Saturday, October 18, 2003
shopping day
around 10:30 today mischa and i went to kendall square for the MIT Press sale (started at 10am). when we got there, there was already a huge line (ran all the away outside). luckily jinhua (who was 5 or 6 ppl ahead) was nice enough to let us cut in. but we still ended up waiting about 20 minutes though. i was quite surprised, as i didn't think an mit book sale would draw that many people. i was even more surprised when i got to the loading dock (where all the books were)--imagine 50 people crowded over stacks of books trying to find their way around!
anyway, what shocked me even more is how many books some folks were buying. as we were waiting in line, people who were leaving were carrying bags that must have had at least 5-10 books in there (some folks had boxes). when we got to the loading dock some people had boxes of books, often multiple copies of the same book. i noticed a few folks using their cell phones or PDAs in there, and we found out that was to look up the retail value of some of the books on amazon.com or on ebay. apparantly some of the books in there (esp. the hardcover texts) were quite valuable and thus it would be quite profitable if you could sell something for $50 that you paid less than $10 for (everything in there was either 3, 5, 7, or 10 dollars). at first we were like, "oh, that's soo bad/dishonest..." but then after a split second we were like, "actually, why the f__ don't *we* do that as well??" :) later we realized that we were fools for not doing the same... so for next time we have a plan: one of us will go in there (with a cell phone), while the other will wait at home (or somewhere with a wireless connection) to look up the selling prices of the texts there online. then after one of us amasses a ridiculous number of these valuable books the person at home will drive a zipcar over there to pick everything up. and then voila, we're in the money. :)
later on, after the booksale and after lunch michael & i decided to bike to the cambridgeside galleria, since we wanted to return a few things (my j.crew pants, which were too big, and michael's cheap sunglasses that fell apart weeks ago). we went to best buy first, where they were selling a limited edtion dvd for the matrix revisted for $14.99. michael bought one (but returned it later). and then we went to the gap (my fave) since we had this coupon for 15% of sale items. i bought these khaki colored bootcut jeans for only $9.97 (before discount!) , this nice lavender top, and some khakis that were on sale. michael got some sweaters and some nice looking pants as well. we spent a lot of money, but it was well-worth it and plus we saved a lot. :)
oh, and we went to return michael's sunglasses (since a few screws & nuts were missing, they had fallen apart) and the lady there was nice enough to repair them for free! she suggest though that we get a case for them cuz otherwise they're just going to fall apart again. it would be great if they weren't so flimsy, but what do you expect for $12? :)
anyway, what shocked me even more is how many books some folks were buying. as we were waiting in line, people who were leaving were carrying bags that must have had at least 5-10 books in there (some folks had boxes). when we got to the loading dock some people had boxes of books, often multiple copies of the same book. i noticed a few folks using their cell phones or PDAs in there, and we found out that was to look up the retail value of some of the books on amazon.com or on ebay. apparantly some of the books in there (esp. the hardcover texts) were quite valuable and thus it would be quite profitable if you could sell something for $50 that you paid less than $10 for (everything in there was either 3, 5, 7, or 10 dollars). at first we were like, "oh, that's soo bad/dishonest..." but then after a split second we were like, "actually, why the f__ don't *we* do that as well??" :) later we realized that we were fools for not doing the same... so for next time we have a plan: one of us will go in there (with a cell phone), while the other will wait at home (or somewhere with a wireless connection) to look up the selling prices of the texts there online. then after one of us amasses a ridiculous number of these valuable books the person at home will drive a zipcar over there to pick everything up. and then voila, we're in the money. :)
later on, after the booksale and after lunch michael & i decided to bike to the cambridgeside galleria, since we wanted to return a few things (my j.crew pants, which were too big, and michael's cheap sunglasses that fell apart weeks ago). we went to best buy first, where they were selling a limited edtion dvd for the matrix revisted for $14.99. michael bought one (but returned it later). and then we went to the gap (my fave) since we had this coupon for 15% of sale items. i bought these khaki colored bootcut jeans for only $9.97 (before discount!) , this nice lavender top, and some khakis that were on sale. michael got some sweaters and some nice looking pants as well. we spent a lot of money, but it was well-worth it and plus we saved a lot. :)
oh, and we went to return michael's sunglasses (since a few screws & nuts were missing, they had fallen apart) and the lady there was nice enough to repair them for free! she suggest though that we get a case for them cuz otherwise they're just going to fall apart again. it would be great if they weren't so flimsy, but what do you expect for $12? :)
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