The 2025 Friends of the Library Summer Book Sale

I was set to go back to work on August 7.  The Friends of the Library scheduled a summer book sale for August 8.  It wasn't the best timing, to say the least.  I knew that I could miss the last couple back-to-school meetings that day and get to the sale before it opened.  The problem was that the forecast high temperature was to be 100 degrees.

I cannot be in the heat or the sun for more than a few minutes.  My skin stings in the sun.  It feels like the sun is cooking my skin, and I break out in hives. 

I have perpetually low electrolytes despite my constant efforts to raise them, so I cannot tolerate the summer heat without quickly developing heat exhaustion.

The sale was to be at the fairgrounds with no indoor place to wait in line.  Anyone who planned to show up early would have to wait in the blazing hot sun.  There was no way I could wait in line before the sale.

I finally decided the day before that I would not go to the sale at all.  I didn't think the sale would be worth attending.  It was to be a much-reduced selection of the general section of the winter book sale.  This meant that the sale would almost certainly have no old series books.

The only possibility was that the sale could have the vintage teen paperback books that I love so much.  That did concern me, but I decided not to worry about it.  The potential health risk was not worth the low chance of finding any good books.

I was in my last meeting at around 3 PM the day of the sale when I suddenly decided that it wouldn't hurt to check on the sale just in case.  If I didn't show up until shortly after the start of the sale, then I wouldn't have to wait in line in the hot sun. 

It would be a shame to completely ignore a chance at finding vintage teen books.  Some of the vintage teen books of the 1980s are incredibly scarce, because most of them have been thrown away over the years.  There was always a possibility that a highly scarce book could be at the sale mixed in with the common stuff.  

In my post, The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale, I wrote:

My favorite part of the sale is the table in the general section where the vintage teen paperback books are located.  I don't get to these books until around 45 minutes into the sale, since I have to complete checkout in the other section with my initial purchases and then get those books loaded into the car.  I doubt that I miss out on too many of the vintage teen books, since those are not nearly as high in demand as the vintage Nancy Drew books are.

I knew that I could show up at the sale after 4 PM and still have a good chance at any vintage teen books.  Like at the big winter sale, nobody else would be going after the vintage teen books initially.  It was worth checking, even though I'd have to walk in the hot sun from my car to the building.

I had done nothing to prepare for the sale, since I had previously decided not to go.  I had no wheeled luggage.  I had one tote bag in my classroom, which I had used on the previous day and had forgotten to take home.  That was fortunate.  I dug around in my closet and in the math department storage closet.  I found a couple of textbook publisher tote bags that I could use.  At least I had something.

I had some water left to drink in one of my reusable water bottles plus I took a Diet Pepsi with me.  I headed to the fairgrounds.  I got caught in a traffic jam, but even so, I ended up at the fairgrounds at around 4:15 PM.

I had to walk around 1 1/2 blocks to get to the building.  Whew.  I made it into the sale and looked around for the paperback books.  I found the paperbacks, and they had vintage teen books.

I had my three tote bags, and I quickly filled up all three of them.  I took this picture when I felt like I had most of the books I wanted.

I was almost the only person looking at the vintage paperbacks.  The empty spots on the table were solely created by me.  You can see my three tote bags on the floor under the table.

After I checked out, I had to carry the three tote bags 1 1/2 blocks to my car in the blazing 100 degree sun.  That was grueling.  I was hot and out of breath by the time I made it to the car.  I dumped the books in the trunk.  Yes, I literally dumped the books in the trunk.  I was planning to go back inside just to see if I missed any books.

Normally, I would have had the first purchases stowed away in luggage, and then I would have taken an empty piece of luggage back into the sale.  This time, I had no choice but to reuse the same tote bags.

I then got inside the car to cool off.  I can be in the summer heat for short periods of time so long as I take frequent breaks in a cool place and drink plenty of fluid.  I drank my water and some of my Diet Pepsi.  (Yes, I'm aware that a caffeinated beverage wasn't the best choice, but it was better than nothing.  I wasn't well prepared for this outing, and I had to make do.  Besides, I always add sodium and potassium to my water, so that helped a lot.)

After around 10 minutes, I went back inside.  I only found a few books that I had missed the first time.

I also looked over the "Old Books" section.  Some library editions were tempting, but since they weren't series books, I left them.  You can see them in these pictures.  A couple of them had patterned bindings, but the rest had plain bindings.

Library editions always stand out.  While I was looking at the old books, two other people walked up.  One person commented about the books with the bright spines.  They said something like, "Those colorful books are the type that the Etsy sellers sell at high prices as decorative items."  That gave me pause, and for just a moment I thought, perhaps... but I resisted.  I wasn't interested in paying $2.00 each for books that I didn't want at all.

These are the books that I purchased.  Click on images in order to see them better.

I don't think I got any particularly scarce books, but it's still a nice selection.  The Sweet Valley High books are high-numbered titles that are more scarce than the earlier books in the set.

This sale was a pleasant surprise, and my lack of planning turned out for the best.  If I had decided that I needed to go to the sale and arrive early, I would have been stressed about having to take off work and having to try to wait in the heat.  By deciding that I wasn't going at all, my work day was completely normal without that additional stress.  I made a sudden decision to attend, and I had no competition for the books I wanted.

It was a great experience.

The 2025 Friends of the Library Winter Book Sale

I didn't feel like writing a post about February's book sale this year, but here it is, six months late.

The quality and quantity of books donated to the sale has declined over the years.  What I want at the sale is totally dependent upon donations, and books of the type that I want are showing up less and less.  That is to be expected.  

These are the books that I purchased at the sale back in February.

One of the highlights was the first printing copy of the Hardy Boys book, The Missing Chums.

It was a decent selection of books, but it was a bit of a letdown, which is why I never posted about it.  I used to do much better at these sales.  Check out some of my finds from years ago.

2010 Book Sale Report Part 2

2010 Book Sale Report Part 3

2011 Book Sale Part 2: What I Found

My next post will cover this month's sale.

Finding Books by R. L. Stine and Other Books

I originally listed all of my R. L. Stine books (Fear Street, etc.) on eBay.  Some of them sold, but at a slow rate.  Some months ago I listed a number of Stine books on Etsy as well.  The books sold at a brisk rate.  I gradually moved all of my R. L. Stine books from eBay to Etsy.  They continued to sell steadily, and I began to run out of books to sell.  I needed to find more of them.

Earlier this month, I visited a few local stores looking for Stine books.  I was thrilled to find some.

Click on images in order to see them better.

I found some Nancy Drew Digest softcover books. 

I also found some of the River Heights books.

The River Heights series is a spin-off of Nancy Drew, and honestly, it was a dumb idea.  Most people who love reading Nancy Drew aren't interested in teenage romance books.  I enjoy the River Heights books, but they are like Sweet Valley High, which I have loved since I was 12.  If you're a fan of Nancy Drew, then you will only enjoy the River Heights series if you also enjoy series like Sweet Valley High, which is nothing like Nancy Drew.

I found three Ken Holt, four Nancy Drew On Campus, and one Stine book at another store.

Nancy Drew On Campus was another dumb publisher idea.  It was designed to rival the Sweet Valley University series, which I don't like.  I also don't like Nancy Drew On Campus.  But I will buy them when I see them, since they aren't that easy to find.

I went back on a later date and found these books.

I purchased two Nancy Drew first picture cover printings, a Vicki Barr picture cover, two Biff Brewster picture covers, the first Ken Holt book in dust jacket, another Nancy Drew On Campus book, and two Stine books.

Books Purchased at the February 2024 Library Book Sale

I never posted photos of the books that I purchased at the book sale in February.  Before I get to that, I must mention the Fall Better Books Sale.

Books Purchased at the Fall Better Books Sale

In October, I went to the Fall Better Books Sale, where I purchased a large number of comb-bound cookbooks.  Photos can be seen at the above link.

Since the purpose of the Fall Better Books Sale was to sell off extra books in advance of the February sale, I felt certain that the big book sale would have many comb-bound cookbooks.  And so it did.  

I purchased these comb-bound cookbooks in February, and they definitely came from the same collection as the ones I purchased in October.  (Always click on photos in order to see them more clearly.)

It's been  2 1/2 months since I took these photos, so I don't remember exactly what I was thinking when I took the next two photos.  I think I was just giving an idea of what comb-bound cookbooks are like.  The ones that feature specific small towns sell the best.

The sale had very few series books.  These are the ones that I found.

Just like in October, I grabbed the Keeper of the Lost Cities books that I saw.  I got lucky with Flashback, since it is the Barnes & Noble special edition first printing.

For many years, the highpoint of the sale for me has been the vintage teen books paperback section.  

The sale wasn't that great this year, and they said upfront that they didn't have as many books as in 2023.  Even so, I was able to purchase some good books.

Books Purchased at the Fall Better Books Sale

Today was the members-only presale of the inaugural Fall Better Books Sale in Oklahoma City.  Today's sale had around 25,000 books.  The regular library book sale in February typically has 800,000+ books.

I knew that I would not likely find many series books at this sale today, simply because the large February library sale no longer has many of our old series books.  They are just getting to be too old and scarce to show up in great quantity like they once did.

Even though I knew that I could not possibly find much, I had to show up just in case.  After all, the books offered at the Fall Better Books Sale are books that would have shown up at the next large library book sale.  Also, I believe that the purpose of this sale is to get excess books sold, since the February sale has too many books to put out at the beginning of the sale.  For that reason alone, I knew that I wouldn't find much.  They aren't going to offload all of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books at this sale if the purpose is to get rid of excess books.

Here are the series-related books that I purchased.  (Always click on images in order to see a larger version at a higher resolution.)

The books were only marginally worth purchasing.  Swiss Chalet is in bad shape.  A few of the others are in rough shape.  Mainly, I wasn't going to leave without some series books, so I selected what I felt had some merit for my needs.

I also picked up these three Keeper of the Lost Cities books just because I like the series and again, I was going to buy something.  After all, I took the day off work and waited in line for nearly two hours.  I wasn't leaving empty-handed.  I also got to eat a small serving of free ice cream.  Woo-hoo!

After I had selected all of the above books to have something to buy, I then checked the cookbooks.  Clearly, someone donated their entire collection of comb-bound cookbooks to the library.  I purchased most of them.

I will sell them in small bulk lots with similar books grouped together.  I will group by region and type.  A lot of people collect them.

The sale runs October 6-7 from 9AM to 5PM at OSU-OKC, 930 N. Portland Avenue in Oklahoma City.

This is what I didn't purchase.  

 
Follow this link for some more pictures.

The 2023 Friends of the Library Book Sale

On February 24, I attended the Friends of the Library Book Sale.  While I did purchase some vintage series books, the sale did not have a very good overall selection of them.  This is partly because of the aftermath of the pandemic.  The sale isn't quite back to normal, although it is getting there.  That aside, the older books continue to become more scarce and show up less often as the years pass.

The Oklahoma City Fire Marshal has cracked down on businesses and is strictly enforcing the fire code.  Years ago, the library book sale let everyone in the door regardless of how many people were present.  It was too crowded.  

This year they enforced the capacity limit, and people had to remain in line until the crowd inside thinned out.  I heard that on the second day of the sale that the wait time at one point was 1 hour and 15 minutes to get inside, and that was after the sale had already been open for a couple of hours.  I was at the sale on the first day and was third in line, so the capacity limit did not impact me.  

What is really nice about the fire code being strictly enforced is that the sale is now required to have eight feet of space in between the lines of tables.  Years ago the tables were only around four feet apart, which left very little room.

Due to rising costs, the book sale raised prices this year.  In the general section, hardcover books went up from $1.00 each to $2.00 each.  Softcover books went up from $0.50 each to $1.00 each.  This forced me to avoid purchasing any softcover books that were in rough shape. Normally, I would have purchased those as well, but I felt that $1.00 each was too much to pay for examples in poor condition.  I did see other people grab them, however.  

The first photo shows all of the vintage series books that I found at the sale.  The selection wasn't good, even though I did find some worthwhile books.  

Click or tap on images in order to see them at a higher resolution.

The Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton books with dust jackets are from the 1940s and have pulp paper.  I'm not too enthusiastic about that era due to the continuing deterioration in condition, but still, it was nice finding some books in dust jacket.  I haven't found many books in dust jackets in recent years.  They show up infrequently.

For at least five years, my greatest interest has been in looking at the vintage teen books.  I find a better selection on those tables than I do for the vintage series books.  The heyday of the vintage series books at the library book sale has passed.  For me, the sale is more about the vintage teen books, especially since this sale is just about the only place where I can ever find vintage teen books in the wild.  Bookstores don't have them.

I spent around 2 hours in the general section going back and forth at least eight times in the vintage paperbacks section.  Half of the books were on top of the tables on an area about 3 feet wide by 15 to 20 feet long.  This photo is of some of the books on top of the tables.

The other half of the books were on the floor under the tables.  This next photo shows some of the books on the floor.

I took both of the above photos after I had already been looking for over an hour.  I had gotten most of what I wanted by that point, but after I took the photos, I checked a few more times and found even more books.  The books are always so mixed together that it is very hard to spot the ones I want.  I also want books that I'm not going to recognize easily, so I tend to miss those on the first few passes.

Most of the books that I purchased at this year's sale were vintage teen books.  Someone donated a large number of Sweet Valley High books plus some other great vintage teen books.  This is what I purchased.

I would have been disappointed if the only books I had found had been the low number of vintage series books.  The vintage teen books are what made this a great sale.