Friends of the Library Book Sale

Simply the best place to find used books on the cheap. I only wish it were more than twice a year! The volunteers are super friendly; they’ll help you find whatever you need.
Get there early on the first day, wait in line (some folks even camp out!), get best sellers for $ 4. Four dollars! Wait another week, and you’ll find them for $ 2. The last week, an entire bag of books for $ 1… and it’s NOT just junk by then, really!
I have found everything from fiction to cookbooks, art books, jigsaw puzzles, movies, even note cards. There’s a collector’s corner with more valuable items, and a very large children’s book section.
You can browse for hours — and take home a haul for a bargain price if you’re willing to put in the time. Bring a list and a bag. It’s a blast!

Rating the greatest used book sale on earth less than 5Stars would seem to suggest a head injury. Whether you go early when trade paperback fiction is 2 $ or late when everything is 1 $ for an entire bag of books, this is a readers heaven.

Great place to browse, buy & sell! Things are quite cheap & most of the books are in surprisingly good condition! Don’t miss this if you visit Ithaca.

Possibly the greatest booksale in the country — no I’m not exaggerating! It’s only twice a year, 3 weekends at a time, but there are literally hundreds of thousands of items at each sale. Not only books, but games, DVDs, CDs, records, audio books, collectors’ items, postcards, etc. Volunteer-​based, and proceeds to go the Tompkins County Public Library and other local literacy organizations. And everything is cheap.

Have you ever heard a book sale where people camp out the night before to get a place in line? It’s true, they line up around the block! Well organized sale, you should hit the paperbacks the first weekend, then the hardcovers the second weekend for your best bang for your buck! Tip: bring sturdy canvas bags or a travel bag on wheels as you will find so many great books you’ll want to take home
Try volunteering at the sale to see the great cross-​section of Ithacans in all their eccentric glory. All profits go to support local libraries.

I’m a huge fan of used book sales, but this is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The first year I lived in Ithaca, I woke up one Saturday and looked at a paper and said, «Oh, hey, there’s a library book sale today; we should check it out.» It was the first day of the sale. There were tents parked out front of the building from people who had CAMPED OUT THE NIGHT BEFORE to be first in line to the book sale. We stood in the line that snaked around the block for over an hour. Totally worth it. The collection is extensive, it’s extremely well organized, and it’s just plain thrilling to see people so excited about books. In later book sales (it’s twice a year), I realized that if you’re not looking for anything specific, it’s better to go later in the sale (it runs for a few weekends), because the prices get cheaper each day Like 10 cent cheap. And you can still get a lot of fairly interesting books towards the end. Also, lines are shorter later in the sale — though still not nonexistent.
I hated living in Ithaca. But, man, did I love this book sale.

This Book sale and Wegman’s are among the things I miss most about Ithaca.
I always went multiple times, at the minimum opening day and toward the end when things were super cheap.
Amazing selection, reasonable prices, a great money saver. Best book sale ever.

This book-​sale is the BEST!
Because Ithaca is full of scholars and academics, the selection of books that gets donated here is quite incredible.
Even on the last day of the sale when everything is very cheap you can still find some amazing books.

This is what I call as book sale! But come with a (small) budget or you’ll end up hauling your books home on a hand truck. (I’m serious– I had to put some in storage)

I love this book sale! I remember lining up for it when I was little so I could get my pick of all the babysitter club books. I took my boyfriend the first time he came to see my family in Ithaca, and it won him over more than anything else in town — even wegmans!
To be terribly honest, I have lots of books from the sale I’ve never read and some that are so out of date that I want to hang on to them as historical artifacts. But I love going to the sale, the wonderful books I do read, and most of all, how excited I get to read because of the book sale.

This book sale is amazing, it is all donated books. Its twice a year and some huge fans line up five days ahead and camp out for the one book their looking for. The prices are pretty good and it keeps getting cheaper as the days go on until the end of the sale. If you wait for the last day your not really gonna find anything good but its fill a grocery bag for $ 1. It is very organized by category and they also carry Cd’s, movies, records, etc…

It’s dusty and musty and crowded… but it’s wonderful. Ithaca is a reading town (check out the Family Reading Partnership and their great «Read to Me» banners all over town!) and the book sale is a tradition. You never know who you’ll meet on line or what you’ll find on the shelves. I especially recommend the book sale as THE place to stock up on paperback mysteries — what a deal!

This is my favorite event of the year, one that I plan my fall schedule around.

Saying that Ithaca’s big on reading is a bit like saying that rocks sort of hurt when someone throws them at you.
That said, the Friends of the Library Book Sale is a bi-​annual event that I look forward to every October and May. (And each time, I act like a kid in a candy store.)
I’ve gotten everything from SAT practice books, trashy chick lit (Bridget Jone’s Diary, anyone?), even trashier movie soundtracks, extensive biographies of members of the Tudor family, and Japanese comic books from the book sale. It’s amazing because I walk in with the intention of buying maybe a French verb book and coming out with about forty other things for less than $ 15.
It’s worth noting that if you’re a fan of children’s lit, there are always tons of old copies of Sweet Valley High and the Babysitters Club book. I should know because I used to buy them from there in bulk when I was in elementary school.

It is a great book sale. I’m sure the best stuff gets scoffed up on day one (rarities, art books, first editions, etc). I came on day two and still found a few choice items. Their trade paperbacks and science fiction section offered a lot, though.
So if you like books, you gotta go. You just gotta.

If you live in Ithaca, you have to make this your biannual tradition. After I’ve shopped here for all kinds of books, including classics such as Steinbeck and Hemingway, comics, cookbooks, records, etc, you’ll never look at an ordinary used bookstore the same way!
The prices are ridiculously cheap as well, with books being cheaper (but gems harder to find) as the sale days passes. Forget about B&N and Borders. Come here and load up on books for the year and refill your shelves at the next sale. Also donate your books back to the library so that others can enjoy the same book you did!

Nowhere else in my life have I seen people camped out overnight or standing in line for 2, sometimes 3 hours for a book sale.
And Ithaca’s Friends of the Library milks it hard. It’s a warehouse outfitted just like your local bibliotheque, and it opens exactly twice a year for a few weekends at a time.
The books span all breadths and most are in very good condition. The awesome part: as the days go by, it gets cheaper and cheaper.
Mind-​blowingly cheap.
I stood in line for opening weekend of its fall sale two weeks ago and everything was $ 4.50 and under. Last Saturday, everything was $ 0.50 and under. On the last day, and it was $ 1.00 per bagful.
People leave the place with dollies of books. They fill their cars with them. This place is like … it’s like…
It’s like finding out that Santa is real after all. In your twenties.