I wish I could buy stock in Half Price Books. They buy much of their inventory from the general public, suckers like me who keep bringing them used books, CDs, movies, and magazines that we don’t want anymore. The employees “appraise” them somehow and offer us money, generally a small fraction of their eventual resale price. Since we’re getting rid of the items anyway, any money in return is better than nothing, so we accept their offer. Even better, while the employees appraise our
items, we wander around the store finding new things to buy. We get a voucher for the stuff we brought in and apply that money to a new purchase. Yesterday I brought in a heavy box of old magazines and young adult books. They offered me $10, and I used it to buy a single book for $13. It’s a win-win, but they definitely got the better end of the deal: a big pile of merchandise to sell and $3 versus my single book. It might be slightly easier for them to just print Benjamins all day, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

IBC has released the details of the Water is Basic 5K: Saturday, October 13, 8:30 am. I’m already putting together a team. So far we have myself, Jenny, Mom, Dad, Lisa, both Jenny’s parents, and Jenny’s sister Katy, so we’re up to 8. I’m hoping for both brothers-in-law and some others! It’s going to be a great event, and we want to raise tons of money to drill wells in Sudan, so spread the word!