One of the Twin Cities’ oldest used-book stores, St. Croix Antiquarian Books, will close this summer after 27 years in business.

Owner Gary Goodman opened the store in downtown Stillwater in 1990, in partnership with longtime Stillwater booksellers Jim Cummings and Tom Loome. The store moved to its current location, a former appliance shop, in 1991.

A local merchant bought the building at 232 S. Main St. on Thursday; Goodman, who has been full owner of the business since 2001, would not provide further details. His last day in business will be July 31.

“It will be sad to see it go, but I’m ready,” said Goodman, 65, who lives in Stillwater. “I’m not getting any younger. I have six kids, but none of them are foolish enough to get into the used-book business.”

When Goodman put the 4,300-square-foot business up for sale in 2015, his asking price was $625,000.

“It’s been a tough road to sell the place,” he said. “Most people looking for space down here are looking for 600 square feet or so. It’s a real big building, and you need something to fill the place.”

Right now, about 30,000 books fill it.

Among them is a rare 1913 copy of “Poems” by Robert Louis Stevenson that was hand-illuminated by various British and American artists. It is expected to sell for $15,000 to $20,000, which would make it the most valuable book Goodman has ever sold.

“It’s one-of-a-kind. It’s one of one,” Goodman said. “It’s not like there are any Picassos or anyone like that in there, but some of the artists are well known; they had a following. It’s kind of those middle-range artists that you see on ‘Antiques Roadshow’ or something like that.”

The most expensive book sold to date is a signed copy of “Illustrations for the Bible” by Marc Chagall; it sold for $12,000.

Not all sales have been so profitable. Goodman once sold a first-edition set of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien for only $1,200; that set is now worth $40,000 to $60,000, he said.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “But that’s what you live with. You never know. I’m sure I’ve sold $10 books that are worth thousands now, too. You’ve just got to figure you made your $1.29. That’s what an old bookseller always used to say, ‘Well, I made my $1.29, so what do I care?’ ” Related Articles 2 of 3 victims ID’d in Cottage Grove plane crash; search continues in water-filled quarry

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Most books sell for $15 to $40.

Goodman, a former psychiatric counselor, got into the book business in 1982 when his wife, Mary Pat, told him that a small used-book store called F. Tienen Books at Arcade Street and Maryland Avenue on St. Paul’s East Side was for sale.

“I’d never been to a used-book store before,” Goodman told the Pioneer Press in 2015. “I looked at these books and thought, ‘Man, this guy is sitting on a gold mine. He’s got all these old books; they’ve got to be worth a fortune.’”

Unfortunately, Goodman said, 95 percent of the books in the store were nearly worthless.

“I should have quit, but I was too stubborn to quit,” he said. “I wound up donating most of them. It took me a good three or four years to learn how to make money in the book business — that’s pretty typical. It’s a long education to know what sells and what doesn’t sell, and what’s valuable and what isn’t valuable.”

Goodman said he plans to keep about 3,000 to 4,000 books and sell them online; the rest will be donated to Books for Africa.

Longtime employee Carla Holmquist will buy part of Goodman’s business: a rare collection of original, hand-colored 19th-century architectural drawings from around the world that Goodman sells at stcroixarchitecture.com.

The drawings range in price from $29 to $100; the average price is $65. An 1891 drawing of the Board of Water Offices in Sydney, Australia, for example, retails for $49.

Goodman will host a closing party at 7 p.m. March 4, that will feature live music and refreshments; everything in the store will be 50 percent off that day.

“I want to thank our customers from Stillwater and around the world — Russia, India, Tibet, Australia, Singapore, you name it — who have supported us for the past 27 years,” Goodman said. “I am proud to have been the owner of what is widely regarded as one of the last great rare-book stores in the U.S.”

St. Croix Antiquarian’s closing sale will begin March 5 with all merchandise marked 30 percent off for the month of March. The sale will continue with 40 percent off in April; 50 percent off from May 1 to June 15; 60 percent off from June 15 to July 15, and 70 to 90 percent off until July 31, he said.