It seems the book dealers are ruining a good thing for us around here.  We went to the Amherst book sale yesterday with great anticipation since last year it had so many children's books for $.50 paperback and $1 hardcover.  This year, they had half as many children's books all hand priced; $.50 books were few and far between.  They also set up entire empty tables just for dealers to place their items.  I fear a continued trend of libraries catering to book dealers causing prices to rise significantly.  I guess I'll just have to be choosier about what I buy, though many books I picked up because it was "only $.50" have turned out to be real gems.

Having said that, the day was not completely a wash out.  We found Tree in the Trail and Pagoo for $1 each, and a worn copy of David McAuley's Cathedral for $.50 that I patched up at home.  I also got a Janice Van Cleave and a beautiful illustrated Heidi for $1 each.  And the Amherst sale does have another location with many free books--ones they did not want to sell at the tent, for whatever reason.  Many of them were simply old, which was a bonus for us HSers.  I got 12 book set of C. S. Forester all in wonderful condition!  Others were falling apart, yet I still took home the leather bound, already-patched, loose-paged early copy of Henty's The Lion of St. Mark to repair.  So overall I have to say it was worth it; I'll go again next year with lesser expectations.