Riley - The Production and Competition History pre 1939', by Anthony Birmingham for a combined price of £5.  At the time I wasnt aware of either book when I bought them, it was only later I became aware of their current value.  For Oxfam, I have found their episodic sales online (50/70% off) usually very good. 

[moffspeed]

It's not just charity shops, basically the majority of motor sport (or any other) books are worth five eighths of not a lot...

 

We've just downsized houses and I've hung on to my most treasured books - so that's such as Georgano's Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport bought for me on my 16th birthday by mum and dad , the BRM history books by some obscure bearded author, Mon Ami Mate, Archie & The Listers, Jim Clark Remembered, Time & 2 seats, The Ford that beat Ferrari etc.

 

As for the rest - they went off to specialist auction houses or eBay.  Coffee table books on Goodwood, Le Mans, Moss etc - all struggled to reach a fiver or so. Criminal really, but that's how it is...

[LittleChris]

It's not just charity shops, basically the majority of motor sport (or any other) books are worth five eighths of not a lot...

 

We've just downsized houses and I've hung on to my most treasured books - so that's such as Georgano's Encyclopaedia of Motor Sport bought for me on my 16th birthday by mum and dad , the BRM history books by some obscure bearded author, Mon Ami Mate, Archie & The Listers, Jim Clark Remembered, Time & 2 seats, The Ford that beat Ferrari etc.

 

As for the rest - they went off to specialist auction houses or eBay.  Coffee table books on Goodwood, Le Mans, Moss etc - all struggled to reach a fiver or so. Criminal really, but that's how it is...

Don't suppose you're hanging on to The Swiss Grand Prix 1934-54 by Cimarosti are you ? Will happily give you a tenner   

[Vitesse2]

Don't suppose you're hanging on to The Swiss Grand Prix 1934-54 by Cimarosti are you ? Will happily give you a tenner 

I got that for about £40 on Swiss eBay ... ten years ago, admittedly, but it was still a bargain at that price then!

 

And no, it's not for sale!

[nexfast]

Ref. Cimarosti book, unless you get lucky in an auction or want to be adventurous and download it from a Russian site, the best you can find online or in specialized shops will take around 250 pounds out of your wallet. Of course if anyone here is eager to get rid of their copy I double Little Chris offer 

[Gary C]

An update from this morning. I had a phone call from one of our local charity shops to say that they had a couple of dvd's for and that as I was into motor racing there was a Graham Hill book as well, if I was interested. When I got to the shop after lunch, I found that it was a copy of Graham's 'Life at the Limit' autobiography and on page three.................it's signed!! Of course, if only Postimage would let me add a photo I'd show you one, but.......

[Bloggsworth]

An update from this morning. I had a phone call from one of our local charity shops to say that they had a couple of dvd's for and that as I was into motor racing there was a Graham Hill book as well, if I was interested. When I got to the shop after lunch, I found that it was a copy of Graham's 'Life at the Limit' autobiography and on page three.................it's signed!! Of course, if only Postimage would let me add a photo I'd show you one, but.......

 

Never mind, the site gave us a picture of a nubile young wench purportedly inviting us to contact flirty singles - I guess that'll have to do...

[Vitesse2]

Never mind, the site gave us a picture of a nubile young wench purportedly inviting us to contact flirty singles - I guess that'll have to do...

You do realise the ads you get served are based on your browsing history ...?

[JacnGille]

You do realise the ads you get served are based on your browsing history ...?

hahahahahahahahaha

[Bloggsworth]

You do realise the ads you get served are based on your browsing history ...?

 

If that is so they need to rewrite their algorithm, I've been looking for an Opel Manta GTE in really good nick...

[Vitesse2]

If that is so they need to rewrite their algorithm, I've been looking for an Opel Manta GTE in really good nick...

Sometimes the algorithm may know more than you do. Check the definition of Manta on Urban Dictionary ...

[PRD]

Found a good copy of "The Story of Lotus 1947-1960 Birth of a Legend" by Ian H Smith with a slightly battered but ok dust jacket, in the window of the highly overstocked Hospiscare book shop in Exeter. It was at the front of half a dozen Lotus books which were mainly about the Elise and other road cars rather than Lotus racing cars. I paid £25 which I'm getting a slight dose of buyer's regret about, but it's Christmas and it was for charidee......

[Gary C]

The week before last I found a copy of Geoff Duke's autobiography.....signed!

[Bikr7549]

I got my first racing car book from a store like this, The Grand Prix Car by Setright in 1973. Don’t recall price but probably less than $1, which as I was in high school at the time (playing hooky btw) was still not cheap but it opened me to a whole new, interestind and exciting world. I still value that book tremendously and refer to it on occasion. I know there has been some level of criticism of him on another post but I find his style and detail level pretty good for me.

[Mallory Dan]

My mum's, aged 79, and 'losing it'. For a reason that doesn't matter she ended up with my Chevron/David Gordon book in her Retirement flat. I asked if she'd got it, and she said she couldn't remember where she'd put it.... I called and searched her flat, no sign, I was furious with her. I've had it since 1991, and recognise its worth. On the off chance and on my way out, feeling very angry, I looked in the communal Reception area downstairs where the Old Dears are encouraged to put books/magazines for others to peruse. Guess what I found? I was relieved on one hand, and miffed with her on the other. Another day or two, it could well have been in a Charity Shop being located by someone on here maybe!

[David Birchall]

I found a copy of "The Original Jaguar XK" in the local thrift store last week for $5!  Smugly bought it and carried it home triumphantly only to discover I already had a copy...