On Pricing & Displaying Books

Some people buy books, some people borrow them from the library, some people do both. People end up with extensive amounts of books for various reasons. Gifts, bookstore purchases, online purchases (Amazon 😁!), purchases for college courses, the list continues. Sometimes these books are purchased brand new & sometimes they're purchased used at a discount.

No matter, when the books get placed atop a table at a garage or yard sale, their original varying prices can become obsolete. You spent over a hundred dollars on that book, that one you didn't even want, for that college course you resent you had to take? It's best you don't take that into account when you're pricing the book at the sale. It's not to say that certain books can't "go for more", it's that they often don't.

If books are stowed at a house in boxes, a convenient way to set them up for the sale is to organize the boxes by price. Back when Mom & I coasted the garage sale scene books ranged as low as $0.25, & as high a $1.00, sometimes $2.00. Books were also priced in the middle at $0.50. In fact, books were most often priced at $0.50. When we'd host our yard sales, our family didn't really own many books; we were frequent library patrons instead.

Instead of labeling each & every book, an idea, as mentioned in this post, something like a paint stirrer, or one of these with a sign attached & fastened in the back of the box, could be a great way to
set up your books. Set them "book shelf style" into the box, so that all of the spines are visible & easily readable. Unlike a book shelf, the box can be set on the table in so that the potential buyer needs to look down into the box to view the titles.

These boxes are a good option to use, especially as they have detachable lids, which will be convenient for displaying purposes. While at the same time, if keeping track of lids, or simply using foldable flaps instead is more your style, try these.

After I completed college I had plenty of books which I wouldn't have minded collecting a "fair college value" from; I also quickly recognized this was unrealistic. And, yes, I resented that I'd not be able to get back nearly as much for books I'd paid too much for & didn't want in the first place. I knew a college professor who had books which they'd spent plenty of money on (& decades earlier than what I faced, as they stood nearer retirement than anything) & couldn't see selling them for anything less than $20 or $30. I politely explained that if they wanted the books to sell, they were going to need to adjust their expectations; I think they rolled their eyes 😒. It is difficult to section "college specific" books into the same category as "ordinary" books when applying the $0.25, $0.50, $1.00, etc. denominations, yet it's hardly the case that yard sale patrons will recognize the dignification & honor it. Wear & tear are important & worthy reasons to apply a price to a book; so is the book's size. And, yes, a book's popularity, such as any of these, can be priced higher. Otherwise customers might be dropping coins in your hand with an exclaimed, "Thanks!" as if to say, "You're a fool."

As with everything at a garage or yard sale, they really should be "priced to sell". Be thinking about what you'd want to pay for the book if it were you arriving at the sale considering what's a bargain & what you could really use (or impulse buy 😁!) & how much you'd want to be spending.

With this in mind you're much less likely to be deciding during clean up whether you want to keep those remaining books stashed in your space, or donate them to the local library's book drive (or wherever) because if they're priced right & plenty of patrons stop by, you're not so likely to have books left over.

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