Friends of the Palo Alto Library

The Friends of the Palo Alto Library [FOPAL] holds a huge used book sale every second weekend of the month at the Cubberley Community Center. Over 50,000 books, CD’s, DVD’s, games, puzzles, framed art, and collectibles are available, all sorted by subject and very reasonably priced. Saturday hours: Main Sale Room 11am — 4 pm, Bargain Room 9:30 am — 4 pm, Children’s Room 10am — 4pm. Sunday hours: all rooms 11am — 4 pm. In the Bargain Room on Sunday all items 50% off or $ 5/​bag. On Sunday, from 4 pm to 6pm, all items in the Bargain Room are FREE to teachers and nonprofit organizations.
FREE NIGHT
In the Bargain Room on the Monday after the sale, from 6pm to 8pm ALL items are FREE to everyone — take as much as you want!
Credit Cards
FOPAL’s Main Room takes Credit Cards!
All the money raised is donated to the Palo Alto Library system.
For more information and directions, please visit us at:
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My fella and I love coming here for their book sales.
BUT OMG IT GETS CROWDED.
Not your average book sale customers, most of the people who come here are looking to buy and resell. It gets kind of brutal.
But with a little patience, I always walk away with some really neat things.
Private parking, which is nice.
We like to go to Rick’s for some ice cream afterwards.

Our local library book sale location, and we love it! Great volunteer staff, well laid out, massive selection! My GF and I always find a fun read or two. The selection also includes CD’s, DVD’s, VHS tapes, Vinyl, Boardgames, Puzzles, Art, Ephemera, etc. Sunday is a $ 5/​bag day, Monday is giveaway day.
I always have fun and can’t wait for this monthly event to roll around!
I’ll be back!

I love their monthly book sales. Awesome selection.
Run by regular volunteers who really enjoy doing what they do at FOPAL

This is a convenient place to donate books and media of all sorts — they’re open most afternoons and it’s a quick stop off Middlefield. I save my more sentimental donations for here because I know they’ll go to a good home at some point.
I used to go to their sales a decade ago but had to stop — my poor bookshelves couldn’t handle the results of those specials where you could fill a bag and pay a flat rate for everything inside!

I think the Friends of the Palo Alto Library Book Sale held the second Saturday of each month should also be filed under «local flavor» since there are so many characters who come to this thing.
There are the sci fi geeks, who hoard copies of Asimov tomes. I’ve actually heard several people being berated by the beleaguered volunteers, telling them that hoarding in the first hour is illegal (you can only buy 12 books at first before exiting and re-​entering).
Then there are the folks who stake out the travel section, and in the first minute of the sale, sweep every book about every country published within the last two years off the shelves and into their pile.
And last, but not least, there’s Lazlo. You know, Lazlo — the guy from Real Genius who lives in Mitch’s closet with the long hair and the über-​genius IQ? Yep, Lazlo (or a guy who is his doppelgänger) is here, first in line every week. I’m pretty sure he’s a professional reseller, but he sure is a riot with his resale book and his assistants and his van.
It’s a great way to see a slice of Palo Alto, served up bookish style for a cheap price. Much better than any of the other book sales in the area. Kids’ room is also a great deal. Don’t miss it.

2^nd Saturday of every month. Wake up. Drive through a coffee shop. Continue to Middlefield /​Charleston. Park near the tennis court. Walk into the trailer. Spend couple of hours within musty smell of books — many new, mostly slightly old perhaps read just once. You like «Mindtools» or «Driving with Einstein’s Brain»; Anne Coulter or Moureen Dowd — you can pick it up here at about a buck or two. Los Altos library has a good sale a few times a year too, but nothing really beats Palo Alto. The icing on the cake is to buy lunch from Piazza’s while coming back. Boy, what else a great weekend needs?

This place is a hidden gem (well, at least to me it was).
First, have a ton of old/​read books taking up space and no idea what to do with them? Donate them here as they welcome your donations and like Goodwill, you can do your own estimate of the value of the books for a tax write up. Sure beats the $ 0.25-$ 2/​per book that Rasputin might give you, assuming they want your books.
Second, every month they have book sales of the donated books, and I was surprised to find some reasonably new books in great condiition for $ 1 – 3 each. Can’t beat that as I love books.
Third, it’s a great way to keep the earth green by recycling your unwanted books and buying other’s used books.
Fourth, all proceeds go back to fund the local Palo Alto libraries.
One quick note: I think this place is run by volunteers and have specific hours for book donations, so call and check before you bring some books over.
Bottom line: Definitely going to drop by here again in the future as a donator and shopper. Only downside was that they had no Donald Trump books available.

A fun way for avid bookworms to spend a weekend. Okay book selection.
I love library book sales! This is one of the better organized ones I’ve been to. The prices are not great, and since the sale runs every month the selection is not huge. There are numerous copies of the same bestsellers that were popular last year (or the year before that). Lucky for you if you were dying to get your sticky little hands on a copy of «the sisterhood of the traveling pants» or similar widely desired then dumped novel. I’ve seen them at every library book sale I’ve been to across the country recently. However, like any library sale, it’s a great place to browse and easy on your pocketbook. Great entertainment and great if you like finding weird random stuff. Please donate more books, so I can buy them!
Oh and I almost forgot, the first time I went it literally took me hours to find it. With GPS and the address.
First I ended up at the actual library. I assumed that at least they would be able to give me directions. Then I drove around the block maybe 20 times trying to find the entrance/​right spot in the massive labyrinthine community center parking lot. Let me tell you, all those stale white boxy concrete buildings look alike, and so do the trailers.
The first day I lucked out and found the full price book trailer. The second I found the bargain books. They are not at all near each other. Also, there is some jewish community group trailer that looks exactly like the book trailer.
Good luck finding it!
P. S. Take cash

Fun book sale every month. The selection does vary dramatically — usually we find some interesting sci-​fi/​fantasy and some cooking books, but today we struck out on both. We’ll definitely be back again though! :)

This monthly booksale is the one of the hidden treasures of the Peninsula. I love rich, educated people leftovers — and they’re typically sold for a buck or less.
The last time, we even found toys — a full set of clean, hardly used foam alphabet letters for my son. By the time we got home, they had teeth impressions on them.
Oh, and I read esoteric non-​fiction, so this is really up my alley. A fifty buck business book for a buck? Even a non-​economist can love it, even just for pressing flowers between the pages.

Hah!!! It cracks me up that Unilocal’s «You Might Also Consider» recommendation that shows up alongside FOPAL is «Diamonds of Palo Alto» — While I would admit that one finds gems of old books at the sales, they generally cost in the .50 cent or 1 dollar range to several dollar range, compared to «x» percentage of a guy’s salary.
What could be finer, on the second weekend of each month, than to spend time around thousands and thousands of affordable books, cds, records, movies, and ephemera? And yes, book folks make for some entertaining people watching. (Just stay out of their way when the sale opens, they are rather eager.)
Not all of the books are old (though I love the vintage books) — we’ve gotten in a lot of new books from the Stanford Bookstore and other fab donors. Books in the Main Room and Children’s book room are priced individually. They are super cheap in the Bargain Room — .they go to half-​price at 12:30 Saturday, and 5 dollars a BAG on Sunday…
I’ve been volunteering for FOPAL for about two years — I started by coming to the sales, and somehow got myself signed up for volunteering. I don’t mind (secretly, I love it.) I used to run the Bargain Room, and now I just handle all the music and dance books, sheet music and cds in the Main Room.
The sales are entirely volunteer-​run, so all that great customer support you get is just because we volunteers care about books (no fat paychecks, here), so please be nice to us!
If your place is so full of books you can barely move, and you would like to free up space on your shelves for new reading material, you can donate your books to FOPAL for a receipt (tax writeoff!), AND:
1) you will make a reader very happy
2) you will be helping Palo Alto fund all kinds of library programs, additions to the collections, and other important library needs.
The best kind of recycling, in my opinion.
Whoo hoo. See you there!!!
Second two-​day weekend of each month
Saturday:
Main Room: 11 am to 4 pm
Bargain and Children’s Room: 10 am to 4 pm
Sunday:
All Rooms 1 to 4 pm

This is a great place to get older books and to just browse. I usually end up going late on Sat., or on Sunday. I’m sure the best deals and selection is gone, but it’s also less crowded.
The staff is helpful, and the prices are low, and condition of the used books is generally very good.

Every 2^nd weekend of the month.
A quirky, unique place that sells the old books, records, magazines, dvd’s, cd’s, etc… of the Palo Alto Libraries and from patron donations. There are three places to purchase stuff.
1. Main book room near the tennis courts, looks like a mobile home
2. Bargain book room is located in building K7
3. Children’s book room is located in building K6
Hardbounds are $ 1, softbacks are .50 and children’s books are .25. At 12:30pm on Saturday and all day Sunday, all books are half off. Then on Sunday are $ 5 brown bag sale, you buy a $ 5 grocery bag and fill it full of any sort of books. Some even wait in line to get in on Saturday and Sunday morning when it opens, get a number, wait in line, etc… it is crazy fun if you are a bibliophile. I found tour books for an upcoming trip to Belize and New Zealand to my ever loved historical romance books.
You can donate books at the main book room.
You can sign up online for upcoming sales. Email:
and ask to be put on the monthly sale notice.
It is a maze around Cubberley, but once you find it, you’ll be happy.