Happy 2020!

I’ve owned a curriculum store for 22 years, and this particular one for 17–and I love my job! 🙂

For the first time ever, I need to seriously curtail the amount of books I accept on consignment. I can’t tell you how HARD this is for me. I love books passionately and saying no to a book is like the worst kind of diet for me. It hurts!

However, my customers’ loyalty and generosity in sharing their books with me have outstripped my ability to properly house and care for all of these gently used treasures of knowledge. It was a banner year for consignments: this summer I received an average of 50-80 boxes of books per week. In December, historically the slowest month of the year for this business, I got in 20-30 boxes/week. This is a phenomenal number of books. And space-wise, I can’t keep up with this volume of incoming books.

So here are the changes:

• Complete moratorium on the bargain section. I’m not due for a bargain sale for a few months yet, and it’s already packed. I will no longer be taking old edition anything, books/workbooks that came from Ollie’s or Five Below or Sam’s Club. No public school texts. No books on parenting, devotionals or Bible studies, even no how-to books on homeschooling with a copyright before 2010. No older editions of Abeka, BJU, Saxon, Apologia, Story of the World, Math-U-See, Teaching Textbooks, Classical Conversations, Notgrass, and Mystery of History (please note v1 is in 3rd edition now.) My only itty bitty bargain exception–I will keep taking I Can Read style books and Abeka readers that are one edition old.

• No current editions of the following (either the market is flooded and I have tons on the shelf or they are nonsellers): Shirley English, Sonlight manuals, Weaver, Konos, dictionaries, atlases, Spanish or French dictionaries (Latin is fine), Abeka French and Spanish, BJU Spanish 1 and 2. Saxon K-3 TMs, Saxon texts 54, 65, Alg 1/2, Alg 1, Advanced Math, Calculus (76, 87, Alg 2 and Geometry are fine), Horizons Math TE old covers (even though content never changed). Many of these I sell at vastly reduced prices–don’t buy them new!

• Current editions I still accept for now, but you might not want to bring them due to the volume I already have on the shelf: Apologia elementary science texts, Math-U-See and Teaching Textbooks up through Alg 2, Diana Waring’s (AIG) history series, Life of Fred elementary math, My Father’s World elementary manuals.

You don’t have to memorize these lists. They are just for guidance when you decide whether or not to consign. I can do a quick sort when you come in.

May you have a blessed new year!

Thanks,

Julie Helms

• PA Curriculum Exchange
• 25 Ridge Rd
• Dillsburg, PA 17019
• Pacebooks@live.com
• 717-432-9947
• Open T/W 12-6 and by appt.

News from the

Pennsylvania Curriculum Exchange

This week we will (hopefully) be completely switching my consignment records from my trusty note cards over to a computerized system in the Cloud. My computer code-writing daughter is dragging me into the 21st century! The paper method has served me well for the past 21 years, but at nearly 1000 active consignor accounts it has become unwieldy and extremely labor-intensive during my annual payment time.

Not only will it make the work load easier for me, it will also benefit you, in that I can pay you in real time. Up till now, if you came in the store and asked for your money, I could give you what you had earned up to the end of the previous month. Now I will be able to pay you earnings through that same day.

However, like all wonderful things, it comes with a cost. There will be a $1 processing fee charged to me for each check I mail. That may not sound like a lot, till you multiply it times nearly 1000 checks! So I will be passing that fee on to people who receive checks. BUT you can choose not to receive checks and simply pick up your money in the store at no charge. Checks are mailed once a year for all accounts at $25+.  Cash can be claimed in the store for any amount (no minimum) and as often as you want.

Your Response:

If you want me to mail your check as usual for $25 or more and automatically have $1 deducted, you do not have to do anything–all accounts will default to this option.  This is generally necessary for people who live far away or no longer homeschool.

If you want your money held until you pick it up, you need to contact me and I will put a HOLD on your account. Money will just continue to accrue until you come in for it. Your money will never go away–it will patiently await you. You can change the status back to ‘mail check’ at any time.

To Contact Me:

You can-

• email me directly
• hit ‘reply’ if you got this post in an email
• comment below if you are reading it online (it won’t post the comment till I ‘approve’ it, which I won’t)
• contact me through FB or Messenger.
• Please don’t call, because…well, 1000 consignors!

You need to simply leave HOLD as your message and make sure your real name is attached to the message. I will acknowledge every message (thumbs up or ok, etc) so you know I got it–but give me a week or two, then contact me again if I didn’t respond.

Side Notes:

1. If you feel your account is dwindling (maybe because it’s been awhile since you last consigned) and you are ready to close it out, I can send a check (-$1) for lesser amounts than $25. You just need to contact me, it won’t happen automatically.
2.  I checked with other homeschool businesses like mine to see how they handled this. One store refused to send checks to anyone within 50 miles and another deducted 20%!!
3. Also, this new system will allow me to take credit cards at some point. I hope to have this up and running by the new year, but I will let you know when that happens. Until then we will remain at cash, check and Paypal as acceptable payment methods for sales.

Feel free to contact me with any questions. And thank you for entrusting me with the sale of your books!

• PA Curriculum Exchange
• 25 Ridge Road; Dillsburg, PA 17019
• (717) 432-9947
• PACEbooks@live.com
• Open T/W 12-6

News from the

Pennsylvania Curriculum Exchange

Bargain Section Quarter Sale

The sale will be Tuesday, October 1 and  Wednesday, October 2 from 12-6.

It’s a good chance for you to check out our new Book Barn if you haven’t yet.

Here is the usual explanatory blurb:

Each item in the bargain section (somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 books) will be a quarter (25¢). Sets of books are 25¢ per item. This includes books from my bargain area from the topics of math, science, history/geography, language arts, Bible, homeschool helps, old edition BJU and Abeka, and lots and lots of readers/novels . And TONS of flashcards.

This is a great opportunity to stock up on educational resources. For a quarter, it’s easy, for example, to buy a science book and cut it up to use the pictures for a lap book–no guilt involved. 🙂

I will be accepting consignments. (I take them year-round, no exceptions.)

If you’ve got them, bring your cloth supermarket bags–they are ideal for hauling away all your goodies. And I take donations of plastic grocery bags if you’d like to recycle them with me.

For payment, I accept cash, check and Paypal.

Parking on our grass is fine, but please don’t leave the engine running–it leaves a car-sized dead spot on the lawn. If you need to leave the A/C on for the kids, please find a piece of pavement in the lot or on the street to park.

Thanks!

• PA Curriculum Exchange
• 25 Ridge Road; Dillsburg, PA 17019
• (717) 432-9947
• PACEbooks@live.com
• Open T/W 12-6

News from the

Pennsylvania Curriculum Exchange

Summer hours have begun–we have added Saturdays.

• Tues/Wed 12-6
• Saturday 11-2

And appointments still available if you can’t make those days.

On a personal note (unrelated to homeschooling),  for those who may be interested, the book I wrote is now available for free on Kindle Unlimited: Gods They Had Never Known

I have the paperbacks for sale in my store for $10 also.

Come out and see our new Book Barn!!  🙂

Thanks!

• PA Curriculum Exchange
• 25 Ridge Road; Dillsburg, PA 17019
• (717) 432-9947
• PACEbooks@live.com
• Open T/W 12-6, Sat 11-2