Search Book Sales by State

What is a Book Sale?

Book sales are run by non-profit organizations as a way to generate revenue for their cause. Groups like your local Friends of the Library, Humane Society, and Planned Parenthood all leverage book sales in this manner. While each of the thousands of sales hosted in this country every year differ to some degree, they all follow a very similar operating model:

1. The non-profit organization will host a donation drive where people will drop off used books and other media items
2. After the non-profit organization reaches a critical mass of books, they will hold a sale to sell all of the items.
3. The proceeds for the sale will be funneled into the non-profit group

By far the most common type of used book sale is run by Friends of the Library chapters. These groups are responsible for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars via book sales for their local libraries every year. These library book sales will often contain a large collection of retired library books that were removed from circulation.

What Types of Items do Book Sales have?

Each book sale will have a different collection of books and other media items with different quantities and organizational methods. But in general, you can find the following types of items at a book sale:

• New and used books including fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books
• New and Used DVD’s
• Rare and collectible books
• New and Used CD’s, VHS tapes, and audio books

What are the typical costs for items at a Book Sale?

Because the inventory at these used book sales were often donated, the costs for used books and other media items are often significantly below retail. Price structures will vary from sale to sale, but many sales will have a combination of the following:

• Mass Market paperbacks will sell for $.10-.50
• Softbacks will be in the 1-2 dollar range
• Hardbacks will be in the 2-3 dollar range
• New or mint condition books will sometimes have special prices, though rarely will these go
• higher than 4-5 dollars
• DVD’s, CD’s, and other media items will typically follow the same 1-3 dollar pricing structure
• Many used book sales will have a bag day where you can fill a whole grocery bag for 3-5 dollars
• Book Sales will often do half price days or clearance days near the end
• It’s also not uncommon for library book sales to host a “Friend’s preview night” where members of the Friends of the Library are allowed in first. The cost of membership usually runs in the 10- 20 dollar range.

How Do I use this Site to Find Book Sales?

Book Sale Manager provides a host of powerful tools you can use to find a used book sale near you.

Zip Code Book Sale Finder

This feature is exclusive to our site. Many other sites simply provide book sale information in long lists of text that forces you to read through thousands of lines to find a book sale that interests you. Not our site. Curious about all of the book sales for a given area in a given date range? Our Zip code book sale finder is perfect for you. Simply enter a zip code and date range and you will received custom results that fit your criteria. Say goodbye to painful to read tables with massive blocks of text!

State Book Sale Finder

We also provide a standard state book sale finder. If you are curious about book sales in a particular state, this option will appeal to you. To get started, simply click on a state on the map on our home page or select a state from our list of book sales or book stores.

Custom Book Sale Finder

Do you have a very specific type of book sale you are looking for? Well we have the tool for you. Our custom book sale search tool allows you to find sales by any of the custom criteria you want. You can search for sales using the following combination of parameters:

• One or more states
• Or Zip Code with custom mile radius
• Date range
• Book Sale Size
• Search book sales and book stores or just book sales

For example, if you wanted to know if there are any book sales for the state of Alabama and Florida between October 15th and the 30th that have more than 10,000 books, this search would give you that answer. It’s very powerful and a unique feature to our site that we are very proud of. Say goodbye to tables of text and hello to instant and custom search results.