Who Shops Affordable Book Sales in Chicago?

Three kinds of buyers show up early to a Chicago book sale: teachers stocking a classroom library, homeschool families hunting curriculum, and readers who finish four books a month. All three are there for the same reason.

Books cost too much new.

The Teacher Building a Classroom Library

Three hundred books for a classroom costs thousands of dollars at retail and a couple hundred at a school fundraiser sale on the far South Side. That gap is the entire reason these sales matter.

The move is volume buying. Ask about a bag price up front, and ask what happens to the books that do not sell, because a lot of sales would far rather send what is left to a classroom than repack it into cartons at four o'clock. Most volunteer-run sales apply a teacher discount whether or not anybody posts it.

The Homeschool Family Buying Curriculum

Curriculum is the expensive part of homeschooling, and used sales are where families around Beverly and Mount Greenwood cut the bill. Parish halls and school gyms along Western Avenue are where a great deal of it changes hands.

• Older-edition math and science texts
• Readers and leveled chapter books
• Workbooks with clean pages
• Atlases and reference sets that cost a small fortune new
• Literature anthologies, usually a dollar or two

Old editions are rarely a problem. Nine times out of ten the difference between the current edition and the one from four years ago is the cover art and the page numbers.

The Reader Who Goes Through Four Books a Month

Four books a month at retail is a car payment; at a dollar a paperback it is lunch. Somewhere around the third book of the month the economics of buying new stop making sense.

The affordable-sale circuit stops being a bargain hunt and becomes a habit. Library branch sales, church basements, block club tables in summer. You learn the rhythm, and you learn which volunteers put the good hardcovers out late.

Why Are Used Book Sale Prices So Low in Chicago?

Prices stay low because nobody paid for the books: they were donated, and the sale exists to fund a program rather than to earn a margin.

A sale run by a school, a library branch, a block club or a parish is pricing to move volume and to pay for something else. A field trip. A literacy program. A new set of chairs for the meeting room. The books are the means, not the margin, and that only works as long as the donations keep arriving.

What Should You Actually Look For?

Check that the pages are dry and that nothing is missing from the back, then stop worrying about the cover, because a creased paperback reads exactly as well as a crisp one.

Beyond that, buy wide. The whole point of a two-dollar hardcover is that you can gamble on an author you have never read without it costing you anything. A bad guess is two dollars and an evening.

Where the Chicago Supply Comes From

Give My Books Network is a nationwide community book-sharing network, and its Local Pick-Up Partners collect donated books and media from Chicago doorsteps on scheduled service days. Everything is sorted offsite after collection.

Many items are redistributed to readers, schools, libraries, nonprofits and organizations that request books through the Give ME Books program. Some are resold by the partner to help sustain the free pickup service. Items that cannot be reused may eventually be recycled as a last resort. Schools, Title I classrooms, tutoring programs, ESL classes and community centers can request books directly through Give ME Books, and the ALA guide for organizations seeking book donations is a sensible place to start if you are building a program from nothing.

The Fastest Way to Add to the Pile

Give My Books Network collects finished books free from your Chicago doorstep, which is the easy exit once the shelf is full again. You pack them; a Local Pick-Up Partner does not bring boxes.

Pack books and media into boxes or bags, well packed and not too heavy, and set them out starting at 8 AM in a dry spot, because a snowy stoop turns cardboard to pulp in about an hour. The window runs 8 AM to 8 PM and you do not need to be home. If a partner serves your ZIP code, you can book a service day instantly. If not, your request enters the out-of-area pickup system, where nearby partners may claim it.

Somebody's twenty-dollar textbook is somebody else's two-dollar find. That is the entire trick, and Give My Books Network has been running it since 2008.