Book Fair Experiences

February 24, 2006

If all I had to say was WOW, it'd be a pretty short blog. lol.
So we went to Oklahoma City (a 2-hour drive) to go to a book sale. (Yeah - how geekish.) We get there at 1pm to buy our tickets ($10.00 for a "family" of 5.) and there are already people in line... the thing doesn't start until 5:30! And they'd been there "for a while." That should've clued me in! lol.
So we come back at 4:30 (I know, geekish) and we're about 2/3 of the way back in line and we wait - checking out the mode of transportation people have for their books.
Paper sacks (not coming for much?)
Cloth Bags.
Backpacks.
Wheeliebags.
Cartons on wheels.
Bags in cartons on wheels.
Wagons.
Trash Cans with wheels.
So I look at my duffle bag (shut up about the geekish okay) - and I'm thinking wow... am I inadequate? Naw - I could have a paper sack (without the double lining).
The array of people is Fantastic! Young to Old, Skinny to Large, Rich looking to Bummish looking, plugged into their ipods or not, studying their book lists, sleeping, playing cards *coughUScough*... all SORTS. It's great.

Then - they count us down over a Loud speaker! 10, 9, 8... And we start weaving our way into the place filled with 400,000 books. They have CD's & DVD's for $1.00, Records, Tapes, etc too. I head straight to the Psych section of course where I get a crash course in what to do. There are people who barely glance at titles before picking them up and putting them in their dumpsters!!! So I start grabbing what looks interesting (still Much slower than others), and I'm on my way. "Trade places?" - "Sure." Smiles, elbows, body parts, books, butts, bending, turning, looking, picking, putting, talking, concentrating - it's allll about the books!

I am no longer a book event virgin!
Papabear saw people in the Sci-Fi section grabbing whole sections without looking and throwing them in!
There were walls of Romance in Boxes for $7.50 - and people were purchasing them sight unseen!
Over the loudspeaker I learned that a record was set - it took 40 minutes for a person to get lost. lol. Hell - I was lost the minute I walked in the door!

If you ever have a chance to people watch - do it there. It's worth the $1-10.00.

For an hours worth of MAHEM we got:
45 books & 4 CD's.
We paid $33.50
Total cover price of everything was $781.43.

Heck Yeah baby.

Kathy's post: Yea I made out like a bandit too!! I got 56 books (not counting the one I gave you) for $33 and Ken and Rach spent $32 and got all kinds of books and cd's and stuff. . . It was great. . .

February 25, 2006 - I just went to the Holland Hall one... $1.00 to get in, books were marked individually ($.50 - $5.00+). I spent almost $20.00 and got about 20 more books & 1 CD... There was even Less elbow room where the CD's were here & very much fewer CD's. I almost had a GameGasm... they had about 6 folding tables piled high & deep with games of all sorts. Funny thing is - I didn't buy any! (Cheaper at yard sales.) It wasn't nearly the Shindig the OKC one was, but it was pretty worth it. lol.
Oh - and instead of $2.00 for a bottle of water or $3.00 for a bottle of cola - they had snacks and water and cola for $1.00. Much more reasonable than OKC (although I didn't buy any) lol.