The Dust Jacket-

Second Hand Booksellers

In construction, projected 01/2027 completion.

The Dust Jacket

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Growing up down the road from a small bookstore, Flynns Books, I would often walk down to the store to browse and spend whatever change I collected from my fathers folgers coffee tins where he attempted to save his loose change. His efforts were in vain because I was quick to empty him out of any Quarters, dimes or nickles to walk down to this quaint, but vast bookstore run by who I estimated then to be an 80 year old woman (though I was a kid and my ability to correctly identify a persons age beyond 18, was pitiful and offensive, the odds of me guessing right let alone in the correct ballpark, playing the correct ball oriented game, were aganst me more than the casino) And I would fake sick from school and walk the quarter mile from my home to break the monotony of binge watching Jerry Springer, or Maury, or Dawson's Creek, the type of garbage daytime TV played, I suspected, to discourage kids like me from playing hookie. But upon arriving a Flynn's, I would always enter in sync with the bell chiming above my head, announcing my arrival, and never had I not turned my head 40 degrees to my left before I spotted the old, gray, and always happy to talk, older woman, who either would sit and read or sit and watch the wheel of fortune, but always sitting, behind the counter, with a little 10in. by 4.5in box TV set, adorned with a bigger attenna then the TV it sat upon. While she'd make small talk, occasionally suggesting books I may enjoy, or telling me about her cats who would often roam the store for her entire shift, before she'd return to the book that has her attention this particular day, and I'd be off to browse the sci-fi, horror, and young adults sections while I killed an hour looking for either goosebumps or something by Steven King, despite how intimidating the size of his books would make me, I often would buy them with plans to read when I entered 8th grade. Then me and her would resume our conversation while she would ring me up, and she'd count my coins, before sending me on my way, back home to pretend to be too sick to leave bed.

This was a pivotal moment for me, where I realized how badly I wanted what she had, just surrounded by the smell of old books, and isles of knowledge and stories that allowed my imagination to run wild, I wanted to be a cartoonist, but realistically I knew I wasn't good enough at art, so booksales met all the check boxes when I would consider who I actually saw myself being when I grew up, and could work a job, I saw a bearded, taller version of myself, "do you need any help?", running 'Flynns Bookstore' or "The Dust Jacket" till I became a frail bag of bones. And those dreams may seem dull to some, but they were comfort combined with a considerable intrest in books of all kinds, I wanted to read everybook there was to read, I saw me in every book, every story, every character, no matter their gender, I could relate and books were my first inanimate love, and I realize I should prefrence, my last as well. I had dreams that the novel was the center of them each, one day write a bestseller, one day sign that same book at my own store. But despite the level of consistent planning, the dream was one built with faulty pipes, and only more unattainable did the day in which "I will own my own store" become a big risk with no guarentee of staying in buisness, as I was faced with the reality of high rent, living paycheck to paycheck to keep my own lights on, let alone the lights of my buisness and the lights at my home. But surely, buisness owners are wealthy and rarely struggle? This was what I told myself when I began to rewrite the second half of my life story, except quickly the bookstore's of the 90's, early 2000's were all shutting down, not just the ma and pa shops, borders went under and by 2012 I don't believe a single location remained in Connecticut after 2012.

Technology and online shopping slowly made the bookstore obsolete, and currently as it stands, Connecticut has a total of 5 book stores, all distantly spaced from one another, and only 2 of them have been in buisness longer than one year, so the future for the other stores are unknown and the idea of taking that chance, doesn't go hand and hand with my personality type, a careful, timid man who is terrified to fail, especially when the implication would mean failing at the thing I had banked so much of my life plans and my future around. Pair that with the risk evaluation and the fact I have two young boys who rely on me to provide for them, and the uncertainty that being a buisness owner entails, in a market that is in a state of decline, the job insecurity is keeping me from going in the bank and taking out a business loan, though the temptation is constant, I believe it's calling me to the shelves.

That's when I decided to take online booksales seriously for now, though the dreams of a physical store is still very alive. I want to build a reputation on the internet and through social media and self promotion, and hopefully have a substantial devoted following of fellow book lovers who want to see me succeed just as bad as I want the brick and mortar store to be a reality, my true calling. Because I have big plans for my store one day, plans that will ensure my relevance in the bookselling sphere, create a space to hang out, have coffee, make friends, as well as join a book club, or a creative writing course which would be offered for free for those interested, much like what the public libraries offer, (among other ideas I am unwilling to announce as of now, because for the sake of longevity I reckon a bit of creativity may be the phsical shops saving grace, to help define my shop, stand out from all the rest. I need to keep the cards in my palm a secret, until the actual day I announce "The Dust Jacket" has an official address.) Stay tuned because I feel confident that that day is closer then even I think. And I appreciate all and any support you can give me, whether it's buying books from my site, or merchandise, or spreading the word, I appreciate everyone who, no matter the size contribution, is showing me that my initial path to book sales is not what I imagined it to be, but you're giving me hope that one day I will cut the ribbon to the store I dreamed up almost 25 years ago, faking sick, only to play hookie from school so I was able to decide what I read.

~Daniel Costa (Owner and founder of 'The Dust Jacket - Second hand booksellers' Located in Hartford County, Connecticut)

We're aiming for the start of 2027 to begin most operations sitewide which will include:

To Do (before 2027):

• currently I am the lone website designer along with being tasked to digitally photograph, catalog, give accurate quality evaluations, and include a short synopsis of each book uploaded and accounted for. This is not considering the final step of making each item up to date and reflect its availability, along with find a reliable, widely respected, and protected merchant who could act as a middle man when purchases are made, ensuring all aspects of your card details are protected and insured, as well as my side of things, seeing how my banking would be at risk to the same vulnerabilities, which I likely will go with a commonly used, and trusted third party transaction service, unless their fees are unrealistic for small buisnesses, in which I will shop around and take advice from other independent online stores. We have a massive inventory, large enough to fill a small shop today if the Dust Jackets trajectory was straight to storefront, but overall this will be a valuable chance to see what sells and what sits on shelves, which will help me cater my future purchases accordingly. Just a peek at what is to be expected, is Hard and Soft cover books, from fiction to non fiction, to biographical, to romance, to historical, to science fiction, to horror, to self help, to religion, to art books, art theory as well as learn to draw, westerns, short story anthologies, poetry, foreign written, but english translated, as well as learning a language, and dictionaries, thesarusus', encyclopedias, as well as both sides of political spectrums, including the side that chooses anarchy, and medical journals, as well as the occult, screenplays, kid books, picture books, pop up books, autographed books from some popular authors and others with a small niche following, and even special interest subjects. If empty journals or diaries are your thing, we also have been accumulating a wide arrange of unique and unused journals, as well as sell handcrafted, locally made journals. We also have decoy books, meant to appear like any book on a shelf with a purposeful cut out to hide money, weapons, or valuables. Aside from novels, we carry comic books, an impressive but seriously daunting size collection which will likely take the longest to log and price out, as well as magazines/pulp magazines, and major news stories or cases either in magazine format or newspaper, we're building a manga section, momentarily its unimpressive, but the graphic novel wave has moved over to more mangas, so we plan to aquire them whenever the oppritunity presents itself. we also have an assortment of book themed or book related items like book stoppers for shelves, styled in several highly desired and unique decorations. As well as bookmarks and The Dust Jackets offiicially merch. So I know you wont be disapointed with what we have to offer and if we dont happen to carry what your looking for, let us know and we will attempt to locate a copy, so I ask you to be patient, GTA 6 was a decade of production with multiple pushed release dates, we are not Rockstar, we haven't established a relationship with our future customers to expect them to remain loyal if the official launch is extremely underwhelming and underdelivered, so just be patient but we hope to at least have begun some sales and online groups through either zoom or microsoft teams, just as soon as you statistically will abandon your new years resolution, we will be launching the site to the public officially. but if I hit any delays you'll be sure to hear about it. Thanks for your patience and I am deadset on one day having The Dust Jacket not only a URL address, but an address that will reanimate shoppers to not only look forward to the hunt of unpredictible gems that comes with the used bookstore, but will offer an expeirience that you can't have anywhere else, thus ensuring even non-readers come from far and wide and leave with a permanant memory that the bookstore offers, like my childhood memories of genre hopping, title surfing, and learning new words, some inapropriate, but nevertheless, paramount to my growth as an adolescent.