Bargain hunters pour in Tauranga Rotary Club's 32nd book sale

Tauranga librarian Abby Ferguson was in her element at the Tauranga Rotary Club's annual book sale. Photo / George Novak

Bargain hunters were lined up waiting for the doors to open at the 32nd annual Tauranga Rotary book sale.

With more than 80,000 books, including first editions, and a large collection of art books from a private collection, and 5000 other items people were spoiled for choice.

Tauranga librarian Abby Ferguson, 26, was in her element at the sale.

Ferguson said she and her partner came to the sale to mostly to hunt for old records.

Among Ferguson's purchases was a 1978 Kelly Rogers Greatest Hits album, and a 1970 illustrated edition of a book titled Mushrooms and Toadstools in New Zealand.

"I love country music and like to buy older illustrated books... I also come to the sale because you never know what else you'll find. We wouldn't miss it," she said.

Another regular salegoer was Nel Burles from Judea, who came armed with her list of authors and books she was looking for while trawling through the display tables.

Loaded up with books, magazines and several jigsaw puzzles, a delighted Burles said
most of the puzzles were brand new and cost $4 to $5 each.

"They would be $25 to $30 each in a retail store, so I definitely got some bargains."

Tauranga Rotary Club book sale convenor Ann Pritchard said club members and volunteers had spent five-and-half weeks sorting all the items for sale and pricing them.

This included sorting the fiction book alphabetically under authors and the non-fiction titles into all various categories, Pritchard said

"It's always a mammoth task but it makes it far easier for people when they are looking for a particular author or want to buy certain genre of books."

Pritchard said there were quite a few bargain hunters and dealers including from Hamilton and Auckland lined up on Friday night two hours before the doors open.

"Hopefully, that's a good sign we are going to have a great sale and raise lots of money, but we won't know the total raised for a few days," she said.

The sale is the main yearly fundraiser for the club with all proceeds going to charities and good causes, including Waipuna Hospice and Tauranga Community Foodbank.

The funds also help support International charities and emergency disaster relief efforts.