Bargain Hunting at Bookfest

Dear reader, I hope you know about Bookfest. It is run by Lifeline and for many years has brought Queenslanders much joy. I don't know if they do it in other states, but if they don't, they should!

Yesterday I convinced my darling hubby to take me along to the latest one at the Brisbane Convention Centre. It runs for 10 whole days! Imagine how many books they sell. They put new ones out each night, so that treasure-seekers have a fresh batch to trawl through every day.

I picked up six novels, all from the "quality" section. That means that they are near-new, still in pretty good nick and you pay a bit more. There's also the "unpriced" section (where the biggest bargains are to be found!) and the "priced" section (where you can get good quality books for a few bucks).

The best part is it's not just fiction books - there's everything from textbooks to travel, cookbooks to gardening and everything in between. My favourite is the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category because I'm always on the lookout for second-hand Terry Pratchetts. You never see them, of course, because people who buy Pratchett books never give them away! But yesterday I was in awe of the variety and quality of books I saw there. Any serious fantasy book lover knows the real pain of trying to find every book in a series. Here, you could quite easily complete Eddings' Belgariad  without breaking a sweat (as indeed I did last year).

And the best part was the savings. I bought six books for $5 each. That's $30. To buy them retail, it would have cost me $107.50! (calculated using Booktopia).

The only thing that I do not like about buying books second-hand is that the author gets nothing. This is why when I do have they budget, I do try to buy books new, so at least they get to see some of the profit.

Do you buy secondhand books? What has been your best bargain?

Weekend op shopping

I'm now at the stage of my thrifting career where I don't consider a Saturday morning complete without dropping into one or two op shops. I have favourites in my area that I hit up regularly but I also like driving to new ones in suburbs I don't usually visit. This can be fun, other times disappointing.

Last weekend I drove all the way over to Virginia to check out the Lifeline Supastore there. I was very crestfallen - either it had been picked clean by the morning crowd or it is not well-stocked. I guess it might be a store that focuses on furniture rather than bric-a-brac, which is my thing. And also it seemed not very "Supa" in size - more the size of a regular shop.

Today I was running errands all morning but dropped into two local op shops with varying degrees of success - got a $2 necklace and an unopened jigsaw puzzle for mum from my "secret" shop, nothing at all from the second.

When I finished my To Do list I decided to spin by the Lifeline Supastore at Brendale on my way home. If you haven't been, I highly recommend a visit one weekend - yes it is open Sundays! It's HUGE. And CRAMMED full of stuff. Crappy stuff, weird stuff, old stuff, smelly stuff - I just love it. Sometimes I find nothing and then sometimes I hit the jackpot.

Today was a jackpot day...

The little brown mug and jug on the left are English Hornsea pottery. I love the glazed look and retro pattern. The plates underneath are Johnson of Australia. I hope if you are a regular reader or social media follower that by now you know I have an enduring Johnson fetish! The aluminium pot up the back is a coffee pot with a little perculator inside and a quaint glass lid! The two white cafe cups are to put pens and things in on my bench. And the black and orange creamer jug is some lovely Mikasa "Orange Sherbert". I love this set as my mum has the cups and plates.

Here are the Johnson plates all on their own. They are dear to me as they are not of the usual floral pattern you find more regularly, and thus unique in my collection. I had only seen this pattern on instagram and wouldn't have even picked them up to check if they were Johnson unless I had! So folks, it proves that it pays to do your research. I love trawling the #johnsonofaustralia hashtag on Twitter on Sundays, it's such fun! I always get envy at others' lovely finds, though...

So I'm starting to accumulate so much stock for Little Moments Vintage that I'm running out of storage space. Which means I need to move my butt and get it all photographed, into the store and... sold!

Did you find anything good thrifting this weekend?