$500.00...Really?

Before my son and I left the local Deseret Industries thrift store (Better known as D.I.) the other night, we decided to check out the items under glass, or the collectables. There's usually interesting items that are kept in that section. And if you want to get a better look at them, it requires a store employee to open up the glass.

It was my son who spotted the set of C.S. Lewis books.

"Wow--those are five-hundred dollars for that set."

I wondered if I'd heard him correctly. There's not many things in that store that can fetch that kind of price. You see in the picture the set is of works by C.S. Lewis. The titles of:

A Grief Observed

The Great Divorce

The Screwtape Letters

Surprised by Joy

The Four Loves

Mere Christianity

But $500? That's a lot of money.

Since I don't know much about the value of book collections, my son and I wondered why they were so expensive. We thought maybe they were signed by the author himself. It's possible, but the books look brand new and Mr. Lewis died on November 22, 1963 (I remember the date because another death on that date garners all the attention...).

Let's assume the books aren't signed by the author. That makes the cost of this set even more of a mystery. I suppose had we called over a store employee we could have taken them out of the glass case and inspected them better. 

Then again, at five-hundred bucks, maybe I wouldn't want to even touch them.