Bittersweet find

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these books. They are from the My Book House series, a vintage collection of old nursery rhymes, stories, fairy tales and children's classics. They were compiled and illustrated in the 20s, so there are wonderful vintage colorplates throughout the books. I saw them once at an estate sale--all 6 volumes, and asked the price. The lady at the checkout area told me they were $15 for the set. Of course I had to buy them! I had already paid for them and was walking out the door when another woman looked at my pile of beautiful books and asked the cashier how much I had paid for them. When she found out I had bought them for $15, she told me that they were $15 per book. I sort of felt that was unfair, I had already paid for them, and she wanted to change the price, but I had no choice, I had to give them back.

Now for the sad story of these in the above picture... There is a library book sale store near our house in Uptown Whittier. They have insanely good prices for children's books and any other kind of book. (25 cents a book or $2-3 a box) There are better quality and older books in different sections, so I was browsing through the older books and I saw the set of these books!!! All six were there! I pulled 2 off the shelf and was looking through them, so excited about my find when out of the corner of my eye, a hand came in and SNAKED 2 of the books off the shelf!!!! I could NOT believe it! I quickly grabbed the other 2 books and stood there leafing through them while the other woman stood there leafing through her 2 books. I didn't know if I should confront her and ask to have the whole set since I saw them first, but they WERE still on the shelf when she got them. Finally, she walked away and I saw them go with my heart breaking. Oh well, I got 4 of them, and I'll find those missing ones someday.