Hey, I’m new here! Loonnnnnng-term SF & post-apocalyptic type fan, especially books & movies.
I can’t find a good place to check out rare SF & suchlike books & collectibles anywhere online. Does anyone know of specialty sites --places where real, hard core fans go to look for old/rare books, movies & such?
I’ve looked on obvious places, like ebay, etsy, alibris, thriftbooks, etc. No joy for what I’m looking for.
Thanks!
Powell’s maybe? I bought a pretty rare copy of Lyonesse by Jack Vance there.
https://www.powells.com/locations/powells-city-of-books/
Not sure how well their online store works, though.
Good heavens, I should’ve thought of them…I live right down I-5 from Portland. Thanks for reminding me…hope their online store is decent, b/c I can’t go in there without breaking the bank.
Dunno if you can sell books to them over the Internet too. Might have to go there in person.
in there, selling has never been my problem. Or any other used book store…I buy, buy, buy!! But thank you for the heads-up.
Man, I used to buy books from Powells’ online store back when they were a competitor of Amazon. I guess that must be twenty years or so back.
The first science fiction I ever read as a child (in the 60s) was a paperback anthology from the 50s edited by August Derleth. It began a lifelong love of sf and fantasy.
At some point in my 20s I got rid of my paperback collection, including this one, and then later came to regret it. In my 40s, my wife and I were vacationing in the northwest, visited Portland, stopped into Powells, and (you guessed the rest) they had multiple copies of it, including the very same edition from my childhood.
In my 20s I read most of Gardner Dozois’ anthologies. That’s what really got me back into reading SciFi/Fantasy. Like you I also later sold most of them to clear up space in my apartment. I don’t think they’re especially rare, however. And some of them exist in ebook/audiobook formats.
I miss A Change of Hobbit (and The Other Change of Hobbit). Great F/SF bookstores.
Side note, was packing books for a remodel last year, and discovered that my Dad had had a first edition of A Princess of Mars.
Pretty cool…
tylertoo;
I did the same thing with dozens & dozens of SF collections when I moved across country in my 20s, & have spent the decades since trying to replace them (in between kicking myself). Wouldn’t it be great if we could build a time machine just to prevent ourselves from making bonehead moves in our youth?
Very cool!
I actually found an unopened paperback (still in the plastic!) boxed set from the 60s of the Foundation Trilogy at a garage sale a while back.
Tho i do have a bunch of e- & audiobooks, I can’t shed my attachment to the SF anthologies. My biggest, first fave is “Adventures in Time & Space” (Healy & McComas, Eds), '46 & '57. I read the covers off the poor thing but was able to buy 2 replacements (just in case).
Indeed. Every other Saturday in the 90s, the routine was hit the record stores on Telegraph, head over to that comic shop on Shattuck whose name escapes me at the moment, and then Other Change of Hobbit to see what small-press horror books they’d gotten in.
I miss those days. The internet ruins everything.
If you are near Portland, you should check out Book Bin in Salem. Ask for their rare book room. I recently picked up a signed first edition of Joe Haldeman’s Forever War for $450. And a signed 1st of Niven’s Ring world Engineers for $250.
Powell’s has a rare book room as well, but interestingly enough they didn’t have as much fantasy/sf as Book Bin. They did have a U.K. first edition of The Two Towers for $1,000.
Fact is, though, you can find all this stuff at Abebooks. Many booksellers list their stuff at Abebooks, and when I decided I wanted the Niven book (I only bought Forever War in person when I was there) I called them and asked them if they could just ship Ringworld Engineers me having to drive down to Salem, and they just told me to go to Abebooks and search for the book by title and bookseller, since they had listed the copy there. Sure enough.
Great info, thank you! Somehow I’ve missed Abebooks in my searches…I know I’ve bought from them before but had forgotten all about them. Some of the book clearing houses online have terrible searches tho…I was thrashing about with one (forget which) yesterday where you couldn’t even specify HB vs PB, for instance, much less signed, for 1st eds, etc. Aggravating!
