This weekend is the time to snatch a bargain on books, board games, DVDs, CDs, video games and other miscellanea in the basement of the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library.
The library is hosting its semiannual book sale, which began Friday, Sept. 11 and runs through Sunday, Sept. 13. The first day, which ran from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., was a “sneak peek” sale, with attendees paying $10 to get a head start on the merchandise.
The second day on Saturday is the main sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with no price to get in and everything for sale for the listed prices, which are incredibly low. The third and final day will run 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. as the “bargain bag” day — customers can take home whatever they can fit into a reusable bag for just $10, with bags provided.
The library runs the book sale every year in March and September, with volunteers from the Friends and Foundation for the Brookfield Library manning tables near the entrance and exits.
Cathy Foster, the vice president of the Friends and Foundation, estimated there were “maybe 10,000 items” for sale.
“We advertised for the first time with [a book-selling website], and you have to put how many non-library books you have. ‘About how many books?’ I have no idea,” she said. “This is the first time we haven’t even been able to put everything out at once. We’ve been [putting them out] as things are selling.”
In a Facebook post she made in the Brookfield Connections group to promote the sale, Foster said the tables were “groaning under the weight of all the books” with even more books on the floor beneath the tables. On Friday, there was a verifiable mass of books for sale spread across the rows of tables and more lining the walls.
Foster emphasized that the books are “dirt cheap” even compared to neighboring libraries. She said the group of volunteers once did a tour of area libraries to make sure they were the lowest. Books cost 50 cents for a paperback and $1 for a hardcover.
“Games and puzzles are different prices but still very reasonable. We’re the only book sale that has games, puzzles. We have a whole stationery section, journals and Sudoku and crossword puzzles and photo albums, things you wouldn’t normally find at a book sale,” she said. “One of the volunteers said, ‘If somebody gave me a refrigerator, I would sell it.’”
She said the group sources the books and other items from all over, of course including donations from the community.
“I will go to garage and estate sales and ask, ‘At the end of your sale, if you have any unsold, would you consider donating it? I can give you a tax receipt, and I will pack up and pick up,’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah,’” she said. “If you’re going to do it, go big or go home!”
Foster said the book sale has steadily improved its fundraising abilities over the two years or so that she’s been with the Friends and Foundation. The first one she participated in raised just $750, she said, but the most recent in March generated about $6,000. She attributed the growth to the volunteers’ curation of the books, setting aside damaged or dirty tomes to be donated to rural or underfunded libraries through other organizations.
The group’s goal is both to raise funds for the library and to get “books in hand,” Foster said.
“We want to sell it reasonably so that people can come in and get excited. ‘Oh my God! I got this book for 50 cents! Look at this, a pristine hardcover, for $1!’” she said. “They leave with bulging bags, and everybody has a smile on their face. It just makes my heart sing.”
