Dear Rachel, I initiated and have held a used book sale for the past 3 years. Our 1st year, I believe I overpriced the books, though we did well because of a few big spenders. When I say well, I mean, $150-300. We've never gotten anything more than that and I don't expect to, given our shul's small size and the economy. Since then, I've repriced everything down to help move everything out, which sometimes succeeds.
I used to price children's books from $1 - 5, depending on quality and relevance, but now I price them 25c-50c for paperbacks and $1-$3 for hardback. Adult books used to go for $3-10, but now paperbacks are $1 and hardbacks anywhere from $2-5. An occasional reference book in excellent condition may go for $7, but I dare not go above $10 for anything. (Sometimes sets go for more, depending.) I hold my sale only once a year, so I have time for the donations to accumulate. I also sell a great deal of weeded material, both outdated (those I practically give away) and duplicate. It's hard for me to say if the donations have dwindled. I still get enough to make our $100-$150, which is about all we can expect. I don't advertise outside the community, mainly because we piggyback our sale on top of the Sisterhood's annual Hanukkah bazaar, I don't have a budget for advertising, and Kalamazoo doesn't have a huge Jewish population anyway. However, our catalog will soon be on the shul website, so I might advertise that way. As for unsold books, I mostly hold onto them to give the appearance of a huge sale each year, in case the donations are low. And you'd be surprised what sells one year that didn't sell the year before. I hope that helps. Rachel Haus Library Director Congregation of Moses Library Kalamazoo MI rhaus_...@yahoo.com --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: hasaf...@osu.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
