Home Library - Part 2 - Make Lots on Books

When your children are young, you aren't sure what books are best, after having one or two, you know what the "classics" are as you have seen them come and go on every book order for years. Sometimes, you can take the book orders with you in search of special books or just make a list of the books your child may like.

I had one daughter that LOVED to draw. So, I collected "How to draw....." books of all kinds. We have How to draw; pokemon, animals, cartoons, Disney etc.

The problem that came up for me, was I kept buying the same books over and over not remembering which we already had. To solve this, one day, I went to the book shelf with my laptop in hand and started a list of books that I have. I did it by series.

Most of the books I kept are sets. Dr. Seuss, Beverly Cleary, The Great Brain, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, The Little's, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Junie B. Jones, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Hardy Boys, Clifford, Curious George, Amelia Bedelia, Horrible Harry, Encyclopedia Brown, Bernstein Bears, Cam Jensen, Nate the Great etc.

By making the list and keeping it in my purse, I no longer bought doubles and found that I had most of the sets already. I have never taken the time to look online at what books are available in the sets, I would just check second hand stores every so often. Actually, it has been a year at least since I bought a kids book but today, I found a stack of "Dr. Seuss and Disney" set books that I know we wouldn't have.

My Dr. Seuss books were given to us when my eldest was about 2 by some friends whose children out grew them. The books I saw today were all the newer Disney additions to the set so I picked up the stack for $0.25 each.

I started buying Golden Books when I was expecting my eldest. I paid $0.25 to $0.50 a book on sales. Then, when I started looking at second hand stores, I picked them up for $0.10 etc. I don't buy those anymore because I have two shelves full.

The thing I do like about Golden Books is that they have EVERY set included. They have Barbie, Disney, Sesame Street, Warner Brothers, Classics, etc all condensed into matching books that are small and easy for a child to hold. The only time I will buy one now is if it is a first edition and old or a new release such as "Nemo" which we wouldn't own. The books I bought when Princess number one was born are now 25 years old.

To keep the dust off the books, I bought some used balloon valences and put them over the book shelves and had the rod portion hang down keeping the dust off the tops of the books. I just vacuum the edges with the vacuum every so often but the tops of the books are dust free.

The last thing I have to share is how you can make some money collecting old used books. There is a market for first edition books that are popular such as Dr. Seuss, Caldecott winner books, "Make way for ducklings" ($10,000+ in good condition) type books etc. A first edition "To think that I saw it on Mulberry Street" with a dust jacket in good condition can bring $8,000.

You may want to "dust" off those old children's books and check the prices out online if you think you are through using them with your children.

My girls debate who will get "what" collection when they are older. I tell them, they can pick numbers. I have a large set for each and then many smaller sets they can take and do with what they will. I think the fact that most are complete or near complete make them more valuable and also, the library copies being older and ordered at printing are probably more valuable than the new one's they ordered.

Either way, the girls have enjoyed reading them and have fond memories of them. I will keep just a few for "Grandma's library" and hope they enjoy the rest.