You bring in your used stuff, fill up one of their bins and then browse while they decide how many pennies to give you for the things you've spent nearly an entire paycheck to purchase. It only took them about half an hour to add up my offerings and give me a little store credit. They kindly will give you cash or twice the cash amount in store credit.
Browsing through their shelved books is kind of like being in BAM. Very difficult to find anything. They have a separate scifi and fantasy section but you'll find lots of those books misfiled in with all the other books. There's a separate romance section but you'll find lots of romance books shelved with all those other books. There's a few shelves of what I think are mystery or suspense but you find some books from certain authors there and in with all those other books. All those other books are just about every genre of fiction you can imagine.
The prices are pretty good but it's best if you have a certain author in mind while you look around. Their used movie section is pretty good and I found two season of Stargate Atlantis pretty cheap. I remember now why I loved the early seasons of that show. My daughter found a few nonfiction books but nothing that she wanted. So we walked out with some store credit in our pockets and a few items of interest.
But I also felt a little guilty. I love bookstores but 2nd and Charles is a case of the 'big guys' moving into a role that has kept some smaller book dealers open, the used book market. Some of those little stores have so much character and the people running them are true book lovers. Going into that big impersonal store felt like a betrayal of them.
The best thing about 2nd and Charles is that it is in a big mall and there's an Auntie Anne's Pretzels right next to it.
What do you think about BAM moving into the used book market? Have you been to a 2nd and Charles yet? Love Auntie Anne's very fattening and delicious pretzels?
