29-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
‘Mind-boggling' volume of books for sale
Bargain book browsers were looking for some great reads at the annual Invercargill Rotary Club book sale that opened in the Scottish Hall TONI MCDONALD
There are enough books in the Scottish Hall in Invercargill for every man, woman and child in the city, the annual book sale organiser says.
Rotary Book Sale organiser Richard Russell said there were so many books "it's almost sinking the ship", but the club would not turn down donations.
More than 55,000 books had been donated which was "absolutely mind-boggling ... it's quite amazing".
"The more that we do, the more the community gets benefit from it.
"So that's what it's all about really, it's about the community — not us."
Rotary members had chosen the Jubilee Budget Service as the major recipient of the fundraiser that had been an annual event for the past 44 years.
"[Jubilee] had a substantial cut in funding ... they're touching quite a lot of people's lives in the economic environment that we're in," Mr Russell said.
"Stock frequently flowed in throughout the year from estates, people downsizing their homes."
Any unsold books in good condition during the three-day sale would be stored in containers until the next book sale, he said.
Mr Russell said some books had to be disposed of because of their poor condition.
People often misunderstood the mechanics involved.
"They're very quick to criticise little elements of it, which we'd never come across that sort of thing before."
Unsaleable books would be recycled to be repurposed into other products.
"So there's none going to any landfill."
"I think there's no substitute for being able to pick up a book and actually have it in your hands and read it."
The annual book sale had a loyal following from the community where books bought the previous years were donated back for resale.
"So there's a demand.
"Just about every year someone will say 'please keep this going'.
"It's the only thing like this in the city and the community love it."
Mr Russell believed the club would have donated more than $1million from the annual sales to Invercargill community organisations.
"Once this one finishes, I basically start on the next one."
