The Book Sale Experience

As you all know, I love a good book sale. I enjoy wandering through the semi-organized stacks and searching high and low for a gem. I love the fact that so many book lovers from the area come out and donate books and sift through the shelves looking for some great titles to bring home and add to their bookshelves.

But as much as I love book sales, it’s not all roses and sunshine. The reality of book sales are….

1.The room is tiny and filled with books…and other crazy bookworms. My local library is amazing. I can’t say enough good things about it, but the book sale room is SMALL. And on opening night of the book sale? It’s packed with people all trying to squeeze into the tiny aisles to browse. And there definitely isn’t enough room for all of us.

2.People get FEISTY! The words, “excuse me” do not work at a book sale in said small aisles. People don’t listen; they are engrossed in their own worlds. Sometimes, light pushing is necessary to distract a bookworm from what they are doing.

3. What are these weird tiny scanners that everyone has? As I wander through the book sale room, I notice certain people dragging a huge box of books and toting a scanner and scanning virtually every book on the shelf. Are they checking to see if they own any of the books already? Are they trying to find out the value of the book in a bookstore? Are they looking to re-sell these books? I have no idea, but I always just assume that their intentions aren’t to find the gems they want to read to bring home with them.

4. The cash register. If you think people get feisty in the shelves, you should see them at the cash register. Last night, I watched a man argue with the book sale volunteer as she added up how much his box of 50 books cost. As she counted out loud, he argued over the price of each book. I watched in dismay because honestly, these books are already valued at $2 or less and all of the money goes to support the library, a great cause. Why would you care if you spent a few more dollars more than maybe you should have? You still clearly won out in the deal if you considered how much 50 books would cost in a bookstore.

Still, despite the crazy atmosphere, I love book sales. Last night, I came away with two great books for just $2.00. Stay tuned tomorrow for In My Mailbox to see what I got.

To find a book sale near you, check out this website. Thanks to Tara from Taming The Bookshelf for letting me know about this awesome site!

Do you enjoy going to book sales? What has your experience been like?

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3 thoughts on “The Book Sale Experience”

  1. Those scanners are for checking what the price of the book is on the internet. People who bring those scanners to book sales are scouting for books that are being sold cheap but can be turned around for a profit on the internet.

    It’s a strange way to make money, and it kind of irritates me, because they’re buying up titles they have no intention of reading.

    1. Ahh, very interesting! Thanks so much for filling me in…I kind of thought it was something like that. Definitely annoys me that they run around filling boxes of books they aren’t even going to read.

  2. Thanks for mentioning my blog 🙂 I love Book Sale Finder! I just went to a great book sale last week. I got The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell for .50 !

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Meet Jessica

I live by the saying “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” and help others do the same to reach their biggest, brightest goals. Read my story here.

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