Used Curriculum Sale

A local homeschool co-op had their annual used curriculum sale today. It was apparently the first time they had opened it to people outside of their co-op. It is also the first time used curriculum sale I have been to. I have been looking for math, science, and reading pieces, as you well know, so I thought I would hit the sale and see what they had. I had hoped to get there when they started, but that didn't happen. I was a bit disappointed when we did get there. The sale was in a smallish room at a local church. There was not enough space for everyone to move about easily and having Kiddo and Kutey in tow was a bit of a trick. Kutey actually spent some time sitting UNDER one of the tables. I figured at least there she wasn't in any one's way. There was a ton of stuff, but little in the way of what I would call curriculum. Books, yes, by the box full. Curriculum, well, not so much. There was a set of cuisenaire rods that I looked at, but there seemed to be an awful lot missing, and there was no price on it (one of my pet peeves...you want to sell it, put a price on it!)

Still, I walked away with this:
And I spent less than $15. Not too bad. Not as good as Ami's haul, but still. The Explode the Code is only book 2, we are actually on book 3. Since I haven't ordered it yet, I figured at least he could use this one to review a bit more while we wait for his to come. It was $1, brand new. It was also the only curriculum thing I picked up. Space and animals are interest areas of Kiddo's, Madeline is just a good book, and the recorder songs, well, since two recorders have found their way into our house, I figure teaching them to play some actual songs might be fun sometime!

Are all used curriculum sales like that? Is there a better way to spend less on curriculum?