As a secondhand book shop, the thing that really drives our business isn’t selling books—it’s buying them. That’s why we venture out almost every day—to houses, libraries, and storage units throughout New England—searching for good books and the occasional treasure. In today’s episode, we’re taking a behind-the-scenes look at our book buying process, from receiving phone calls and making appointments through appraisals, offers, and, if things go well, packing up the truck. These trips keep fresh books flowing into the shop, but they’re also a little adventure: we get to see new places, meet new people, and hopefully bring back a story or two for the podcast. Join us (and our 87 specifically-sized cardboard boxes) for a journey into book buying on this fully-stocked new #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #221 - The Toughest to Shed
It’s a common enough predicament that entire self-help books have been written about it: being emotionally terrorized by a piece of household clutter. The hardest items to part with aren’t usually the ones that we love the most, but those that elicit a sticky cocktail of guilt, sentimentality, and superstition: the photographs that feel painful to look at, the once-favorite garment that no longer fits your body or your lifestyle (but what if…!).
In this episode, we’ll talk about the kinds of books that feel straight-up evil to sell, like gifts (especially from the author, with an incriminating personal inscription), things that were cherished by a departed friend or family member, and religious texts. We don’t have too many solutions for this. Even Ken, who gets rid of books for a living, has resorted to the classic strategy of “placing them in the basement and waiting for them to become someone else’s problem” when it comes to certain volumes. Join us for a look at persistent possessions and inadvertent collections on this week’s #brattlecast.