By Aaron Fults

The Cobb County Public Library and The Friends of the Library began their three-day semi-annual book sale at Cobb Civic Center Friday morning.

The event runs from Friday, March 7 to Sunday, March 9 and features over 100,000 items for sale, including books, magazines, records, DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs and more. Item prices range from 10 cents to $4, making it a perfect opportunity for readers of all ages to find something they’re interested in at a low price. Sunday is “Bring Your Own Box” Day: you can fill up any size box, with the stipulation that you can bodily get it back to your car, for a flat rate of $10 for upper-level boxes and $20 for lower-level boxes.

The sale is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Payment options include debit, credit, cash and check.

Cobb County Library has held the sale in the fall and spring of each year for over a decade, and all profits are used to buy new books and materials for Cobb’s 15 public library branches and Bookmobile, which is a mobile library “dedicated to supporting literacy and learning by providing access to library resources and services to the community in areas where economic, social, and transportation barriers exist,” according to the library’s website.

Event staff say they had a busy morning setting up for the event.

“We had lines snaking through the lobby and snaking down the back hallway, people literally lined up at the front door and at the back door at 8 o’clock before the sale opened” said Terri Tresp, the library’s Division Director of Branch Services. “That is always our crunch time.”

There is no need to worry about the books that don’t sell by closing time on Sunday. This is where online retailer Thriftbooks comes in.

“[Thriftbooks] takes most of our inventory and they will try and sell it online, and if they do, they get a profit and we get a cut of it as well,” said Tresp. This means that the Cobb Library can still make money from the books that don’t get taken home.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” said Tresp.

Tresp considers the book sale as the library’s biggest source of community outreach.

“We visit festivals, we visit schools, we visit daycares, we visit senior centers. To us this is another form of community outreach and offering bargains to folks who may not be able to afford to buy books otherwise,” Tresp said.

The Fall 2025 Book Sale will be held Friday, October 3 through Sunday, October 5, 2025.