Longtime used bookstore to close its doors

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Since opening Ted’s Used Books and Collectibles in 1976, Ted Tafejian has been busy working his dream job.
He’s been able to read thousands of books, or at least part of them, and go on countless buying trips to local garage sales and thrift stores, all while managing to make the rent.
But after 31 years in the used book business, Ted, who is 79 years old, has decided to call it quits and spend more time with his family.

“I hardly considered it work,” Ted said. “Really it wasn’t so much work as something to do everyday. I’m going to miss it.”
Ted said his love for books blossomed during his childhood in Chicago, where his mother would sign him up for library programs each summer. He first began selling books while living in Berkeley, where he would buy books at garage sales and try to sell them to make a couple of bucks.
That habit eventually became the groundwork for Ted’s Used Books, which is now located at 2009 De la Vina St., and is directly across the street from its first location.
Ted said his favorite thing about owning a bookstore is shopping for the books.
“I really like buying the books, going shopping,” he said. “I’ve gotten to look at a lot of different subjects.”
The subjects he likes most are a reflection of the books he’ll be taking with him when the shop closes its doors later this year.
He said without much hesitation that he’ll be taking his Bible with him, along with books on Zen Buddhism and Tai Chi, which he has practiced since 1979. One of his favorite books, he said, is “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole. At the moment, he’s reading “Cody's Books: The Life and Times of a Berkeley Bookstore, 1956-1977.”
“It’s fun to read about all the problems they had opening and running a bookstore,” he said.
While several people yesterday had books stacked high in their arms, taking advantage of the 50 percent off sale - “everything must go,” the sign out front reads - Ted stood behind the front desk and removed a dusty book from a drawer.
Ancient scribbling in blue, green, red and black ink noted the date, the amount of money taken in each day and a final tally for the month.
On Aug. 17, 1976, Ted’s first day of business, the ledger says $8 worth of books were sold. During the remainder of that month, Ted said he made $254, while first full month brought in slightly more than $479.
“It has always paid for itself,” he said. “I always made the rent and a little bit more. It was always interesting and kept me from getting bored.”
While a handful of used bookstores will remain in Santa Barbara after Ted’s final day in business, which hasn’t been determined, he doesn’t believe the future of used bookstores in the area is great.
He said the current trend for bookstores has been to continue business, but not in the traditional way of renting or owning space.
“Most people going into the book business do most of it on the internet,” Ted said. As an illustration of this point, Ted said the most expensive book he ever sold was online. That book sold for about $500 and was a Zen Buddhism book signed by a Zen Buddhist leader.
Ted said he’s willing to sell his business, the only hang-up would be the buyer would have to find a new space because the lease on his is ending.
He gave praise to the Santa Barbara Street bookstore Thrasher Books, the owner of which, Karen Thrasher, worked one day a week for Ted for 10 years before fulfilling her dream of opening her own store.
“It’s the kind of place you’d find in San Francisco or Berkeley,” Ted said of Thrasher Books.
Thrasher said working with Ted taught her valuable lessons about what books sell, who buys what and the general flow of a bookstore.
When asked if she thought Ted was mad at her for opening a bookstore in the same town, she said used bookstores would do better business if they were all on the same block, filling the niches that the guy or gal next door didn’t.
“We aren’t competitors in used books,” she said. “We’re colleagues.”
Thrasher said she set the goal of opening a bookstore while working at the Unicorn Book Shop in Isla Vista in 1968, and finally reached her goal on Jan. 16, 1997, when she opened Thrasher Books.
“Books change lives,” Thrasher said. “So I have the opportunity to put books into people’s hands that may change lives.”
Books have no doubt changed Ted’s life and with a little luck they won’t stop. He said he might continue selling books online from Sacramento, where he plans to join the majority of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Another possibility, he said, is playing the stock market.
Whatever he does, it’s likely that a small space in Santa Barbara that has greeted locals and tourists alike with the dry smell of aging pages for decades will be gone.
But until it is gone, Ted will be able to comfortably say he has the best job in Santa Barbara.
“I guess it’s the best job in town, for me anyway.”