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Spent $30 on a stack of 1970s sci-fi paperbacks and got mostly mold instead
I grabbed a box from a garage sale that looked like gold... opened them up in the car and half the pages were stuck together with black mildew. Learned to always crack the spine and sniff inside before handing over cash, anyone else get burned by hidden moisture damage?
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colemiller4mo ago
Man, "hidden moisture damage" is the perfect way to describe that gut punch. I once bought a whole stack of Dean Koontz paperbacks that looked pristine on the outside, but when I popped the trunk at home the smell hit me like a wet dog that had been rolling in a dirty gym sock. The pages weren't even stuck together yet, just wavy like they'd been in a sauna for a week. Tried airing them out on my porch for three days, ended up just recycling the whole pile and calling it a $20 lesson in sniffing first. Now I look like a weirdo at every thrift store pressing my face into book spines, but at least my library doesn't smell like a swamp anymore.
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jessefoster4mo ago
Oh come on, a little musty smell is not that serious. You're acting like you found a dead body in there, it's just old paper that got damp once.
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