HAUL: Borders Liquidation Sale

As you've hopefully heard by now, Borders is going out of business. Both my husband and I are saddened at the loss of the Borders stores, he because Borders was the only area book store that his favorite authors frequently (or ever) appeared and I because it was one of only two large bookstores in our vicinity. (The other, Books-a-Million, doesn't usually have as wide a selection, at least in my experience.)

Since the liquidation was announced, I've made three visits to my neighborhood Borders to check out the sales. I first went on the very day that the liquidation went into effect. At the time, I declared the sales to be a waste of time and a rip-off. The air conditioning had been turned off in that particular location, so the poor booksellers were slogging through a 100+ degree day in utter misery. The computer system was already off-line, providing no way to check their stock, and the shelves had already become an un-alphabetized chaos, rendering it nearly impossible to look for anything specific. On top of all that, the sales were only about 25% off the list price, meaning that many of the books had been cheaper the previous week than they were during the "Everything must go!" liquidation sale. Yet the line to checkout still snaked halfway around the store, a testament to our weakness for sales and our mistaken belief that something advertised as a "sale" must be a good deal.

My next trip was about a month later. By that point, more of the store's sections (all the sales are based on the genre/category) had reached the realm of decent deals, but still not good enough that I was willing to buy anything unless it was being discounted from a discount or was 50% off the cover price. The two bargain bin sections were 30% and 40% off their sticker prices, which are usually at least 40% off the cover prices, so I snagged several books at fractions of their list prices. I also picked up a few greeting cards (Paperchase items were 50% off list) and magazines (current issues, 50% off their cover prices). The real kicker in getting me to actually purchase items on this trip was that they were offering a 10% off discount (on top of the other discounts) if you bought 6 or more items, and a 15% discount if you bought 8 or more items.

My most recent trip was on Thursday. The stores now bear "Final Weeks! Entire store 60% - 80% off!" signs, which means that even "regular" (non-bargain) products are at least 60% off their cover prices, making everything in the store a relatively good deal. This time I picked up several more books, all at 60% or 70% off their list prices, and a DVD at 60% off. (Sadly, there were no "buying in bulk" discounts anymore.)

The Goods

Between the two trips, I got a total of 27 items for $102.40, saving $383.29 (79%) off the cover prices.

Click through for more details on the books I purchased.

The Details

Because many of these items were purchased as gifts (including some for myself; you're welcome, dear husband!), I'm not going to get as specific as I usually do with the details. I'm simply going to list the items purchased, the percentage off I received, and whether or not the savings were off a bargain price.

If you receive one of these items as a gift from me, please don't be offended that I bought it at a discount — be flattered that I wanted to buy something so nice for you, and that I was able to afford to!

22 Books:

• The Worst Case Scenario Almanac: The Great Outdoors by David Borgenicht & Trey Popp
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• The Worst Case Scenario Almanac: Politics by David Borgenicht & Turk Regan
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Not For Tourists Guide to Washington, DC 2010 by the Not For Tourists staff
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Spy High Mission Four: The Paranoia Plot by A.J. Butcher
  #4 in Spy High series one
  40% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Writing Jane Austen by Elizabeth Aston
  40% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
  40% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• The Case of the Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex
  #1 in the Brixton Brothers series
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• How to Never Look Fat Again by Charla Krupp
  40% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• One Big Table by Molly O'Neill
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Bold Visions for the Garden by Richard Hartlage
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Cars: Visual Encyclopedia by Richard Dredge
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Sports Illustrated: Slide Show by Steven Hoffman
  30% off the bargain price + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• 10,000 Years of Art by the Phaidon Press editors
  60% off the bargain price
• Number Place Yellow: Homegrown Deadly Sudoku by Tetsuyo Nishio
  60% off
• Fodor's Las Vegas 2011 by the Fodor's editors
  60% off
• What to Wear, Where by Hillary Kerr & Katherine Power
  70% off
• Oh No She Didn't by Clinton Kelly
  70% off
• Will Shortz Presents: Extreme Sudoku by Will Shortz
  60% off
• FoodFest 365! The Officially Fun Food Holiday Cookbook by Yvan D. Lemoine
  60% off
• Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs On To Facebook by Sarah Schmelling
  70% off
• The Visual Miscellaneum by David McCandless
  70% off
• Mass Historia by Chris Regan
  60% off the bargain price

Other Items:

• Monocle magazine, Issue 45: July/August 2011
  50% off + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• GOOD magazine, Issue 23: Summer 2011
  50% off + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• 2 greeting cards
  50% off + 15% off for buying more than 8 items
• Down with Love on DVD
  60% off