Friends of the Palo Alto Library Visit our web site 
 
CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday June 11
Ephemera 8am - 4pm
Tent Sale 9am - 4pm (weather permitting)
Bargain and Children's Rooms 10 am - 4 pm
Better Book Bonanza 10 am - 4 pm
Main Room Sale 11am - 4pm

Sunday June 12
All Rooms Open 11 am - 4pm


FEATURED IN JUNE 

Children's Books
Cooking - Chess
The West
Popular Science
More Music CDs!


 

4000 Middlefield Road
Palo Alto
NE corner of the Cubberley Community Center
(650) 213-8755

www.friendspaloaltolib.org

Map
More information on the sales
Donate your old books
 
ALL PROCEEDS GO TO HELP PALO ALTO LIBRARIES

Marty's (Main) Room
In our Main Room, prices are way below what used book stores charge. Hardcover books start at $1.00 and softcover books start at only 50 cents.

Due to the popularity of our sale and the fact that we can only have 160 customers in the room at any time a numbered ticket system (Main Room only) is in place and numbers are given out beginning at 8am on Saturday. Be sure to be in line in order of your number before the 11am opening. If you miss the time when your number is allowed to enter the Main Room you will forfeit your place in line. NOTE: If you plan on arriving to the sale after 11am you do NOT need to get a number.

Please note that due to crowding during the first two hours of the Book Sale, no strollers, rolling carts, etc. can be brought into the Main Room. This is for the safety of shoppers and volunteers alike. By 12:30 or so, the crowd thins out and shoppers are welcome to bring these items into the sale.

Children's Book Sale
The Children's Room has moved to the portable formerly occupied by the Jewish Community Center next to the soccer field. It is entirely filled with children's books and toys. You'll find picture books, school age fiction and non-fiction, award winners, non-English titles, CDs and DVDs, and books for parents and teachers, most for 50 cents or $1. Strollers are welcome in the Children's Room at any time.

Bargain Books in K-7
The Bargain Room is located in Rooms K-7 and K-6 of the Cubberley main campus, right next to the tennis courts. On Saturday, Paperbacks are 50 cents, hardcovers are $1, and children's books are just 25 cents each. The room also contains many LP records and 78s at $1 each. On Sunday, the room opens at 11 am and all prices are half off. Or, save even more on Sunday by buying grocery bags from us for $5 each and stuffing them with any items in the room. Buy 4 bags and get the 5th one FREE!

 
Downtown Library Re-Opens in July
There are no library holidays in June. The remodeled Downtown Library will be back on-line in July. Check the Palo Alto Library web site for complete details.
 
Non-Profit Book Giveaway
Non-profit organizations, schools and teachers that need FREE books should come to the Bargain Room this month from 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, June 12. Please bring your own grocery bags to put books into. More information.

Suggestions?
We're always eager to hear your suggestions for ways to improve our book sale. Please email them to us at suggestions@friendspaloaltolib.org or mention them to a volunteer at the sale.

June Sale Notes

Despite a drop in donations in the latter part of May (which is normal for us), we did end up with more books than time to sort them this month. There was a wide range of subjects with a few highlights.... Part two of a massive Cooking collection goes on sale this month. Mostly cook books, most of recent vintage, but also books about food and food-related topics.... More Music CDs, including a giant collection of 500 discs came in this month and will be sold over the next few sales. As with last month these will be mostly fairly common pop/rock tiles. Look for them on the tables next to the cashiers, most priced at $2.... A small but interesting group of books on Chess can be found in the Games & Puzzles section.... Our section manager for The West reports having a large amount of Louis l'Amour titles this month.... The newly expanded Home & Crafts section is featuring Woodworking, Interior Design and Weddings.... Popular Science was once again a popular donation in the past four weeks.

 
Preview Our Shelves

Click here to see some of the shelves at this weekend's sale Check out some of the thousands of books that will be on sale this weekend using our shelf preview pictures.

 
Better Book Bonanza!
It's been three months and it is time once again for another Better Book Bonanza where we feature, rare, unusual, high value, and just plain interesting books in a special sale. The BBB is held in the same building as the Children's Room. The entrance is from the ramp to the right of the building. See the signs for directions. We have over 300 books attractively displayed in a variety of subjects. No line numbers will be issued for this sale, however we will impose a limit of 20 people in the room at any time, due to the small size of the sale room. For the convenience of our customers we provide a list of the BBB inventory which can be downloaded from the links below. Note that there may be a few late additions to the sale that may not be on the list.
BBB Inventory List (PDF)
BBB Inventory List (HTML)

 
Children's Room Sale Keeps Getting Better
The popularity of our Children's Book Sale has grown since we moved to the "Annex". Sales have been strong and the feedback from our customers has been great. The stream of donated Children's Books has been very strong all month and there is some great stuff to be had. Don't forget to check the Children's Section in the Bargain Room too!

 
About Those Blue Book Donations Bins Around Town
Some of you may have noticed large blue metal bins at/near Safeway, Whole Foods, and Peninsula Creamery seeking your book donations. We feel you should know that the organization behind those bins is NOT locally based and that many of the books place in these bins end up being sold by one of the largest for-profit used book operations in the world. Needless to say, neither the books nor the money generated by those donations will do anything to help the Palo Alto community. We may have more on this subject in the near future.

 
Bring Your Donations!
Donations are accepted in the Main Room during our normal hours of 2pm - 4pm Tuesday through Saturday. Use the door on the right side of the building, next to the fire lane. If you need to bring books to us outside of those hours just call (650) 213-8755 and see if anyone is working in the book room and can accept your donation. We also accept donations during the Book Sale hours as well. Book and media donations can also be dropped off at the Mitchell Park and Main Libraries (limit of one bag or box per day, please). Note that the new College Terrace Library does not have the space to store donations so they ask that you please do not drop donations off there. Pickups can be arranged for large donations or if you are physically unable to bring your books to us. Please email donations@friendspaloaltolib.org or call (650) 213-8755 for more information or to leave a message after hours.
 
Bargain Room Bag Sale on Sunday
On Sunday the Bargain Room features our popular "bag sale". For $5.00 you purchase a large shopping bag from our cashier and then you can fill it up with anything inside the Bargain Room. We encourage creative bag packing to maximize value. For every 4 bags you buy, you get an additional bag FREE! If you don't want to buy a whole bag, all items are 50% off our Saturday prices - so hardback books and media are only 50 cents, softcover books only 25 cents.
 
One-Liners
VOLUNTEER! We are looking for book-loving, community minded folks to work with us. Think about volunteering a few hours a month. Call (650) 213-8755 and leave your contact info or email volunteer@friendspaloaltolib.org for more information.... Look for some exciting changes to the FOPAL web site in the near future.... The Outdoor Tent Sale is ON this month, weather permitting.... Remember, we do accept donations during the sale - drop off a few and pick up some new ones.... Thank you to all who have brought shipping materials to us!.... If you sell on eBay you can donate a portion of your sale to FOPAL! We're now listed as one of the charities under "eBay Giving Works". Please contact us if you need more information.
 
NEW! Recycle Your Used Packing Materials At FOPAL

Looking for a place to recycle those packing materials? FOPAL can use them! As our online sales have grown we would be happy to accept your used bubble mailers, small boxes, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and those bags of air and we'll reuse them. We cannot use large boxes or styrofoam blocks.

 
Think Ecologically! - Bring or Donate Your Own Bags

Due to the increasing reuse of grocery and other bags, we tend to run short at our sales and encourage you to bring your own cloth tote or paper bags to the sale. If you have any extra grocery or department store bags in good condition please bring them for your purchases at the sale. We would also gladly accept any extra bags you wish to donate.

 
Support Palo Alto's Libraries While You Shop
By shopping at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park and Amazon.com, a percentage of your purchase price can help the Palo Alto Libraries at no cost to you. At Kepler's, just mention to the cashier that you want to support the Friends of the Palo Alto Library. For Amazon.com, always start your shopping session by clicking here or on the Amazon link on the top right of any of our web pages at www.friendspaloaltolib.org. Virtually all purchases you make at Amazon are eligible, not just books. Over the years, we've raised thousands of dollars to help our libraries through these programs.
This notice comes to you from the non-profit organization Friends of the Palo Alto Library. No trees were felled in the making of this e-mail. While the Better Business Bureau recommends that no more than 35% of a charitable organization's expenses be for management and fundraising expenses, ours were under 1% for our 2007-2008 fiscal year. In other words, over 99% of the money we raised went to help Palo Alto Library users. Visit our web site. Become a member by joining online.

Be sure to receive your own free copy of this e-mail notice so that you'll know about all special upcoming books sales. To sign up, just e-mail us. We carefully protect the privacy of your e-mail address. We will not share your e-mail address with any other organization and we will not use it for any purpose other than to send you these notices. If you do not wish to receive these e-mail notices in the future, please reply with the words "Remove Me" in the subject line.