A Rookie's Book Sale Survivor Guide - How to Get the Best Haul Without Going Over Budget!

In my previous "How to Keep Your Classroom Library Fresh" post, I mentioned that library book sales are the one of the best and most economical ways to purchase books for your students to read in your classroom library. So far, March is shaping up to be Book Sale Madness Month! I have already been to two this week and have another two lined up for this upcoming week. At this point I have been to quite a few library book sales in my life, and I have seen some things! You would be surprised how intense, hostile, and

Children's Only Sales are the best to build your classroom library!

downright cutthroat it can be! Hostile? Intense? Cutthroat? Yup - you read that right. While you might think a library would be the last place you would find this type of environment, you're wrong! It can be as bad as fighting for the last shoe in your size, 80% off, at a sample sale at a designer store. People get crazy! And if you're new to the library book sale game, it can be a bit overwhelming. In this post, I will discuss some tips and strategies to help you navigate your local library book sales to keep you stress free, get the best books for your students, and avoid overspending!


Tip #1 - Make sure you have all the basic information about the sale. On the first day of many sales, it is "Preview Day." On these days, the sale is for "Friends of the Library" members only OR they require you to pay a fee to enter the sale and make a purchase. In the past, I have made the mistake of not reading the fine print and attending the sale on a preview day. I spent about an hour perusing the sale, selecting books, only to find out to purchase them I would have to pay an additional ten dollars for attending on the preview day. I ended up leaving the books I spent so long searching for, because to me the whole point is to get the books at the best price. Therefore, paying an extra ten dollars just wasn't something I was willing to do because I knew how many more books I could get for that ten dollars, if I just came back the next day. To avoid wasting your time, make sure you are attending on the public sale day, unless you are willing to spend more of your money to have first pick

1st one online, at a 9am Saturday sale!

Tip #2 - This tip relates back to knowing the basic information of the sale. If the sale is in a town that I know has a strong socioeconomic background, I always try to attend on the first day it is open to the public. People who frequent library book sales know which towns receive the best books, and they will be there, waiting online to get into the sale before it even opens. Today I arrived at 8:30 a.m. to the library so I could get online to enter the book sale when it opened at 9:00 a.m. I was actually the first person there! While when I arrived it was a ghost town, within ten minutes there was a full line of people down the sidewalk, waiting to get in. You want to get there early, so you can actually get a chance to get to the books. With so many people rushing in at the sale, if you are at the back of the line it's difficult to get to the books you want to look at and many of the titles you want, might be gone before you can get to them. Also, while knowing the 1st day of the public sale is important, knowing the last day can be just as, if not more important to growing your library. Almost always, on the last day of the sale, it is "bag day." A bag is provided to you from the library and however many books you can fit into it are yours for one flat rate. In certain towns, I attend on the first and the last day so I can have my first choice of books and get a bargain on those that I may have not saw at first in the craze of the 1st day of the sale.

A view of a "mild" crowd, after the initial rush. Shows the importance of arriving early!

Tip # 3- Beware the book buyers! While teachers like myself are among these book sale crazies, book buyers along with their scanners also line up to grab all the best titles first. To me, book buyers are the worst people to deal with at a book sale. I realize they are trying to supplement their income, but often times they are obnoxious, at least in my experience. They scan every book they can grab (I even have had one try to scan books I had already put in my bag!) taking all of the books that have the highest resale value, which often are the newest titles that my students want to read. I'd much rather battle over a novel with another teacher than a book buyer any day, because at least I know the teacher's motivation is the same as mine - to get the best books for her students. Book buyers are just looking to put more money in their pocket and they do so by taking books out of my students hands! GRRR! At least, that's how I see it. Some sales don't allow people with scanners, but for those who do, keep a look out for these book buyers and their tricky tactics.

How most books are organized at sales. You have to have a good eye!

 Tip #4 - Know what you're looking for, before you walk in the door. This doesn't mean that you have to know every single title that you will buy before walking into the sale - far from it. If this were the case then I would never be open to some of the new, amazing titles I have discovered at sales. When I say know what you are looking for, this could include certain titles, but it could also mean particular genres or books at particular reading levels. For example, today I had no specific titles in mind when I went to the sale, but I knew that I would only purchase books which would complete or add to an existing series I had, were recent bestsellers that my students would be eager to pick up, or were new titles in the sports or romance genre, which I need to add to in my existing library, as these are both popular genres with my students. If I didn't go into the sale with this game plan, I would probably be overwhelmed. There are boxes, upon boxes of books at these sales, with titles that usually are in no particular order or category. If I didn't have specific things in mind while I scoured through the boxes, it would be difficult to find anything.Also, if you don't have anything in mind about what you are looking for, you might end up buying way too many books. A game plan will definitely help save you money! While it's tempting to shove as many books as you can into your bag because they are so cheap, it adds up quickly. Being more selective also pays off in the end when you bring the books back to your classroom, because it means you have purchased books with your students likes, needs, and interests in mind.

Final selections. Note the recently released hardcovers!

Tip #5 - Take a break while you're at the sale to sort through what you've picked up, weed out titles that you don't need, and go back in to look for more with a fresh perspective. While you're looking through boxes, especially if it is crowded and there are people all around you, you really don't feel as if you can take your time to peruse through the books. I usually toss into my bag whatever looks interesting and I think my students might like. When my bag is full, I find an empty corner of the room to go through, prioritize, and sort. Then I go back in and look again. I almost always find a book I missed when I go back through the boxes. Then I sort through one last time before I check out. Not doing this can be dangerous for your wallet. Some things to consider when you are prioritizing your book selections: 1) Do I already own a copy of this title? If so, is the book popular? Would another copy of this title be read by my students, or is one sufficient? 2) Is this book really going to appeal to my students? Is it a title or a genre that they have been asking for or that I know they read? 3) Is the reading level right? Is it too high for my students or is it too low? Asking yourself these questions will help you avoid overbuying.

More final choices after a 2nd sort 

Line up hardcovers at the bottom of the bag

Tip #6 - Effectively pack your bag, especially at a bag sales! When you are at a bag sale the whole point is to get as many books as possible in to the bag. To do this, you have to pack your bag the right way. Bags are usually provided at the bag sales, and are most often paper grocery bags. If you're not careful with how you pack the bag, not only will you not be able to fit enough into it, it will also be likely to rip. It's happened to me before! When you are off to the side sorting through your books is the best time to repack your bag. The best ways I've found is to avoid the bad breaking and to get the most books in is to put all of the hardcover books, which are significantly heavier on the bottom, instead of stacking them on top of one another. The bag is much more stable and able to fit more if you line them up against their spines, the way they would be displayed if you had them in a book shelf. After you build this "base" for the bottom of your bag, it will set a solid shape for the bag and you'll be able to get much more inside of it. At a sale today, I had two people compliment me on my bag packing skills - my response to them was "It's not my first rodeo!" It's even better if you are allowed bring your own bag. If this is the case, I bring a large IKEA bag, or I bring reusable grocery bags. They are much more durable and tend to be easier to carry because you can sling them over your shoulder, if needed.

End Result - Over 50 books packed into one bag!

Tip #7 - Scour the adult section of the sale for misplaced YA books. This is my number one secret to obtaining good titles. If you stick just to the young adults and children's section of the sale, you will miss out. The people who sort the books for these sales are largely volunteers, who are trying to work as quickly and efficiently as they can. I have also found that they tend to be senior citizens, who might not be as knowledgeable about which titles are young adult, unless the cover blatantly appears to be for younger readers. At the sale I attended today, I was able to fill up an entire bag of young adult books (and quite good titles, might I add!) by looking through the adult section of the sale. Also, there are some adult titles that your students might want to read. For example, many of my female students love Nicholas Spark and Jodi Piccoult books. I've also had quite a few male students embrace the Kite Runner and Into the Darkness as new favorites. The adult section is also a great place to find biographies and other non fiction books on sports figures. This is where I obtained copies of Friday Night Lights, The Blind Side, and Beckham. Stephen King books are also popular among my students.

Tip #8 - Leave your jacket and your purse in your car. Book sales usually take place in the library basements, and these locations are almost always warm. Add to that a jacket, and the body heat from the crowd and you will soon be overheated. It can also be cumbersome to carry around your purse and a jacket while kneeling down and looking through boxes and carrying a heavy bag full of books. These items can quickly gets in the way, especially in an overcrowded room. Save yourself the heat stroke and give yourself more dexterity and mobility by leaving them in your car.

My co-worker and I after a successful book haul!

Tip #9 - Bring a friend! Many books sales can be as intense as a Black Friday Sale at a department store. You might need someone with you to look out for certain titles for you (and grab them if they see them!) as well as help each other block out some space so can get to look at the books you want to. When I go to sales, I usually arrange the outing with my co-worker. The great thing about going together is that she teaches 6th grade, while I teach 8th grade. This means that we are usually looking for very different types of books (it would be a little counterproductive of us to go together if we were going to fight over the same titles). Sometimes we tell each other certain titles to look out for, other times we ask each other to look for books in particular genres. Going with a friend increases your ability to find what you are looking, provides you with a voice of reason if you are overspending, and most of all moral support during the chaos of the initial rush of the sale. But most importantly, when you are done shopping, you have someone to take a book sale selfie with ;)