Book donations for schools

As we continue to sort through the thousands of pounds of books we receive from campus, the libraries, and the Drop-off Center, we decided to start donating children's books to public schools.

This will be on first-come, first-served and as-needed bases. These books are intended to be used in the classrooms and will range in condition, age group, and sizes. We will deliver approximately 300 pounds of books to each school, and teachers and administrators will have one week to sort and select the books they want to keep. At the end of that week, we will pickup the remainder.

More details, as well as opportunities for registration, will be announced soon.

Book stock rotation returns

Now that we've finally made it through 60,000-80,000 pounds of books (sorted, sold, recycled), we can settle back into the regular stock rotation that we had last year. There are four sections of books on the sales floor, and the oldest selection will be replaced each Public Sale day. The two-week cycle will look something like this (the colors and order may vary):

Tuesday: Blue mark ($2/book), Green mark ($1/book), Purple mark (50 cents/book), Orange mark (10 cents/pound)
Friday: New Orange ($2/book), Blue ($1/book), Green (50 cents/book), Purple (10 cents/pound), old Orange (chopped, recycled)
Tuesday: New Purple ($2/book), Orange ($1/book), Blue (50 cents/book), Green (10 cents/pound), old Purple (chopped, recycled)
Friday: New Green ($2/book), Purple ($1/book), Orange (50 cents/book), Blue (10 cents/pound), old Green (chopped, recycled)
Tuesday: New Blue ($2/book), Green ($1/book), Purple (50 cents/book), Orange (10 cents/pound), old Blue (chopped, recycled)

And so on. The rotation started this week, so what's left of the $2 books after tomorrow will be $1 each on Tuesday. This allows us to constantly put out new books, while still having a bulk per-pound selection for the best deals.

"What's with the skull?"

January 19th marked the one-year anniversary of when Jabber Jaw started appearing in all of the pictures of Sales Floor items for the social media. In that time, he's received reactions ranging from love to hate to utter confusion. So, not that this is an exhaustive list of answers, but here are some things I've been meaning to say on his behalf:

1. Jabber Jaw is in the photos for size reference.
2. He's about 8.5" tall, 4" wide, and 5" deep.
3. He is not a rock.
4. He is not for sale, nor does he come with any of the items pictured.
5. As far as we know, he is not related to the cartoon shark that plays drums for The Neptunes.
6. Extensive searching seems to indicate that he originally captured voice recordings then played them back while moving his mouth.
7. Unfortunately, he has not done that, or much of anything, in the time that we've had him.
8. In fact, he's mostly held together by super glue (and he's missing a few more teeth) these days.
9. Because of that, it would not be safe to keep him out in the open on Public Sale days, no matter how gentle you swear you'll be.
10. In case of an emergency, or perhaps retirement, we do have another skull set aside (who still needs a name--suggestions?).
11. Barring one of those scenarios, he's not going away, no matter how weird you think he is.
12. Primarily, that's because the number of people who love him outnumber the people who dislike him about 3-to-1.
13. Although he's not always a pleasure to look at, he's much more fun than a ruler.
14. We'll resume the Friday Find-it photo hunts again in the spring.
15. And most importantly: Thank you! The people of the Surplus Store are a unique bunch, and you guys make this job fun.