For Thrifters

What Is a Thrifter in Trove?

In Trove, a thrifter is anyone who finds books at thrift stores, estate sales, library sales, or anywhere books turn up cheap — and makes them available to collectors who want them. You're the supply side of the community. You do the legwork; you get paid.

The model is straightforward: a collector adds a book to their grail list and says what they'll pay. You find it at Goodwill for $1.50. Trove connects you. You sell it for $15, pocket $13.50, and both parties are happy. Then you go find the next one.

You don't need to be an expert. The app does the valuation for you — it shows you what the community is willing to pay, right at the shelf.

Scanning an ISBN Barcode

The ISBN scanner is the heart of the thrifter experience. Here's how to use it:

1. Open Trove and tap the scan icon (top right of the home screen, or the center tab in the navigation bar).
2. Point your camera at the barcode on the back of the book. This is typically a 13-digit EAN/ISBN barcode. Older books may have a 10-digit ISBN-10 barcode — both work.
3. The app will lock on the barcode in under a second and immediately fetch the book from the database.
4. You'll land on the book's detail page, which shows:
   • Who Wants This — community members with this book on their grail list, and their max prices
   • Current Shelf Listings — whether anyone is already selling a copy
   • All Editions — other printings of the same title (useful if you're holding a different edition than what collectors want)

Using the Cover Scanner

Not every book has a readable barcode. The cover scanner uses computer vision to identify a book from a photo of its front cover.

1. From the scan screen, tap Scan Cover instead of pointing at a barcode.
2. Frame the full cover in the viewfinder and tap the shutter button.
3. Trove will analyze the cover image and return the most likely match, along with a confidence score.
4. If the match looks right, confirm it. If not, you can manually adjust the result or search by title.

Cover scanning is slightly slower than barcode scanning (typically 2–4 seconds) and has a small monthly limit on free accounts. Trove Pro members get unlimited cover scans.

Cover scanning works best in good lighting with the book held flat and the full cover visible. It handles worn covers and faded spines reasonably well, but very damaged covers may not match reliably.

What the "Who Wants This?" View Shows You

After scanning, the Who Wants This? section is the most important part of the detail page. It shows every community member who has added this book to their grail list, sorted by max price (highest first).

For each grail entry you'll see:

• Username and avatar — who they are
• Max price — the most they've said they'll pay
• Edition preference — if they specified a particular printing (e.g., "1st edition only")
• Condition notes — any requirements they added ("Fine or better," "Dust jacket required")
• Seller rating — their track record as a buyer (filled star for each completed trade)
• BFF indicator — if you've followed them, you'll see a small bookmark icon next to their name

If nobody has this book on their grail list, the section shows "No matches yet." That doesn't mean the book has no value — it may be worth listing anyway, since it will show up in search results and notify anyone who adds it to their list later.

Posting a Book to Your Shelf

Your shelf is your storefront — a listing of all the books you currently have for sale. To post a book:

1. From the book detail page, tap List This Book.
2. Select the correct edition from the edition picker (defaults to the edition you scanned).
3. Set the condition grade (see condition grades below).
4. Set your asking price. You can reference the grail max prices to anchor this.
5. Add condition notes — be honest and specific. "Slight bend to spine, no markings" is better than "Good."
6. Add up to 4 photos — at minimum: front cover, back cover, and spine. For valuable books, add photos of interior pages.
7. Set your location (city/region) so buyers know roughly where shipping will come from.
8. Tap Post to Shelf.

Your listing is live immediately. Any collector who has this book on their grail list will receive a push notification within seconds. If multiple collectors are waiting, you may get several messages at once — respond to each one, and honor the deal you agree to first.

Condition Grades

Trove uses standard used-book condition grades. Be conservative — it's better to undersell the condition and have a happy buyer than to oversell it and deal with a dispute.

Marking a Book as Sold

Once you've agreed on a deal and received payment, mark the listing as sold:

1. Go to My Shelf (your profile → Shelf tab).
2. Tap the listing.
3. Tap Mark as Sold and select the buyer from your recent conversations (or enter their username).

Marking as sold triggers an invitation for the buyer to leave you a seller rating. It also removes the listing from community search results and notifies any other collectors who messaged about the book that it's no longer available.

Don't forget to mark books sold promptly — leaving sold items listed creates a poor experience for buyers and can hurt your response rate stats.

Reporting a Sighting

A sighting is when you spot a book at a thrift store but don't buy it — you just report its presence so the community knows it's there. Sightings are a core community contribution: even if a book isn't worth buying for resale, the right collector might drive to get it themselves.

To report a sighting:

1. Scan the book as usual.
2. Instead of tapping "List This Book," tap Report Sighting.
3. Confirm or enter the store location (Trove uses your GPS to pre-fill a nearby store, but you can correct it).
4. Add optional notes — "Spine section," "Near door," "Looked VG condition."
5. Tap Submit Sighting.

The sighting appears on the community map and in the book's detail page. Collectors who have that book grailed will see a notification: "A copy was spotted at Goodwill on Main St. — reported 4 minutes ago."

Sightings expire after 72 hours automatically (thrift store inventory moves fast), but you can manually mark a sighting as "Gone" if you go back and it's no longer there.

Tips for Effective Thrifting

Best Times to Thrift

Thrift stores restock on different schedules, but a few patterns hold across most chains:

• Weekday mornings (Tuesday–Thursday) are typically when new donations hit the floor after being processed over the weekend. Arriving early Tuesday is a sweet spot at many Goodwill locations.
• Avoid Saturday afternoons — the most picked-over time at most stores.
• Library sales and estate sales often have their best selection on the first day, even if you pay full price. Return on the last day for deeper discounts if you're patient.
• Follow community sightings to get a feel for which stores in your area have active book sections — quality varies enormously by location.

What's Worth Scanning

You can't know what's on the community's grail list without scanning, but a few categories tend to generate demand consistently:

• Literary fiction — especially older Vintage, Penguin, or FSG editions
• Classic sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks (Ace Doubles, Ballantine Adult Fantasy series)
• First editions of authors with active collector communities (McCarthy, O'Connor, Roth, Cheever)
• Art and photography books in good condition
• Cookbooks — especially regional, out-of-print, or signed copies
• Technical and academic texts in active fields

Scan freely. The overhead is a second of your time. The more you scan, the faster you'll develop instincts for what moves.

Writing Great Condition Notes

The more specific your condition notes, the faster you'll sell and the fewer disputes you'll have:

• Note the dust jacket status separately from the book itself
• Mention any stamps ("Ex-library," "Gift stamp on title page")
• Call out writing or underlining explicitly — even pencil marks matter to some collectors
• Note yellowing or browning ("pages tanned but supple," "minor foxing to edges")
• Mention if the binding is tight or if there's any loosening