RE: on-going book sale

[Langenkamp, Stephanie]

Title: Message

This is a message from CTLS-L. Selecting "Reply" will send a message to the originator. Selecting "Reply to All" will send a message to the entire list. --------------------------------------------------------- Wow!     A  $20,000 booksale is great!  We don’t make nearly that much.   We have 2 sales per year.  Each brings in only about $3400.  The ongoing sale brings in another $3500 per year.   The bookkeeping is not too bad.  We take the money at the circ desk and ring it up on a special button on our cash register—as a Friend of the Library book.  We submit the money the Treasurer of the Friends and she calculates the sales tax and submits it to the state.   As for bleeding off the best books – for us that is a good thing.  But if we had better booksales it might not be such a good thing.   Also, we have a spot to display the books.  Some libraries really don’t have a good place to do this.                                     --Stephanie   PS – Where do you hold your four day sale?  I think our location works against us.  Do you have to pay rent on the space?   From: Judy Duer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 3:02 PM To: Judy Duer; Laurie Mahaffey; ctls-l Subject: RE: on-going book sale   OK, I really think the approach San Marcos and Wells Branch are taking is the legal way to go. However, it does require some bookkeeping. My question is, who's doing the bookkeeping-- the Friends or the Library staff? I don't think any of us begrudge the dollars to sales tax, it's the time involved in keeping track and submitting the money versus the amount of money we might make.   Our Friends have a pretty successful booksale once a year (last year was around $20,000). It's four days over the Labor Day weekend, and they pay sales tax on the last two days. But, that's only one time that they have to keep track of it. My other concern is whether they would have the huge successful booksale once a year if we were bleeding off donations year round. Those of you who do both, what is your experience?   Judy