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FOPAL’S Popular Monthly Sales

Depend On Your Generous Donations!

What Happens to the Books You Donate

Make a Cash Donation

Honor Someone Special

FOPAL’s Wish List 

Maps & Directions

Please Bring Us Your Books, DVDs, Games, Puzzles, and Software

At our monthly book sales, Friends of the Palo Alto Library finds new readers/users for your donated items and contributes net proceeds to purchase new materials, technology, and furniture for the Palo Alto libraries. During 2000-2018, FOPAL contributed over $3 million!

ITEMS WE ARE TEMPORARILY NOT ACCEPTING:

  • Art (framed or unframed or frames)
  • Electronics
  • Commercial Ephemera: printed material, e.g. posters, travel brochures, greeting and blank cards
  • Plushies/Stuffed Animals
  • Records (45s, 78s, LPs)
  • Commercially recorded video tapes (VHS/Betamax)

FOPAL gladly accepts:

  • Fiction and nonfiction books
  • Textbooks and computer books
  • Commercially recorded items: audio books on CDs or cassettes, movies on DVD, Blu-ray
  • Software and manuals
  • Personal Ephemera: black and white photos and all handwritten items (journals, letters, diaries, envelopes with stamps, postcards etc.)
  • Maps (folded or rolled) except AAA maps of the United States
  • Puzzles, games, and toys
  • Sheet music

Sorry, we cannot take:

  • Soiled, moldy, water damaged, or partial books (General Guideline: if you would not give it to a friend, please don’t give it to the Friends!)
  • Magazines or newspapers
  • Reader’s Digest condensed books
  • Encyclopedias
  • Photo albums
  • Small collectibles (figurines, bookends, souvenirs, etc.)
  • Linens
  • Clothing
  • Sports equipment
  • Home copied/burned or non-commercially recorded audio-visual materials
  • Legal statutes or codes
  • Large ephemera such as furniture, lamps, suitcases, etc.
  • American Automobile Association maps of the United States

    Drop-off Location/Hours:

    Please bring all donations to: FOPAL Main Book Sale Room, Cubberley Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto (rear of campus, north entrance, next to the tennis courts, see Maps and Directions) Tuesday through Saturday, 1-4pm, EXCEPT during our monthly sales on the second Saturday of the month and Friday, the day before the sale.

    Donors are limited to six bags or boxes or a combination of six at any one time.

    Donors will need to wait in their cars until they are socially distanced from any other donors before removing items from their cars and placing them on the nearby carts.

    There will be carts at the bottom of the ramp for the donations. At the end of the day the carts will transport the donations to the Bargain Room for a quarantine period. Please do not come up the ramp to the Main Room. We are observing social distancing.

    Please avoid large boxes that are difficult for our volunteers to handle. Copier paper or Banker boxes (10″ x 12″ x 15″) are a manageable size. (We will try to have some boxes available near the carts.)

    If you have a large donation, please call Janette Herceg, FOPAL Volunteer & Sales Manager at (650) 494-1266 to make an appointment for delivery of a large donation.

    Pickup Donations

    We are not doing Pickup Donations at this time.

    Your donations are tax-deductible. Be sure to ask for a receipt.

    Thank you for Supporting Palo Alto’s Libraries!