Well, whaddya think?

[Stir Young]

Borders Books is closing up....having a big clearance sale and closing their stores for good.  A few of the stores may be transfered to a competitor, but Borders is gone, finito, kaput.  It doesn't seem that long ago that they opened a store in the big town near me, and it was really something....we'd not seen anything like it before in these parts.

I gotta say, and speaking as an old retail guy, I never could quite understand why they had those coffee bars, and encouraged people to hang around there, seemingly not spending enough to justify the room they were occupying.

I learned as a young guy that retail stores should get 'em in the door, sell 'em something...and get 'em back out the door.  Books stores were the exception to that rule....they had to allow some browsing time, but I always thought readers seemed to just camp out at Borders.....they were encouraged to do so.

Yeah, I know that e-books, dotcom sales options, tweeting, FaceBook, TBD, and a host of other things now vie for our attention.  Maybe reading as we came to know it is dying....do we even need hand held, bound books anymore?

So, how will having no Borders stores around affect you?  I have to say that I've patronized Borders less and less over the recent years.  If I got a good coupon from them I'd go and use it, but I rarely bought anything at full price.  I have a large inventory of books I bought that I have yet to read, and I don't foresee myself stopping at Borders during the final clearance sale.

BTW, Borders is another Michigan based company hanging it up.  We've come to expect that kind of thing around here.

[Stir Young]

I'd like to think that books will be around forever, Q, but realistically, many simply weren't constructed to be there for the long haul. When its time for the electronic age people to take over the reins running things, I wouldn't expect that the preservation of the printed word would be a high priority.

I didn't mention it above, but I also buy from Amazon.....the deep discounts and shipping allowances are hard to turn down.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Keep it up. I own a few shares of Amazon stock.

[Stir Young]

H-m-m-m-m, my post didn't post!  LOL!

Keep your eye on the Amazon performance Robbie.....watch for signs of them starting down the slippery slope of obsolesence too.

[Stir Young]

I didn't mention eBay, but I've bought a lot of books there, not to mention records, CDs and vintage postcards.  I built a nice selection of books on Yellowstone National Park through eBay, many at very resonable prices.

[Goldilocks46]

The big Border's Bookstore in my community is being closed, and I am not happy about it.  This was the first large bookstore here, it had 2 floors' worth of DVD's, CD's and new books.  The Barnes and Noble and Half Price Books came in later.  Guess I should be happy they are still here.

Brother in law bought a Nook from Barnes and Noble, he loves it and is urging George and me to get one too.  I would still rather have a real book, and so would George.

[funesthememorious]

I keep a look out for library fund raisers where they typically their old books for a dime.

[Quinn]

Our library does one every four months.

I am always amazed what people give away.

For $2, I bought a complete set of Mark Twains books and stories that were beautifully bound...I would have never parted with them.

[Merry]

I found a signed first edition of one of Jimmy Carter's books for .50 .

[Quinn]

We had a shopper point out a few syfy books that he said were worth in excess of $1000.00.

Our problem is, we just don't have the time or expertise to determine the value of the thousands and thousands and thousands of books that people donate...

[Merry]

I use ebay to get a better idea of what something might be worth.

[Stir Young]

So did the guy buy them and then tell you?

[Quinn]

No, I was shocked!