There are many things in life that you are introduced to or come to know about late. One of the things that I came to know very late was – Unlimited Book fair events.
These are book fairs where you get to buy second-hand books or sometimes even brand-new books at a throwaway deal.
The objective of these book fairs is to offer opportunities to readers and book lovers to choose and pick their favourite books at a throwaway price.
Maybe you may have heard about it before, but I came to know about it very recently online.
It was a sort of surprise for me to come to know that there is so much demand for used books from the readers. It is really a great initiative by groups involved in such activities for book lovers who can’t afford new and expensive books.
When I was in Mumbai in the late nineties, when there was nothing called the Internet, there were open shops on the footpaths of Mumbai selling used and brand-new books. The shops were spread on footpath from CST to Churchgate station; from one end of the footpath to the other end. People used to flock to these roadside book stalls to browse and buy books. One could easily spend an hour just going from one end of the footpath to the other end while browsing the books on display.
I also spent many hours browsing books. One of the reasons I again got into big time reading was because of cheap and decent quality books available. You could find books from almost all genres.
I developed my romance for books, thanks to these book stalls. I can still feel that beautiful sensation of spending hours exploring books as I think about it.
Even today those shops must be there. I am not sure.
So, when I heard about this offline event of used books happening in Coimbatore, deep down I got an urge to relive those gone moments.
Even though Prozone Mall is about one and a half hour long journey from my place, I decided that I had to visit the event.
In this blog, I am going to share about that event and what was being offered. I am also going to share with you how you can buy books from one such event.
If you want to know more about it and would like to visit one such event happening in your city, then read on…
How Unlimited Book Fair Event Functions
There are three categories of carton boxes available at the event. Here’s a peek into the box sizes:
1. Small Box: The small box can carry approximately 10-12 books. And this small box will cost you Rs.1199/- (Rupees One thousand one hundred and ninety-nine only.)
When I picked up the small box to check, I found that it could carry only paperback-size books because of the box dimensions.
2. Medium Box: This medium-sized box can carry approximately 15-17 books. And the cost of the box will be Rs.1799/- (Rupees One thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine only.)
At the offline event, I chose this medium-sized box and was able to fill in big-sized hard-bound novels and books. Because of the size of the novels and books I selected, I could pack 14 books only in the box.
I calculated the average cost of the book in my box and it came to Rs.128.50 (Rupees One hundred and twenty-eight and fifty paisa only.)
For me it was a steal because just one of the books that I found there was selling around thousand rupees on Amazon.
So, for me it was more than paisa vasool!
Here’s a picture of my medium box and the books:
3. Large Box: This last category of the box can hold 28-30 books approximately. And you will have to pay Rs.2999/- (Rupees Two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine only.)
If you can pack 30 books or more in the box then it would be a fantastic deal for you.
And you can do that if you pick up small sized books and also know how to manage small spaces for maximum storage.
I also have become aware of the sizes of the box. Next time maybe I can pack more books in my box.
Books Available for Grab:
They had a huge collection of pre-owned books to display and choose from.
The three wide categories were:
Children Books
Fiction
Non-fiction
In each category you had various sub-genres to choose from. For example, in fiction you could choose from Romance, Historical novels, fantasy, thrillers, murder mysteries and many, many more.
In non-fiction category also you had a lot of variety – self-help, biography, travel, sports, health and fitness, business and more.
One drawback of such used book events is that there are not enough copies of each book available. So, if you visit the event two or three days later most of the popular books would already have disappeared from the lot.
When I first visited the stall in the morning I saw a book and thought I will come back later and collect that book for my box. After exploring the Mall when I returned the book was gone.
But I still was able to fill my medium box with enough books and got books that I never knew about.
In Conclusion
Before you start filling the boxes at any such event you have to keep this one thing in mind:
The books that you choose to put in your box should not overflow from the box. This means that when you go to the counter to pay, the lid of your box should close without much effort. If it is bulging then the person at the counter will ask you to remove certain books.
The group that organizes such events also have their website and they offer similar facility on their website too.
But online, there might be limited freedom when it comes to choosing the books.
Here’s the website link to the event that I went to. They also have good offer for online customers.
You can check them out here:
When I did some online research on similar events I found that there are many businesses conducting such offline events across India in various cities. Also, they have their websites for book lovers to shop online.
So, it’s more of a party time for book lovers across the country.
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