Bi-annual book sale coming up Aug. 18-20 at library

Anyone who has driven past a local thrift shop or yard sale on a Saturday morning knows that people will always line up for a bargain. The good news for the book lovers among those bargain-hunters is that the August book sale to benefit the Friends of the South Coastal Library is coming up next weekend.

Joe Lane, chair emeritus of FOSCL, who runs the book sale with his wife, Dot, said it is nothing to see 70 to 100 people waiting in line at the library to get in on the first day.

“Amazing crowds line up an hour or so before we open,” he said. “It’s almost chaotic.”

Lane explained that nothing at the book sale ever costs more than $2, and most paperbacks are priced between 50 cents and $1. Many are in brand-new condition, having just been read once by their previous owner, or where the library had donated extra copies of books they received.

“They are in wonderful condition, thanks to Joann,” he said of Joann Anderson, a book-sale volunteer. “And we have non-fiction, fiction, cookbooks, children’s books, etc.”

Lane said they approach a $10,000 profit between the book sale in August and another one they host in February. All of the money goes toward FOSCL and its efforts to improve the library and its offerings. To make the three-day sale happen, it takes between 70 and 100 volunteers.

“We get a good crowd,” he said. “It’s a good community event.”

Last year, for the first time, they raised an extra $1,300 by using a company called Giggil (Green is Good) LLC of Indiana to distribute the books that didn’t sell during the book sale. The company markets itself as being green because they are re-selling old books and “stuff” for people who don’t have the time to figure out online selling for themselves. Lane explained that the company had contacted him and, after checking their references, he decided to try it out.

“It used to be we would inventory the books and, at the February sale, we would give them a red dot, and then the next August sale, give them a blue dot and by the next sale, if they had both dots, we would know we had had them for a year. It was impossible to get rid of them.”

“It was good,” he said of the decision to use Giggil, “because we didn’t know what to do with the old books, and the checks have been coming in. It has worked for us.”

The upcoming book sale is set for Thursday, Aug. 18, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, Aug. 19, from 1 to 5 p.m.; and Saturday, Aug.20, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the library’s meeting room. The South Coastal Library is located at 43 Kent Avenue in Bethany Beach.