I know I should stop. I no longer get joy from thrifting, only frustration and anger. Once in a while, yes, I will find a little something, but it’s increasingly rare.
I headed out today and my first stop was at a Goodwill. This particular store has a rummage sale area, where unsorted materials are brought out daily. There are usually one or two large rolling bins of books. Once upon a time I found some nice titles there. This was before the book sharks infested the waters.
Today was a new low. The store opens before the items are brought so excited buyers are ready and waiting. This guy, I’ve seen him there before, had a lucrative new strategy.
He gathered up four shopping carts and when the books came out, he gathered up great armloads of them, filling three of the carts. He guarded them as he calmly scanned the books, putting the valuable ones in the fourth cart, and throwing the others back into the bin.
Disgusted, I left. I couldn’t stomach it any more.
I went to a Disabled American Veterans thrift store. I approached the movie section, just as some guy was putting a copy of An American Werewolf in London in his shopping cart. He had his trusty scanner in hand.
I looked and saw quite a lot of horror movies in his cart. I must have looked sadly disappointed, because he started bellowing “HA! YEAH! I’LL MAKE GOOD MONEY FROM THESE! HAHAHA!”
Another big, dumb bastard, just like the first asshole. In a way I get it. Fair’s fair. Despite my loathing of the scanners, he was there first. But did he have to sneer at me that way?
That's the world we now live in. I win. You lose. Everyone is in competition with each other. We are, at least to some degree, but is gloating necessary?
This stuff gives resellers a bad name.
Yes, I am a reseller. We just did a show last weekend and we did really well. We sold a hell of a lot of books and movies. The difference between me and these cromags is simple: I am a fan.
Fans are the best people on earth. I’m not talking about the toxic assholes that make social media so nasty. I am talking about the ones who love this stuff in their bones. The people who buy the books, go to the movies, who keep the movie distributors in business.
I met dozens of them last weekend and I liked them all. And they like us. We are constantly thanked for our low prices and our friendly service. We get along because we are the same breed.
Fans are the same in many ways, but in others we are as different as snowflakes. We all love this stuff, but from birth, or our baptism in blood, we took different paths. Our favorites are different, as are the things we don’t like.
Fans are the core of the industry; we create ourselves like clay with the things we watch and read. We are living, breathing works of art, our own creations, built from the imaginations of others.
I think the biggest problem in the horror fiction world isn’t AI. It’s how so few writers seem to truly be fans. So many seem to have come to the conclusion that being an author sounds nifty. How many are versed in the history of the field? Precious few. Go to an event and there are many, many more authors than readers.
I remember a time I brought up Manly Wade Wellman and an indie author said he could never read someone who called himself “manly.” I only wish I was making that up.
Don’t even get me started on the self-promoting, self-serving influencers. They’re enough to turn anyone away from the genre.
Real fans tend to be quiet. At least the ones I like. They aren’t out there clamoring for attention, making narcissistic videos, scarfing up likes and views like carrion on the bloated corpse of a dying genre.
The horror fiction world has become a worm ouroboros, slowly but surely eating itself.
Most come to my table and quietly look at our merch, but when we begin to talk, they come alive. The passion, the enthusiasm, shines through. Some know as much about horror as me (well, almost as much), and others are learning about it. The light in their eyes is the same. Pure, joyful, innocent love of the wide world of horror.
I always say I need to stop thrifting and going to library sales. The thing I miss is the rush, the dopamine thrill of finding something special.
No, that’s wrong. The real buzz I get is when a customer finds something on our table and is thrilled. Especially when we charge much less than the gougers on eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
I don’t want to cater to wealthy fans. I want to make books and movies available to just about everyone. Don’t let this out, but we’ve been known to give things away when we know someone doesn’t have much money.
Unlike the book sharks, I’m not merely in it for profit. It’s nice to walk away from a show with a stack of money, but that’s not what we are all about.
People are mourning Dolly Parton, as they should. One of her best attributes is her program of giving free books to children. Horror Drive-In Books don’t have her millions, but we buy children’s books and have a Little Free Library at every event we attend. We also have one in our front yard, but neighbors contribute to it. The ones at our shows are entirely funded by us. We do it for the kids, we do it for literacy, and we do it for future horror fans.
As for those book sharks and their cursed scanners, I’d like to see them get the Michael Ironside treatment in the David Cronenberg movie of the same name. A tad harsh, perhaps, but I can dream, can't I?
Written by Mark Sieber
I headed out today and my first stop was at a Goodwill. This particular store has a rummage sale area, where unsorted materials are brought out daily. There are usually one or two large rolling bins of books. Once upon a time I found some nice titles there. This was before the book sharks infested the waters.
Today was a new low. The store opens before the items are brought so excited buyers are ready and waiting. This guy, I’ve seen him there before, had a lucrative new strategy.
He gathered up four shopping carts and when the books came out, he gathered up great armloads of them, filling three of the carts. He guarded them as he calmly scanned the books, putting the valuable ones in the fourth cart, and throwing the others back into the bin.
Disgusted, I left. I couldn’t stomach it any more.
I went to a Disabled American Veterans thrift store. I approached the movie section, just as some guy was putting a copy of An American Werewolf in London in his shopping cart. He had his trusty scanner in hand.
I looked and saw quite a lot of horror movies in his cart. I must have looked sadly disappointed, because he started bellowing “HA! YEAH! I’LL MAKE GOOD MONEY FROM THESE! HAHAHA!”
Another big, dumb bastard, just like the first asshole. In a way I get it. Fair’s fair. Despite my loathing of the scanners, he was there first. But did he have to sneer at me that way?
That's the world we now live in. I win. You lose. Everyone is in competition with each other. We are, at least to some degree, but is gloating necessary?
This stuff gives resellers a bad name.
Yes, I am a reseller. We just did a show last weekend and we did really well. We sold a hell of a lot of books and movies. The difference between me and these cromags is simple: I am a fan.
Fans are the best people on earth. I’m not talking about the toxic assholes that make social media so nasty. I am talking about the ones who love this stuff in their bones. The people who buy the books, go to the movies, who keep the movie distributors in business.
I met dozens of them last weekend and I liked them all. And they like us. We are constantly thanked for our low prices and our friendly service. We get along because we are the same breed.
Fans are the same in many ways, but in others we are as different as snowflakes. We all love this stuff, but from birth, or our baptism in blood, we took different paths. Our favorites are different, as are the things we don’t like.
Fans are the core of the industry; we create ourselves like clay with the things we watch and read. We are living, breathing works of art, our own creations, built from the imaginations of others.
I think the biggest problem in the horror fiction world isn’t AI. It’s how so few writers seem to truly be fans. So many seem to have come to the conclusion that being an author sounds nifty. How many are versed in the history of the field? Precious few. Go to an event and there are many, many more authors than readers.
I remember a time I brought up Manly Wade Wellman and an indie author said he could never read someone who called himself “manly.” I only wish I was making that up.
Don’t even get me started on the self-promoting, self-serving influencers. They’re enough to turn anyone away from the genre.
Real fans tend to be quiet. At least the ones I like. They aren’t out there clamoring for attention, making narcissistic videos, scarfing up likes and views like carrion on the bloated corpse of a dying genre.
The horror fiction world has become a worm ouroboros, slowly but surely eating itself.
Most come to my table and quietly look at our merch, but when we begin to talk, they come alive. The passion, the enthusiasm, shines through. Some know as much about horror as me (well, almost as much), and others are learning about it. The light in their eyes is the same. Pure, joyful, innocent love of the wide world of horror.
I always say I need to stop thrifting and going to library sales. The thing I miss is the rush, the dopamine thrill of finding something special.
No, that’s wrong. The real buzz I get is when a customer finds something on our table and is thrilled. Especially when we charge much less than the gougers on eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
I don’t want to cater to wealthy fans. I want to make books and movies available to just about everyone. Don’t let this out, but we’ve been known to give things away when we know someone doesn’t have much money.
Unlike the book sharks, I’m not merely in it for profit. It’s nice to walk away from a show with a stack of money, but that’s not what we are all about.
People are mourning Dolly Parton, as they should. One of her best attributes is her program of giving free books to children. Horror Drive-In Books don’t have her millions, but we buy children’s books and have a Little Free Library at every event we attend. We also have one in our front yard, but neighbors contribute to it. The ones at our shows are entirely funded by us. We do it for the kids, we do it for literacy, and we do it for future horror fans.
As for those book sharks and their cursed scanners, I’d like to see them get the Michael Ironside treatment in the David Cronenberg movie of the same name. A tad harsh, perhaps, but I can dream, can't I?
Written by Mark Sieber
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