HAUL: Bag Book Sale

I've become a regular at the bag book sales at my local libraries. (For more info on the sales, check my first bag book sale post from September.) I don't even bother to go to the first two days of the book sales, when the books are sold individually, and only go on Sundays, when the books are sold by the bagful.

The sale today was $3/bag, which is still a great deal, but "pricey" enough that we don't get as many people driving in from places like North Carolina (yes, really!) to buy whatever books they can grab to re-sell on Amazon.com. While there were a fair number of people at the sale, the pushing & shoving was at a minimum, and there weren't many "take every book on the shelf" types, which enabled all the customers to take more time and care in our selections. I managed to cram a total of 48 books into my two bags, plus I picked up another 2 at half-off their sticker prices. (All the branches usually have at least some used books that aren't included in the bag sale; at this branch, the ones that can't be included in the bags are half-off their sticker prices on the bag day.)

The Goods

I was so excited about my haul that I forgot to take my customary stacked books photo, which is a real shame since it took me quite some time to stack all 48 books! Luckily, I snapped a pic with my webcam for Twitter; I apologize for the low resolution.

48 books

2 half-price books

All in all, I came home with 50 books for $8.50, which works out to an average of $0.17/book. Not the cheapest per book average I've gotten so far, but a pretty darn good deal nonetheless!

Continue reading for all the details on titles and how much I saved on each book.

HAUL: 27 books for $2

This weekend, one of the branches of my local public library was having a big book sale. My husband and I went to the sale on Sunday, when it was only open from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., and books were being sold by the grocery bag. (On Saturday, the books were priced according to format: hardcover, paperback, etc.)

Here's how it works: As you enter the sale, you get a brown paper grocery bag. The books are all laid out on tables and shelves according to rough categories; you fill up your bag with whatever books you want as you go around the room. Then, when your bag is full, you pay just one dollar for the whole bag. Not one dollar per book, one dollar per bag of books.

In addition to books, they also had some board games, a few movies on VHS, several audiobooks, and some magazines.

My husband got overwhelmed by the crowd (people were waiting outside when we got there just before noon) and the chaos within a minute of entering, and left to read in the regular part of the library. I was in my element, though, and managed to cram a great selection into 2 bags. *

The Goods

27 books

All in all, that's an average of $0.07 per book.

Want to know all the nitty gritty on the prices and savings? Continue reading.