Don't judge a book by its cover price

That's what I found out this morning when I lugged a bag of 10 unwanted tomes to the local book exchange. Despite the fact they were all published post-2005 and in perfect nick, the buyer wasn't interested.

Refusing to carry the buggers home in defeat, I decided to take my wares to a much larger secondhand dealer. It meant an hour-long trip involving four bus rides, but I was confident they'd purchase the lot.

They did - but I only made $25. Considering half of the titles were hardcovers, $2.50 per volume is sod all. I'd feel cheated if the majority weren't freebies - and the rest purchased for $1 each at a work sale.

My original reason for selling the books - besides the fact they were unlikely to be dusted off and read before the next ice age - was to raise enough cashola to make tonight's poker game effectively free.

With the $10 paid back to me by a mate earlier on, I almost had enough. Eight of us met at CM's and played two $20 buy-in Texas Hold 'Em tourneys. I finished outta the money both times - 4th and 5th.

Little did my pals realise, the five hours' gambling had sorta only cost me $5 :-)