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"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 |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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. |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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. |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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.] |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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 |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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 |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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 |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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 |
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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. |
#10
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"Friends of the Library" Book Sales
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 |
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