At bigger book sale, seems some buyers misplaced rule book.

Byline: CITY BEAT/EUGENE By Edward Russo The Register-Guard

Perhaps the folks who run the wildly successful annual book sale on behalf of the Eugene Public Library will post the following rules next year: No running. No pushing. No hoarding.

The sale, held April 8 and 9 in its biggest-ever venue, drew buyers from all over the Northwest. It generated record sales, but also attracted a growing number of opportunistic speculators who showed plenty of me-first behavior.

That Saturday morning, at the start of the sale, hundreds of people rushed into the Performance Hall at the Lane Events Center, creating a book-buying frenzy. "We had 2,300 people attend on Saturday and we saw 825 of them in the first 15 minutes," said Carol Hildebrand, book sale chair for the Friends of the Eugene Public Library.

Hildebrand and the other library friends knew things might get crazy because they had moved the sale from its previous location in Wheeler Pavilion to the twice-as-large Performance Hall.

"We wanted to take in more receipts, and we did do that," she said.

With the extra space, volunteers had set up a holding area on a stage where shoppers could take books for a few minutes before deciding whether to buy them. But some more aggressive shoppers took dozens of books at a time to the holding area. Some of them hurriedly scanned book titles, setting aside a few to buy and discarding the rest on the stage instead of returning them to the sales tables.

Included in this group were "E-Bay type buyers" who used portable Internet devices to check the potential resale value of books, Friends President Dale Crawford said.

"They have no interest in the content of the books. All they are interested in is a fast dollar," he said, disgustedly.

The speculators took scores of books out of circulation and, by not returning them to sales tables, prevented other people from seeing them, Crawford said.

One man draped a sheet over a table of art books with the word "sold" written on it. "He then took them up on the stage and went through them one-by-one, but just left the rest on the stage," Crawford said.

In spite of the selfish behavior by some, most people behaved themselves. Organizers declared the book sale a smashing success.

Volunteers sold more than $80,000 worth of books, CDs, videotapes, books on tape and other items donated by residents. It was the largest take in the 28-year history of the event, breaking last year's $75,000 record.

After paying expenses, the Friends later this year will donate proceeds from their various fundraising events to the library.

Besides the book sale, the Friends hold magazine sales and sell books at their Second Hand Prose outlet in the main library.

Last year, the Friends gave Library Director Connie Bennett a $90,000 check. The money was used to help pay for many of the library's special programs, including musical performances, summer and teen reading programs, and author presentations.

"It's clear that we have a wonderful book buying town and a wonderful supportive community," Hildebrand said.

With their first-year experience in the Performance Hall, Friends board members are looking for ways to better handle the big crowds and to reduce the book hoarding next year. Volunteers will talk with library supporters in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, where other large used book sales are held, to find out how they deal with customers who "grab stuff and hang onto to it," Hildebrand said.

"We have to figure out a way to moderate that behavior so everybody gets a fair chance at the books," she said.

The sale is a place for many different book buyers, from parents and scholars, to bookstore owners and book dealers, Crawford said. With some new rules, it even can be a place for the opportunistic Internet seller, he added.

Meanwhile, Hildebrand urged people to keep donating their used books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, books-on-tape and sheet music to the Friends, which collect the items at the libraries. "We work year round," she said, "and our next magazine sale is June 11 at the downtown library."