We don't take cash profit either, we do a combination of books and vouchers. Get much more that way. We only put out school related items(pencils, erasers, hi-liters) during the time the kids shop that way there are some less expensive items for the kids who don't come with much money. We push "books first, then trinkets". We put all the "junk" items out during parent shopping times, we figure if they want to let their children buy the stuff that's up to them.

We have also noticed that they are getting more expensive and they started sending us lots of hardcover and preschool books(we're k-5). We did a book giveaway with the fair we're just finishing and they did send us lots of less than $5 books, so that was great. I agree with the tip on reordering right away. You can put tailor your fair to your needs a bit more that way.

We do the scholastic book fairs--I really like them but I do think they need more of a selection of books--seems like some of the same books have been in the sale for the last 3 or 4 years--yes they do send alot of junk--but with this being my 5th year of book fairs the kids know they have to look at the books before they even get to go near the junk items. We do a reorder on day one of the sale--we just keep an eye on what the kids are looking at and order extra of those so we have plenty. We never take the money option at the end of the sale we always get the book profit and each year we put over $6000 worth of books in the elementary library(if not more). Last year our librarian decided she wanted more non fiction books so we had Usbourne books do a spring sale and the kids and parents really liked that sale too. So this year--we just did our fall scholastics sale and in the spring we will do the usbourne sale. Seems this way we can offer every reader something that they are interested in either fiction or non fiction books.

We dont put the junk out at the bookfair and I spoke with scholastic about selection. They said that the selection of books and materials are sent out as a package. You cant order what you want. And as far as reordering, we have dont that, but they dont bring alot with them.

Also there books are getting expensive.

Our kids schools have used and liked scholastic- a couple have put the junk out (current) and not (former school).

Isnt there more options on what you get with the initial setup (as in books rcvd)?

Been awhile since I 've been close to the running of one (like 5yrs).

Gotta check out the B&N one too, that sound intriging

[ 11-08-2006, 09:41 PM: Message edited by: Shawn ]

Lisa,

You can ask them not to send the junk, or you can just not put it out. There are also a lot of books on the reorder sheet that you can r/o as soon as your fair comes to improve your stock.

I really like Scholastic except for the part where they get 70% of the money we collect.

That being said, Barnes & Noble is advertising book fairs here. I'd like to see how they do it.

We currently use Scholastic for our bookfairs. We are not pleased with the book selection they send and all the extra "junk" they send. Does anyone use another vendor for their bookfairs?