"Friends of the Library" Book Sales

[This is extracted from my column in the MT VOID, 04/11/08.]

Well, book sale season is upon us and there seem to have been some major
changes this year in the nature of "Friend of the Library" (FotL) book
sales (and other fund-raising sales).

For example, many FotL sales now ban scanners. While some people seem
to think the laser scanner is a liability issue, I tend to believe the
people on the FotL boards who say that it is not that, and it is also
not just the fact that "normal" patrons were upset that the dealers
would grab huge quantities of books and then sit and scan them to see
which were valuable. It's that after the dealers scanned the huge
stacks of books they had taken, they would leave their rejects in a
heap, and it would take the volunteers hours to re-sort them. And
sometimes they would just commandeer some stretch of table space and
inconvenience everyone else in the process as well.

Checking the book sales web site, I see many have also ended the preview
sales as well. There has definitely been a conflict between dealers and
"readers", with the latter increasingly annoyed over "preview" sessions
in which dealers get a chance to cherry-pick the books. Oh, there was
an admission charge for this, but what is $5 or $10 to a dealer who buys
a few hundred dollars worth of books that they re-sell for five or ten
times that much? On the other hand, it is a fair amount to people who
want to buy a few books for themselves. In fact, the Bryn Mawr sale is
so popular that while they still have preview admission, it is by
lottery--they have decided either that there were too many dealers in
any case, or that they were losing customers from the bulk of the sale
because people felt the best items had been grabbed up already. But
many FoTL sales found out that many people had stopped coming because
the books were picked over. So they dumped the preview sale entirely,
advertised this fact (most say "*not* picked over" in bold letters on
their web sites), and discovered that they made *more* money this way.

This is also the reason for the higher prices ($1 for mass market
paperbacks, rather than 50 cents, for example). Dealers can still get
piles of books cheap, at least at the sales that have "Box and Bag Day"
(though see the next paragraph!). But the sales have a chance to sell
some of these at a better price to people who are more selective and not
looking for stock to list for $.01 on amazon.com. (On the other hand, I
find that the East Brunswick FotL pricing of *ex-library* mass market
paperbacks at $1 is off-putting.)

Many sales have also either discontinued "Box and Bag Day" on the last
day or put a size limit on the boxes and bags. I was talking about this
to another patron at the Bryn Mawr sale and he said he had been there
one year when someone had shown up with a *refrigerator* box on a dolly,
which he filled for $5! The East Brunswick FotL does not have a "Box
and Bag Day"; instead, non-profit organizations can make arrangements
ahead of time to come after the sale closes and take what they want for
free. (A friend says that she was at one sale where arrangements had
been made to send large amounts of what was left to a prison library.)

Anyway, on to the particulars.

Last year I bemoaned the fact that the paperback prices had risen to $1
at the Bryn Mawr sale. This year they kept that, but also priced almost
all trade paperbacks and hardbacks at $2 (as opposed to the individual
pricing of previous years). This "unit pricing" makes their setting up
the sale a lot faster, and avoids extra writing in books.

The East Brunswick FotL sale was very disappointing, for a couple of
reasons. First of all, the mall has cut back on the space the sale can
use by insisting that there be a wide walkway right through the center
of the area. This seems to have cut down the number of tables by about
a third. The result is a lot more boxes of books under the table at the
start of the sale--and less room in the aisles for those trying to go
hrough the boxes. Next, there was a lot of science fiction, but at
least 90% of the paperbacks were "Star Trek" novels. So even if one
could manage to go through the under-the-table boxes, it was hardly
worth it (unless of course, you were looking for "Star Trek" novels).
(I would suggest that any book sale that has this high a percentage of
"Star Trek" novels might want to make a separate "Star Trek" section.)
In any case, the cramped conditions, the enormous domination of "Star
Trek" in their science fiction section, and the higher pricing make me
really ambivalent about returning to this next year.

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
All art at some time and in some manner becomes mass entertainment,
and that if it does not it dies and is forgotten. --Raymond Chandler

Interesting and very useful information! Thanks for posting it.

Library book sale season has hit here in north Texas, too. Arlington's has
gotten so big that they can't hold it in the library anymore; they moved it
a few blocks away to a city recreation center. This seems to have worked
rather well and there is plenty of space. The prices seem to be the same as
last year's.

Grand Prairie's is about the same size as it has been (not nearly as large
as Arlington's). One change I did notice this time with GP's: They will no
longer send you a postcard notifying you of the next sale. It's been
standard in the past that, while you stand there at the table paying for
your purchases, you write out your name and address on a postcard, which
they then take and mail to you months later to notify you of the next sale.
This time they just give you the postcard with the date of the next sale,
and you keep it. They say the postage costs are getting too high now.

Fort Worth has done something different. Their used book sales were
absolutely huge, often taking up one of the Will Rogers cattle barns. It
got to be an insane amount of work, lugging all those hundreds of boxes of
books in and out of the building and setting everything up. Now they have
set up an actual book store in a strip mall in a suburban neighborhood and
sell used books all the time, rather than just a couple of weekends per
year. Their prices are pretty good. They still do have a big used book
sale once or twice a year, usually held in the empty space next door to the
main store, and call it "Chapter 2" for that weekend. The only down side I
can think of is that it's located on the far southwest side of town, just
outside of Loop 820, and might be a bit of a trip for everyone else who's
scattered all over the city and beyond. The original big sales used to be
held in the Museum District, which is just west of downtown.

I'm not sure how Dallas does theirs, as I have not been to one yet.

In none of these cases has there been any problem (to my limited knowledge)
with dealers armed with scanners, though I have seen them a few times. As
for people abusing the privilege of "all you can box up for $5," showing up
with a boxcar does seem to be overdoing it! Maybe they should change it to
"All you can carry for so-and-so dollars," as I remember an automotive
junkyard advertising their specials on TV many years ago. (Then again, I'm
a big, strong guy who no doubt could carry a great deal more books than a
little old lady could.) I remember on Sunday afternoon at Arlington's sale
a couple of years ago, it was getting close to closing time and there was
still a lot of stuff left over, and one of the staff members grabbed the
P.A. microphone and offered free issues of _National Geographic_, just to
get rid of them. More freebie specials came thick and fast as Zero Hour
approached. Heck, they probably would have started cramming things into
your tote bags that you didn't want.

On Apr 11, 5:27*am, "Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote:
[This is extracted from my column in the MT VOID, 04/11/08.]

Well, book sale season is upon us and there seem to have been some major
changes this year in the nature of "Friend of the Library" (FotL) book
sales (and other fund-raising sales).

For example, many FotL sales now ban scanners. *While some people seem
to think the laser scanner is a liability issue, I tend to believe the
people on the FotL boards who say that it is not that, and it is also
not just the fact that "normal" patrons were upset that the dealers
would grab huge quantities of books and then sit and scan them to see
which were valuable. *It's that after the dealers scanned the huge
stacks of books they had taken, they would leave their rejects in a
heap, and it would take the volunteers hours to re-sort them. *And
sometimes they would just commandeer some stretch of table space and
inconvenience everyone else in the process as well.

Banning scanners is a silly idea. On the other
hand, any such sale as you describe should have
volunteer monitors to make sure people refrain
the obnoxious scanner-related behavior.
Most of the people I have seen using scanners at
various sale venues are a rather seedy, generally
pathetic lot. They are not book people. If they
were, they would not need a scanner. It is
certainly true that people with scanners have
made the pickins a good deal slimmer in recent
years, when I compare the books I found at librarary
donation stores and thrifts a few years back with
what I find now. On the other hand, I still make
some great "pre-ISBN" finds fairly regularly.
Most of the bottom-feeding greedheads who
prowl around thrifts and library donation stores
with scanners are far too ignorant to find the value
of a pre-ISBN book. They generally leave those
alone, especially if there is nothing remarkable (to
the untrained eye) about a book. As I noted
earlier, the people I have seen in a thrift with scanners
remind me of the people you see at a beach
plying the sands with those metal detectors

Checking the book sales web site, I see many have also ended the preview
sales as well.

Any of the library sales I have been to in my own
region are terrible (unless you simply are looking
for cheap reading copies, then they are fine). But
for scarce and collectible books, forget it. At the
last one I went to, the library people putting on the
sale sifted out all the books that might possibly be
worth something. They had the general sale in a
courtyard, and the kept all the "collectibles" in an a
library room inside. Sale officials may have funneled
be best books to dealers, because what was offered
to the public in that "collectible room" was generally
terrible, and a lot of it was damaged in one way or
another. Anything at all good was priced at
(at least!) what a local used bookstore would
charge for it -- yet of course no bookstore with
such a miserable selection would be worth
going into in the first place.

By the way, those data bases that people
with scanners draw on are far out of date. I
certainly do not use one, but a while back
I had someone check on the supposed
value of a fairly scarce art book. His data
base told him the book was worth $80.
Well, I found four copies on sale on Abe
and Amazon, and the cheapest one was
$250 copy in very questionable condition.
Other dealers listed the book at upwards of
$400. Of course, you might argue that
at the very least the scanner would tell
someone ignorant of book values that the
book was a good value if offered at a thrift
for $10 or whatever. That sort of thing is
its only value.

On Apr 11, 5:27*am, "Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote:
[This is extracted from my column in the MT VOID, 04/11/08.]

[...]

Checking the book sales web site, I see many have also ended the preview
sales as well. *There has definitely been a conflict between dealers and
"readers", with the latter increasingly annoyed over "preview" sessions
in which dealers get a chance to cherry-pick the books. *Oh, there was
an admission charge for this, but what is $5 or $10 to a dealer who buys
a few hundred dollars worth of books that they re-sell for five or ten
times that much? *On the other hand, it is a fair amount to people who
want to buy a few books for themselves. *In fact, the Bryn Mawr sale is
so popular that while they still have preview admission, it is by
lottery--they have decided either that there were too many dealers in
any case, or that they were losing customers from the bulk of the sale
because people felt the best items had been grabbed up already. *But
many FoTL sales found out that many people had stopped coming because
the books were picked over. *So they dumped the preview sale entirely,
advertised this fact (most say "*not* picked over" in bold letters on
their web sites), and discovered that they made *more* money this way.

[...]

When I posted on this yesterday, I should have added that apparently
the good "not picked over" idea (providing they sincerely mean it)
has not reached libraries around here yet. When it does, maybe
I will attend their sales again. The last one I attended was highly
publicized in the communtity but in reality very shabby and a big
waste of time for everyone but people looking for a cheap read. I
went early on the first day, and the selection (many thousands of
books) was already depressingly picked over.

I have stopped going to the donation room of this same library
and its several branches also. Nothing much makes it to the
donations rooms anymore. Rumor has it that the person in
charge of distributing the donated books (to the main library and
the various branches} ferrets through everything first. Whether
the party is stealing the good books or selling them to places
Athenaeum or Cash4Books (or both!), I don't know, but good
books are not being made available to the library patrons who
brose in the donation rooms. Sad.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

Bill wrote:

I have stopped going to the donation room of this same library
and its several branches also. Nothing much makes it to the
donations rooms anymore. Rumor has it that the person in
charge of distributing the donated books (to the main library and
the various branches} ferrets through everything first. Whether
the party is stealing the good books or selling them to places
Athenaeum or Cash4Books (or both!), I don't know, but good
books are not being made available to the library patrons who
browse in the donation rooms. Sad.

Another possibility is they are not stealing them, but buying them
first. I suspect that the people who join the Friends of the Library
and sort through the donations are people who also buy books from these
sales (for their own enjoyment, rather than re-selling them). The only
"conflict of interest" is that this means the books are more "picked
over" when they finally get to the sale room (see below).

It is true that some libraries have discovered that many books they were
selling for 50 cents or $1 were actually worth a lot more, and since
their goal is to raise money, they are happy enough if someone figures
out a way to get something closer to the book's real value.

The problem, of course, is that too much of this means that people stop
coming to the sales and *all* they end up selling are the small minority
of valuable books. As I said, the East Brunswick was boring enough that
I may skip it next year. As for my local library (Old Bridge), since
I'm in the library constantly anyway, I will certainly check out their
sale in June. (But since they have a year-round sale room, it tends to
be a bit smaller anyway.)

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
All art at some time and in some manner becomes mass entertainment,
and if it does not it dies and is forgotten. --Raymond Chandler

Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
Bill wrote:

I have stopped going to the donation room of this same library
and its several branches also. Nothing much makes it to the
donations rooms anymore. Rumor has it that the person in
charge of distributing the donated books (to the main library and
the various branches} ferrets through everything first. Whether
the party is stealing the good books or selling them to places
Athenaeum or Cash4Books (or both!), I don't know, but good
books are not being made available to the library patrons who
browse in the donation rooms. Sad.

Another possibility is they are not stealing them, but buying them
first. I suspect that the people who join the Friends of the Library
and sort through the donations are people who also buy books from these
sales (for their own enjoyment, rather than re-selling them). The only
"conflict of interest" is that this means the books are more "picked
over" when they finally get to the sale room (see below).

It is true that some libraries have discovered that many books they were
selling for 50 cents or $1 were actually worth a lot more, and since
their goal is to raise money, they are happy enough if someone figures
out a way to get something closer to the book's real value.

The problem, of course, is that too much of this means that people stop
coming to the sales and *all* they end up selling are the small minority
of valuable books. As I said, the East Brunswick was boring enough that
I may skip it next year. As for my local library (Old Bridge), since
I'm in the library constantly anyway, I will certainly check out their
sale in June. (But since they have a year-round sale room, it tends to
be a bit smaller anyway.)


Just went to a library/historical society book sale, which
advertised 'not picked over' and which had a $5 fee for the
preview evening. A lot of people showed up, some dealers,
some collectors.

Inter alia, I picked up for $1 each - not ex-library:

Kosinski, Being There (VG 1st ed w/o DJ)
Dexter, Deadwood (fine 1st with fine DJ)

In fact, a lot of 60s and 70s books in the lot. No really
old books. About the oldest I got was a later printing of
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (Boni).

It seems to me that in Connecticut, they are generally
playing by fair rules.


Francis A. Miniter

Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
....
It is true that some libraries have discovered that many books they were
selling for 50 cents or $1 were actually worth a lot more, and since
their goal is to raise money, they are happy enough if someone figures
out a way to get something closer to the book's real value.

The problem, of course, is that too much of this means that people stop
coming to the sales and *all* they end up selling are the small minority
of valuable books. ...

I've been helping out at my local library and give an extra hand
during the friends sales.
The friends know that they need the dealers who show up for the
"members" sale
before the general sale, but resent them. The friends try to remove
the "better" books
to sell online or put in the special books table (priced higher).
While the friends would
like to get more money out of the valuable books, they know that they
do not have
the resources to run a store. Of course, there are lots of books
left for the dealers,
just some of the obviously valuable books get pulled and researched -
the ones that
require knowledge and experience to recognize are still on the
tables.

While the dealers on this group complain about the friends pulling the
better stock,
the friends see the dealers as proof that they are not getting all the
income they could
for the library. I've seen dealers complain when a specialist comes
into their store
and buy a stack of books - they know that the specialist picked out
books the
dealer didn't recognize as valuable (or knew they didn't have
customers for that type
of book). One dealer I was friends with said that he doesn't mind -
he cannot know
every genre and he goes to other stores and does the same thing. I
overheard a different
dealer complaining that the specialists were "stealing" his books when
they bought
them at the asking price to resell.

A couple of years ago the friends of the library bought a scanner -
they scan the likely
candidates for high value (over about $20) and pull them for special
pricing or selling online.
Since they started doing that I have not seen any scanners at the
sale. All the
dealers who attend now seem like "real" book dealers who don't rely
solely on scanners.
The "amateurs" and "look everything up" dealers have stopped attending
because they don't
find much. The overly obnoxious and pushy dealers were the ones
with scanners.
[Except for one regular who is the most obnoxious and pushy dealer of
them all (who does
not use a scanner).]

I don't go to sales and estates with dealer friends anymore,
so I just buy for myself - mostly I want reading copies of uncommon
books.


B

bml wrote:
Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
...
It is true that some libraries have discovered that many books they were
selling for 50 cents or $1 were actually worth a lot more, and since
their goal is to raise money, they are happy enough if someone figures
out a way to get something closer to the book's real value.
The problem, of course, is that too much of this means that people stop
coming to the sales and *all* they end up selling are the small minority
of valuable books. ...

I've been helping out at my local library and give an extra hand
during the friends sales. The friends know that they need the dealers who show up for the
"members" sale before the general sale, but resent them.

The dealers pay the $5 or $10 premium to get in and are
resented???

The friends try to remove
the "better" books to sell online or put in the special books table (priced higher).

From what I have seen at the "special books" tables, most
librarians have no clue what is valuable.

While the friends would like to get more money out of the valuable books, they know that they
do not have the resources to run a store.


Take Meriden, Connecticut. The city got a small store for
back taxes. It is operated by volunteers and supplied with
donated books. It makes good money for the library.


Of course, there are lots of books
left for the dealers, just some of the obviously valuable books get pulled and researched -
the ones that require knowledge and experience to recognize are still on the
tables.

While the dealers on this group complain about the friends pulling the
better stock, the friends see the dealers as proof that they are not getting all the
income they could for the library.

Instead of seeing the presence of the dealers as evidence
that they will be money at all. Dealers buy in much greater
volume than others do. So, the friends sell many more books
than they otherwise would sell.

I've seen dealers complain when a specialist comes
into their store and buy a stack of books - they know that the specialist picked out
books the dealer didn't recognize as valuable (or knew they didn't have
customers for that type of book). One dealer I was friends with said that he doesn't mind -
he cannot know every genre and he goes to other stores and does the same thing.

Exactly! He deals with it, but the "friends" act like the
other dealers you describe, who are too ignorant or lazy to
try to squeeze the last penny out of each book, and resent
it when someone actually, horrors, buys the book.
I
overheard a different dealer complaining that the specialists were "stealing" his books when
they bought them at the asking price to resell.

A couple of years ago the friends of the library bought a scanner -
they scan the likely candidates for high value (over about $20)

How do they scan pre-1976 books?

and pull them for special
pricing or selling online. Since they started doing that I have not seen any scanners at the
sale. All the dealers who attend now seem like "real" book dealers who don't rely
solely on scanners. The "amateurs" and "look everything up" dealers have stopped attending
because they don't find much.

So, the "friends" have successfully reduced their buying
pool by driving away the average person. Wonderful.

The overly obnoxious and pushy dealers were the ones
with scanners. [Except for one regular who is the most obnoxious and pushy dealer of
them all (who does not use a scanner).]

I don't go to sales and estates with dealer friends anymore,
so I just buy for myself - mostly I want reading copies of uncommon
books.


Where is this? I think I would like to be sure not to go there.


Francis A. Miniter

On May 7, 1:31*pm, "Francis A. Miniter" wrote:

*The friends try to remove
the "better" books to sell online or put in the special books table (priced higher).

*From what I have seen at the "special books" tables, most
librarians have no clue what is valuable.

I can't begin to tell you how many valuable juvenile series books I've
picked up at FOTL sales for a pittance.

On May 7, 12:46*am, bml wrote:
Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
...
It is true that some libraries have discovered that many books they were
selling for 50 cents or $1 were actually worth a lot more, and since
their goal is to raise money, they are happy enough if someone figures
out a way to get something closer to the book's real value.

The problem, of course, is that too much of this means that people stop
coming to the sales and *all* they end up selling are the small minority
of valuable books. *...

I've been helping out at my local library and give an extra hand
during the friends sales.
The friends know that they need the dealers who show up for the
"members" sale
before the general sale, but resent them. *The friends try to remove
the "better" books
to sell online or put in the special books table (priced higher).
While the friends would
like to get more money out of the valuable books, they know that they
do not have
the resources to run a store. * Of course, there are lots of books
left for the dealers,
just some of the obviously valuable books get pulled and researched -
the ones that
require knowledge and experience to recognize are still on the
tables.

While the dealers on this group complain about the friends pulling the
better stock,
the friends see the dealers as proof that they are not getting all the
income they could
for the library. *I've seen dealers complain when a specialist comes
into their store
and buy a stack of books - they know that the specialist picked out
books the
dealer didn't recognize as valuable (or knew they didn't have
customers for that type
of book). *One dealer I was friends with said that he doesn't mind -
he cannot know
every genre and he goes to other stores and does the same thing. *I
overheard a different
dealer complaining that the specialists were "stealing" his books when
they bought
them at the asking price to resell.

A couple of years ago the friends of the library bought a scanner -
they scan the likely
candidates for high value (over about $20) and pull them for special
pricing or selling online.
Since they started doing that I have not seen any scanners at the
sale. *All the
dealers who attend now seem like "real" book dealers who don't rely
solely on scanners.
The "amateurs" and "look everything up" dealers have stopped attending
because they don't
find much. * *The overly obnoxious and pushy dealers were the ones
with scanners.
[Except for one regular who is the most obnoxious and pushy dealer of
them all (who does
not use a scanner).]

No authentic book dealer uses a scanner. I can't
think one book dealer (worthy of the term) in my
area who uses a scanner. The people I have seen
with scanners are obviously society''s bottom feeders.
They are ignorant of books, and too lazy to learn
To use a fitting analogy I have used before, they
remind me very much of the people you see at
a beach pushing those "treasure finders" (metal
finders). I cannot think of ONE respected book
dealer in my area who uses a scanner. Not
one. I will agree that these scanner-dependent
greed-heads are "dealers" in the loosest sense
of the word, since of course they are buying
to sell. But they are certainly not BOOK
DEALERS in the time-honored sense of the
term. Yet there are levels of existence
even among this seedy bunch. The lowest
level are scanning for places like "Cash-4-Books",
and selling their finds for a pittance of their value.
The ones with a tad more wattage are selling
on E-Bay Half.com or other venues and at least
getting more of a decent price for their obnoxious
efforts..

I don't go to sales and estates with dealer friends anymore,
so I just buy for myself - mostly I want reading copies of uncommon
books.

That's what most of the library sales in my area
are fast turning into: reading-copy sales.

[Memo from the upstairs office]

B