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Reston Friends of the Library
(FOL) Sale:
Update, Oct 27, 2009:
I paid for my book purchase with a check on September 23,
2009. Reston Friends did not cash this check until October 26,
2009 (more than one month later). This is not acceptable. I'm
only glad I had enough money in the account.
I attended the opening day of
the Reston,
Virginia Friends of the Library (FOL) Book Sale on September
23, 2009. Admission required membership or a $15 gate fee. The
sale began at 5 pm and lasted till 7.30 pm. Below is my
assessment of the sale.
Positive: Books in the
main sale room were reasonably priced. Most hardbacks were
sold for $1.50 while others went for $2.00 - $3.50. Also the
opening day was not as crowded as in previous years. As a
result, movement was fairly easy though the sale room is not
large.
They had a good number of
helpful volunteers who were willing to assist buyers. They
also allowed buyers to use scanners to look up book prices.
Negative: Since the
best books are usually displayed on the first day of a sale, I
must say I was disappointed with the selection at the opening
day of the Reston FOL Book Sale. In fact more than 50% of
books on display were Fiction, Mystery and Romance novels. I
may not have attended if I had known this.
They had Computer, Business
and Science books in only one row and History and Literature
in another while fiction had 4 or 5 rows. It appears
non-fiction is not their strong point.
In their promotion for the
sale on BookSaleFinder.com,
the Reston FOL stated "We restock all day every day of
the sale...". This may be an over statement. For the two
and half hours I was at the sale, I only saw somebody
re-stocking the shelves with new books 4 times.
The most disappointing part
of the sale for me was the "Special Room". In this
room, Reston FOL displayed books that were priced too high. I
saw computer books priced at $50 and books in other fields
priced as high as $200 or more. This is quite unusual for a
book sale.
It appears the Reston FOL now
tries to match the price of some of their books with the
online price. If that is the case, they should consider
selling online themselves. The first day of the sale was meant
for book dealers. If a dealer buys a book for $50 or $200, how
much will he sell it? A complete list of their high priced
books can be seen at their Fall
2009 Top List.
Considering the above, I will
rate the 2009 Reston FOL Book Sale 3 out of 5.
By Jay in MD
Sep 24, 2009
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