News from the
Pennsylvania Curriculum Exchange
If you plan to consign books with us in the near future, whether for the first time or not, please read this!
One part of my store that has always been close to my heart is my bargain section (old editions, non-homeschool publishers, slightly off-topic to homeschooling books, etc. for $1 each). When I homeschooled my girls, these types of resources played a big part in our homeschool. I found a lot of value very inexpensively this way.
I know some other moms feel the same way. I also have customers who simply can’t afford the standard stuff and are blessed to be able to completely educate their kids through the bargain section. For these reasons, I have stubbornly held on to the section despite my financial adviser (aka my husband 🙂 ) telling me for years now to get rid of it because it is a drain on the business.
Currently I am receiving approximately 50-80 boxes of books per week on consignment. I am incredibly honored that homeschool moms entrust me with their items–I wouldn’t have a business without them. The issue is that roughly half of these are books that qualify as bargain books. Basically, Lisa (my faithful worker) and I are completely overwhelmed with the volume. It takes as many resources to process bargain books as regular curriculum (in terms of the time sorting, pricing, and shelving) but in a section that operates at a financial loss. Space is another issue. I had a sale 6 weeks ago that liquidated about 80% of the books, and since that time we have already filled up all the shelves, have crates on the floor, and next comes storage to await the next sale.
So effectively immediately, I will no longer accept bargain books. When consignments are brought in, I’ll sort them immediately and send back the ones that aren’t current homeschool books. The Free Boxes are going to be phased out also, so the books will have to go back home. I’m not getting rid of the bargain section, but it will be used to take on books from the regular sections as they age out. It would be helpful if you could self-sort books before you bring them in, so here is a list of items I will no longer take (and yes, my heart is breaking!):
- Public school branded texts (including charter and cyber schools, even co-op chosen ones)
- Bibles, Bible studies, and devotionals (except ones used by specific homeschool curriculums)
- General Christian reading, parenting, and marital advice
- Dictionaries, thesauruses (thesauri?), and atlases prior to c. 2010
- Books you got at Ollies, the thrift store, and yard sales
- Workbooks from BJs, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart etc.
- Readers/Chapter books that aren’t classics or used with a specific homeschool curriculum.
- Homeschool how-to books prior to c. 2010, or that have been updated.
- Cassettes or VHS tapes
- Curriculum that is not in the company’s current catalog (there are a few exceptions to this below).
- Magazines, coffee table books, inspirational gift books
If you aren’t sure, it’s not a big deal–I can sort pretty quickly.
The exceptions on old editions that I will take because there is still a decent demand and good turnover are: Abeka readers, Abeka and BJU curriculum sets that MUST include the student parts, Apologia Science, and Saxon Math.
Current Edition Curriculum
Unfortunately, there are perfectly current items that are non-sellers that I also won’t accept:
- Rosetta Stone (these won’t run on a second computer, cannot be resold)
- Sonlight Manuals
- Switched on Schoolhouse
A Favor to Ask
And finally, a favor to ask if you are consigning. There are many different companies out there now that use a variety of books for their programs (like Sonlight using literally hundreds of different readers). These companies include Sonlight, Notgrass, Heart of Dakota, My Father’s World, Classical Conversations, Veritas Press, Beautiful Feet, Memoria Press, and Tapestry of Grace. If you consign books that were used with any of these, it is very helpful to me to let me know. I try to catch them all, but we are talking thousands of titles here, and I miss some of them. Just bagging or rubber banding them together with a note saying which curriculum you used it with would save me a ton of time searching, and the possibility of missing it altogether.
There is no change and I still accept manipulatives and science equipment.
Thank you very much to all my consignors–we have close to 800 active accounts right now–you all have been a huge blessing through the years. And I hope you will continue to trust our store to sell your books for you.
Julie Helms
- PA Curriculum Exchange
- 25 Ridge Road; Dillsburg, PA 17019
- (717) 432-9947
- PACEbooks@live.com
