Not sure where to post this topic.  If I need to post elsewhere just let me know.

Have you ever gone to a book sale at a library or Friends of the Library book sale??  I'm heading to a sale on Saturday 9/8.  It opens at 11:00 and goes until 4:00 with the last hour being the fill your bag for a $1.00 deal.  I'm trying to figure out if it's best to go when it opens to have the best options and pay the $1 per book or if I should wait til the last hour and do the $1 bag deal.  Keep in mind I'm trying to get as many children/teen books as possible for a day camp.

What is your experience with this and what is your advice??

If  you are just trying to get random books for a day camp, probably the bag deal is the best way to go. I go to library sales a lot and the first 30 to 45 minutes of a sale is really crowded with frequent lines to get in.  The last hour is also pretty frentic and if you are looking for a specific title it's pretty much impossible as you literally have to look and bag and move on.

If you live fairly close by to the sale, best to go by around 12:00 and check things out.  If there are a whole lot of children/teen books then wait, but if there are only a few books left, better pick up some then.

One more thing, if you can check out how many books are roughly going to be there first you can best determine if there will be enough pickings for a bag sale.  A great site is www.booksalefinder.com. It should list the "stats" of the friends of the library book sale.

Hope this helps and sorry its so long.

Do both if you can. You can cherry pick some better titles early on in the sale because the popular stuff won't be there for the bag sale. Then go back for the bag sale to go for quantity so you have a larger selection of books for camp. Typically on the sale I work, the older titles and the books with more wear are what is left at bag sale time.

Wow, Joyce, thanks for posting about Booksalefinder.com.  I clicked on it and found a sale going on 9-4 today just 20 miles from my house. 

It's in the other direction from the stores I usually frequent, so I never check out that library.  I'm logging off and on my way! 

Ann Marie

Our library is doing the same later this month and I plan on attenting both dates. I usually go the first day to choose books for myself (or at least as many as I can afford), then I reserve the "bag days" for scooping up as much as I can afford to swap on here. If I had to choose between the two, I'd probably choose the "bag days" because I can usually find at least a handful of books for myself to stuff into the bags. The clerks are grateful when I bring my own bags... or last year when I brought boxes to unload the bags. These sales are also a good place to promote this site indiscreetly as well, via bookmarkers or stickers left at the collections table.