One Caveman’s Financial Journey

Our book sale haul

My wife and I love bargain hunting and we love books. What a better way to spend an evening after work than perusing the local library’s annual book sale?

Last night, the “Friends of the Library” group for our local library kicked off their annual fundraiser book sale that benefits the library.  We have enjoyed going to the library for many months, but this was our first trip to the book sale.

We walked in, expecting a few tables of discarded books that the library didn’t want to keep any longer, but we were immediately surprised. There were tables upon tables of new and nearly-new (as far as condition was concerned) books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and more.  These weren’t cast offs from the library’s shelves, for the most part - the majority of these were books donated to the book sale from people’s private collections.

And, boy, was it a mad house!  For $3 admission, you could walk out with as many items as you wanted, with most books selling for exactly $0.50 a piece. Textbooks, Stephen King novels, the world’s heaviest cookbooks - all just $0.50.  That kind of bargain obvious incites some of the strangest people to collect and hoard books (and, yes, I was one of them).  There were old ladies pushing around huge 20 gallon storage containers full of books, mothers of young children stacking board book after board book in grocery bags to the point of bursting, and younger geeks (such as myself) hovering over the non-fiction section searching for the true gems which were few and far between.

Shopping was difficult since the sections were loosely defined and the books within categories just placed around randomly.  For instance, on the “Sports & Hobbies”, a bicycle maintenance was sitting next to a book on flower arranging, which was next to a book on rifle shooting, which was next to a book on crocheting, and so on.  In order to find the real bargains, you had to have an eagle eye and quick reflexes or the guy next to you would grab the choice titles before you even knew what hit you. With the push of the crowd and the limited space, you had just seconds to scan rows of 30 books or more in hopes of finding just one that was worth the bother.

But even with the constant shuffle, limited space, high humidity, and other adversarial limitations, we found great success at our book sale.  We walked in carrying an empty canvas bag to hold what we thought would be a few books, but I was soon forced to run back to the car for a second bag.  After an hour of thumbing through the sections of interest, we spent just $15 (plus $6 for admission) on 45 lbs of books and magazines! Yes, you read that correctly - 45 lbs of reading materials.  We loaded up on children’s books (gotta love the old Golden Books), home improvement and maintenance, personal finance, and some crafty books.  And tomorrow, when the library is clearing out the remaining stock by offering free admission and $3 for a bag full of books, we’ll go back to find books that are in good enough condition and worth donating to church and other worthwhile charities to encourage child and adult reading.

It was a wonderful time and one heck of a bargain.  If your local library holds a book sale, I recommend going to take a look since those sales often are used to support the library’s programs and future purchases. Who knows?  You might just find some wonderful reading for a great deal, too.

Other articles you might enjoy reading

• Your Local Library Is a Valuable Resource
• Reduce Your Spending By Being a Late Adopter
• Stock Up For Others At Back-To-School Sales