Collecting on a Shoestring II (cont')

Often, roadmaps do not provide enough detail of a city to give efficient travel directions. For that reason, it is useful to have a roadmap to provide a general overview and course heading, while using printed Internet maps for more specific instructions on how to get to a store.

Once the general travel route is established, use web sites like http://city.net/maps/address/ to print out detailed streetmaps of where each of the bookstores are. Use the appropriate zoom level to pinpoint exactly where the store is and note any landmarks that could help you get there. Write the street address in the margin of the printout. This will come in use when you actually go to visit the stores.

With the road map marked with a travel route, and detailed printouts of how to get to the individual stores, you are ready for the next phase.

NOTE: It would be wise to make sure that you visit stores during their established hours of operation and adjust your travel plans accordingly. Few things are more disappointing than traveling a long way to a store and finding that it is normally closed at the time of your visit! Occasionally, used stores may have e-mail addresses listed in the phone book. It pays to investigate in advance!

Visiting the Used Book Stores

This is the step where all of your hard work and planning will pay off. All of your preparation should make this step a question of Following my maps, what is the quickest way to get there? versus Where is the best place to go now? In this step, I point out a few tricks I learned along the way.

There is no doubt that on this step, you will be well prepared with a roadmap and the printed Internet maps. With a well thought out strategy, it becomes a relatively simple task to follow a pre-planned route and hit one shop after the next quickly. A few words of warning: Pay attention to where you are driving. Don't get into an accident by looking at a map when you should be looking at the road!

During your visits to the stores, take notes of which stores were actually open or if you missed some stores. These notes can be referred to later if you get the chance to visit the area again.

Talk to the store owners and find out if they know of any stores that specialize in Gamebooks, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, or Children's. It is not uncommon that stores belong to a statewide network of used book stores and know of shops that may be custom tailored for the books you are looking for.

Chain -vs- Independent Used Book Stores

There are several chains of used book stores scattered about the country. The chain bookstores often have a larger selection of books, but the independent ones often have older books and a comfortable antique atmosphere about them. The smaller stores have more unique treasures than the larger chains because they are often overlooked.

To illustrate, I visited a Half Price Books chain store in Cincinnati and found a Magnamund Companion. Later, I visited a small rinky-dink used book store out in the middle of nowhere and found the exceedingly rare Freeway Warrior #3. As far as I'm concerned, there is little difference in the number of treasures that I've found at chain stores versus smaller, independently owned bookstores so on business trips I always try to hit both.

Using this system, I went to fifty used book stores in Minneapolis/St. Paul during a week-long business trip, with plenty of time for sightseeing and other enjoyments.

Additionally there are other benefits to consider. The chance of finding a horde of Magnamund Companion's increases as more stores are visited. This good fortune could be shared with other members of the Kai Wisdom mailing list. I even found a UK book at a used book store in the US, so you just never know what you will find! If you don't have luck with the book stores that you've been visiting, don't give up hope. While in Chicago, I was disappointed by the lack of Lone Wolf material, but my spirits picked up when I found some old Star Wars^TM trading cards...