I stumbled upon a reference to the Park Hill Community Bookstore in a neighborhood rag we get once a month. The Bookstore is a non-profit organization that has been around for over 30 years. They have only one paid employee (the manager), the rest of their staff are volunteers.

Benjamin and I dropped by over the weekend to check it out. It's only 3 miles from our house in the cozy neighborhood of Park Hill. They have a wide selection of used books, enough to keep me busy for a while. The best part: used paperbacks are only $2 and hardbacks are $4! Moreover, this month they are having a 2-for-1 sale on their Science Fiction/Fantasy and Mysteries. You can't buy a new paperback these days for less than $6-8, much less 6 or 8 books for the same price!

Unfortunately while checking out with my 4 new gently-used jewels I discovered that I had only $2 in cash and that their minimum credit card purchase was $10 (a fact I totally understand given the credit card merchant fees). Rather than going and finding another 6 books to take home I opted to purchase a family membership for $20. With a membership you get an additional 7.72% off your purchases plus some other goodies. Also with a membership you get "book credits" -- which after being explained to me make the membership essentially free.

For each dollar you purchase for a membership, you get half a book credit good for a $2 book (ie: a single trade paperback). So for our $20 family membership we received 10 book credits, two of which went to pay for the 4 books (2-for-1 remember). I can walk back in at any time and spend the remaining 8 book credits without pulling out my wallet -- a very good thing considering how little cash I carry. You can also drop off your used books and instead of cash they give you book credits.

After learning how good the bookstore is for the purchaser - I can't believe they're still in business, much less for 30 years! Rest assured I'm going to be telling everyone I know about this little gem!

Park Hill Community Bookstore
4620 E. 23rd Ave
Denver CO 80207

Tags: denver