[Found Item Friday] Pristine PHB!

In my city, we have a used bookstore that has been in operation since 1929. It was housed in a GREAT location in downtown, three floors of new and used books, rare books, odd books. Especially great was the basement--meandering corridors, random rooms filled with ramshackle shelving, everything was just on the edge of controlled chaos. It was always great to go in, if even to browse. (It is said that one of the Magistrate Judges at the nearby Federal Courthouse made a visit there every lunchtime of every weekday of his tenure as judge until his death a few years back. I believe it, based on what I knew of the man.) Recently the third-generation owners made a controversial decision and moved the bookstore from its historic location to a nearby mall location.

My post is not about that bookstore.

Instead, it's about the location. A newer, Johnny-come-lately (relatively) bookstore seized on the opportunity and consolidated their three or four smaller stores and moved into the space. The shelving is all a bit newer and more modern, but their selection is just as eclectic as the "historic" bookstore. I hadn't had a chance to visit since the move; all that changed this morning.

About ten years ago, the original owners added a coffee shop to one side of the store front. I've never frequented the place, mostly because I don't drink coffee, but also because their baked goods were exorbitantly-priced, mediocre-quality items. But I had a meeting yesterday and they wanted to meet there to chat.

This was a mistake.

After the meeting, I wandered the aisles. Call it fate, call it karma...I wandered straight to the "game" section. Most of it was Call of Duty guides (and other various video games). But then...the infamous binding jumped off the shelf at me.

Now, you may ask yourself why I'm so excited by this, even though you should know I'm a big 3.x fan. I'd be a lot happier if it was a 3.5 PHB, but I'm still happy with this. Why?

1. It's in pristine condition.
   
2. It's for the use and education of my kids.
   
3. It's "close enough" to 3.5 or Pathfinder. Especially for my kids.
   
4. Did I mention it was in pristine condition? The binding is still tight and the Character Creator disk in the back? Still sealed in the plastic envelope. The Wizards of the Coast order form is also still folded inside the back cover.
   
5. Oh, and it was only $6.00.
   
6. Yes, I said $6.000
   

Yeah. I'm pretty pleased with myself. They also had a 3.0 DMG in the same condition; sadly, I only had so much cash with me yesterday. I figure the PHB will get more use anyway.

Also grabbed was this little beauty: "In the Belly of the Beast" by Mike Mearls. It was only $1.00 and in very good condition; the pull-out pages of NPCs, etc. was still intact, for example. I grabbed it for that fact alone. It's more of a political intrigue than my normal fare, but it still has some good fodder for combat and adventure too. It's got some good, dangerous NPCs with some good backstory; they'll take a little beefing-up, as the equipment lists are fairly generic. Maybe it'll be good for my players to do a little bit more role-playing; it requires the careful negotiation and manipulation of three rival factions who are all ready to fight. Hmm. I'll just have to find the right place to drop it into a campaign.

Unfortunately, the store is now on my radar. NOT good for my wallet.