The Board of Directors of the Friends of the New Hanover County Public Library has scheduled its fall 2008 used book sale from Friday, October 3 to Thursday, October 9.  See the schedule in the column on the right.

The MEMBERS PREVIEW, when only members of the Friends of the Library may shop at the sale, is on Friday night from 6 to 9 pm.  New members may join at the door.  Members should form a line under the porch outside the southwest entrance.  A number will be handed to each member in line in the order he or she has arrived.  These members will be admitted to the sale in the order of their numbers.

The Friends of the Library Membership Committee will have a list of current members at its table in the southwest entrance to the library.  Volunteers will check on the status of memberships and sign up new members.

Prices at this sale will be the same as the spring sale.  Standard prices for different kinds of items will be charged on Friday (Members Preview) and Saturday (Open to Non-Members).  These standard prices will be reduced on Sunday and then cut in half each of the next three days.  See the schedule of prices in the right-hand column.

A Rare and/or Collectibles table will sell 50 books at prices much less than book sellers typically charge.  For more information, see our blog on the NEWSLETTER page. 

 
On the last day, all books will be sold in a STACK OF BOOKS BY THE YARD SALE at $1.50 per yard or 50 cents per foot (which averages about 5 cents per book).  A customer may also buy an individual book for ten cents.

Our spring 2008 used book sale earned a record $48,495.  This amount is $10,137 more than our income from the spring 2007 sale, a 26 percent increase.  It also represents more than a 9 percent increase over the fall 2007 sale.

Our last two semiannual book sales have earned $92,809.  Our total income from 50 sales in 25 years is $536,536.  The income form our last 8 sales, since the introduction of standard prices in the fall 2004, is $261,172, an average of $32,347 per sale and almost 49 percent of the total income from all 50 sales.

Our silent auction (for the first time with secret bids) earned $494 on the sale of 18 books, an average of $27.44 per book.  One book, An Investigation of Athenian Architecture, received a bid of $112.  Another, Our Fancy Pigeons and Rambling Notes of a Naturalist (published in 1886), sold for $98.

Supporters of a charity (Home of Hope India) picked up all the books left at the end of the sale.

All income from these sales goes to the library for the purchase of new books and other materials, and in support of its programs and other activities.