When I say look into selling books you don’t want, I’m not talking about “collector’s items” like your bound leaflets. I’m talking about regular books–example, I had two copies of Allegory of Love. Sold one for twenty-something a few years ago; it was out of print at the time I believe.

Collectibles are a different thing–harder to get a fair price.

Never thought about checking out Amazon to peddle the ancient books. Good idea. Years ago, a collector had an agent call me and ask to buy my (now really ancient) bound leaflets of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at an outrageous price. Thinking they must be so valuable I should pass them down to my son, I foolishly failed to take them up on the offer. One never knows, though: maybe someone else out there would like to pay a stupid price for them.

My vice is Costco. The idea of going there once a year is interesting: make a gigantic list, stock up en masse, and buy the stuff very rarely. But of course, that would entail saving up enough cash a year’s worth (or at least several months’ worth) at once. What if you pretended you lived way out in the sticks and could only come into town (i.e., Costco) about once every month or six weeks? If you lived on a farm or in a very rural community, you’d have a freezer. What would it cost to pick one up off Craig’s List or at an estate sale… With a place to store veggies and meats (many fewer meats than I’ve been used to eating…), I ceratinly could limit the Costco runs to once a month.

Free at CVS or Walgreens: very easy. Check out the ad (on-line) for cvs. For Walgreens, see their “Easy-saver” catalog, also on-line or in store.

Coupons: I find these a pain and don’t use them. I go to Costco once a year or so and buy tons of cheese. For other stockpiling, check out the food at Big Lots, if you have one. Lots of organic, etc.

Since you too are a scholar, I’d suggest you check out the price of some of the books you have lying around. Some out-of-print scholarly books can fetch a pretty penny on Amazon. I made perhaps $20,000 over 5 years on some of my unwanted books. Selling on Amazon is very easy.

Just type in the isbn on Amazon and see what the used prices are. Good for cds also.

For detergent etc–keep an eye on Walgreens ads. I got enough detergent for a year for about $5!