By Myles Ma
For anyone looking for a bookstore in Trenton, Classics: Used and Rare Books is literally (excuse the pun) the only option. And for customers searching for new books from local writers, old, ultra-rare books like “The Shaker Manifesto, or anything in between, it may be the only store in the state to carry them.
Eric Maywar, the owner of Classics, has many gems in his library, which, by his count, contains about 10,000 books. Customers would be hard-pressed to find oddities like a 100-year-old copy of the New Jersey herd registry or “Hunting Serial Predators,” a book on tracking serial killers, for sale in a Borders or a Barnes and Noble. At Classics, customers can bring in used books for store credit, and occasionally find rare, sometimes valuable titles Maywar hasn’t caught wind of yet. Maywar says he’s had customers gloat after purchasing rare books for a few dollars. Luckily for his business, he is ahead of the curve most of the time – many of the aforementioned books are priced at hundreds of dollars. But the chance of finding some strange or rare is part of what draws customers.
The other thing Maywar does to draw people into the store is host a lot of events. Some of the events are what you’d expect from a bookstore, like a seminar on how to get a book published, poetry readings, book signings and book clubs.
Other events have a tenuous, at best, connection with books, like the Trenton Knit and Stitch club, which regularly meets in the bookstore. Classics also hosts a burgeoning chess club.
But the most enduring Classics club is undoubtedly the Scrabble club. The same group of players met weekly in Classics since the store was in New Hope.
The club meets every Friday, and Maywar keeps the store open until midnight to accommodate the players, some of whom come from far and wide to play. One player comes from Manhattan to play Scrabble.
“He was a customer in the New Hope store, and he followed us,” Maywar said.
The Scrabble club is mostly social and is not a member of the National Scrabble Association. Many of the members, who have been playing together for years, have become close friends.
“We’ve had people get jobs from the contacts they’ve made here,” Maywar said.
The Scrabble club has a hand in saving Maywar’s job. Before 2005, Classics was located in New Hope, Pa. After acquiring the current Trenton location, Maywar was considering keeping both stores open.
Then the water came. The New Hope location started flooding, and with the help of the Scrabble club, Maywar was able to save every book from the rising tide.
“The Scrabble club really saved our butts,” he said.
In the four years since he’s moved to Trenton, Maywar has come to appreciate the advantages it has over New Hope. For one, business in Trenton doesn’t drop off after the summer like it does in New Hope.
“You have a chance to build a customer base,” he said.
He already has the Scrabble-playing demographic locked down.
Classics is open from 11 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 11 a.m. until midnight on Friday and 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday. Call (609) 394-8400 for more information.
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