Hi All, I'm a new teacher and wanted to start building my classroom library over the summer. Where do you all buy cheap books for your class? I've already looked on eBay and Craigslist. I would love to find some affordable bulk deals! Thanks
Definitely look for library sales. Our local library holds a big sale once a year. You can buy books by the bag for $5 (cram as many in the bag as you can).
I use this site to find used book sales: http://booksalefinder.com/ I love library used book sales! Great deals!
Your classroom might already have tons of books in it...lot's of that stuff gets left by previous teachers. I've also heard that you can go to Half Price Books and ask for a box of books for specific grade levels
Look for local garage sale sites on facebook. Post your needs. You will be surprised at how many people will donate. I have had legos, book, train set, and a doll house donated for free to my classroom. Just state your needs and only meet people in public parking places or police stations to pick it up.
I used to get class sets of books through Donor's Choose! I probably got about 10(?) sets over the last five years... For just general class library building, thrift stores and amazon are the best way to go!
At the beginning, I got some on eBay (I looked for "lot of ___") and went to library sales. Now, I try to get the newer books and complete series. That leaves me shopping on Scholastic and Amazon a lot. I love the Scholastic warehouse sales.
I asked family and friends to donate and got tons of people getting rid of old books. I also did ebay. Ive heard of the half priced books thing too, but you need a staff id or paper from the schook filled out, so i heard. Never tried it.
We have an awesome warehouse that sells good/used books for 0.99 and there are tons for everyone. They have sales where all books are 0.25 and that is when I hit it hard...as do many other teachers. I also use yardsale/garage sale groups on Facebook. I would go to your local library and check for when they will have their sale--but they are also someone to ask about other places that might have sales. You could also use Craigslist to post an ad looking for books--someone might be interested in donating what they don't need or sponsoring you in hopes of helping a teacher.
I just bought 11 books today at Half Price Books. They do a 10% off for teachers. I also like thrift books. My area has a buy, sell, trade group and I post there sometimes. Ask family and friends too. They may have things to donate.
There is an ELA facebook page for teachers in my state (Oklahoma) and there are quite a few teachers selling classroom sets for a reasonable price-including a set of books I had been looking for (cheap) but I just got a donorschoose project funded for that set a couple of months ago.
I am new and trying to build a library, too. I began at Goodwill and used book stores. A co-worker introduced me to Scholastic Warehouse sales and that is the way to go. There have build-a-box sections where you can squeeze as many books in the box for $24.95. If you're careful, you can squeeze in 40-50 books in a box. You can also volunteer at these sales and earn $10 an hour in Scholastic credit. After my volunteer credit and person $$ spent I had an average of .58 a book. SO worth it.
