Chomsky among tchotchkes
Simply put, books are yard sale kryptonite. They never sell well. People will still try to sell them, though, so they end up charging next to nothing for them—especially if you buy a bunch, at which point most yard salespeople will just name some arbitrarily low price: “Um…does a buck for all those Stephen King paperbacks sound reasonable?” Whatever doesn’t sell at a yard sale usually ends up at a thrift store, where the rules of selection remain the same and the prices are formalized (and, thus, a bit less of a bargain).

Advantages: The books are cheap. The more you buy, generally speaking, the cheaper they get. Popular fiction and romance novels will be plentiful.

Disadvantages: There’s no accounting for taste. If folks are selling tacky stuff at their yard sale, they probably won’t have the greatest of taste in books, either. The selection will be admittedly sporadic, and for every diamond in the rough, you’ll first have to wade a sea of diet books, cookbooks, old Readers’ Digests, and self-help titles.