2023 Book Fair Schedule
The 52nd Annual Dayton Book Fair
This year’s beneficiaries will be announced on February 2, 2023 and will be posted here with a live link on each name to find out more about the wonderful work they do.
Please note that we cannot answer questions posted on this site after Saturday, November 4th. If you need information, please try reaching us via our Facebook page or check our FAQ page.
At the new Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 645 Infirmary Road
(Take US35 to Infirmary Rd. and turn south)
Tuesday, October 10, 2023 2 p.m.
wristbands on sale online and by telephone (937) 999-4491
Please note the change in our hours!
Friday, November 10, 2023
9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
$10 admission, all day
Saturday, November 11, 2023
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Free admission
Sunday, November 12, 2023
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Bag Sale Day – Free admission – $10 per bag (sales tax included)
Plenty of free parking is available.
There is no scheduled RTA service to this location, but the Fairgrounds tells us that people needing the RTA can call the regular number (937) 425-8300 and arrange to be transported to the fairgrounds, and that riders over age 65 may be picked up at their home. As we know more about this, we will update this site.
Year Round Online Stores
We do sell some of our more unusual titles through our online stores at eBay. We continuously add new titles to our online stores as these special books are donated.
Come Visit Us at Our Second Hand Book Store!
Rabbit Hole Books 27 West First St. Dayton Opening 14 December 2022. Every book is one dollar. Open daily 12 to 7. Plenty of on-street parking, plus some free parking available in the parking garage upstairs.
Dayton Book Fair 
what are the price ranges for, books, cd’s, dvd’s
what is the “auction” about .
are books categorized
thank you for your reply.
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The price range for books is $2 for hardcover, $1.50 for trade paperback, $1 for mass-market paperbacks. Children’s books are mostly $1, with some hardcovers at $1.50. CDs and DVDs are a dollar each, for singles, slightly more for sets. There is also a section of collectible books– those are priced individually.
On Sunday, it’s everything you can fit in a bag for $7.50. On Monday, from 8 a.m. to noon– pay $1 to come in and take as much as you want. Books are separated into 54 different categories, and we have maps available. The silent auction is for certain collectible titles and will close Saturday night at 6 p.m.
Thanks for your interest!
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Do you take charge cards?
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Yes! We take credit and debit cards, cash, checks and Apple Pay.
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Android Pay?
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Our Clover rep says yes for Android pay, but we’ll double-check tomorrow.
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Are there still a good variety of children’s books available on Sunday and Monday ??
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Will the auction catalog be available for review prior to the sale?
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Yes, it should be uploaded to this site later this evening.
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What charities are you supporting this year?
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This year we’re supporting the Artemis Center, Caesar’s Ford Theatre Company and Discover Classical-88.1 Dayton Public Radio.
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Hello,
For Monday 11/16/2020, do I still need to buy wrist band on the phone or online ? Or can I pay cash at the door?
I’m so glad this event is still open this year!!
Thank you!
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Sorry, the sale is canceled for this year.
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Do you provide the bag for Sunday or do we bring a bag?
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We’ll have bags for you!
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Great event!! Plenty of room to browse and push carts around; even a hot food concession stand! Bring your own bag though and try to leave coats in the car so you can be comfortable walking around. Can’t wait until next year!
Scott Cinci
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Thanks so much for the rave review! We’re glad you had a great time, and hope you’ll come back again.
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Is this what was formerly called the Planned Parenthood Book Fair? I miss it since I moved out of state. Can you please tell me when/where the 2019 Book Fair will be?
Thanks!
Cindy
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Yes, we’ve been separate from Planned Parenthood since 2014. Our sale this year is November 8 through the 11th and is at the new Montgomery County Fairgrounds at 645 Infirmary Road (just off US35) in Dayton. Hope to see you there!
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I was wondering if the book sale would have manga? I’ve adored them ever single middle school and learned about your sale from a Half Price Books Clearance sale (where I was buying about 100 volumes of manga). I live really far away and would like to know if you guys have a sizeable manga section for sale for me to warrant taking a vacation day off work to drive up. I ask b/c I’ve been to some local book fairs near me and only about 1 in 4 actually accept/sell manga.
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Oh yes, we have quite a lot of it. It will be in the “graphic novel” section, which is on the left hand side of the hall as you come in. Come see us!
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Compton Encyclopedias from 1966. Very good condition, but obviously dated. Are they of use to you? If not, who would you recommend? Thank you.
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Unfortunately, there’s just no market for Encyclopedias other than Brittanicas anymore. So sorry.
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Hi. Will there be a link to purchase the wristbands online?
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Yes, it will go live at midnight on Sunday.
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Question does a 9 year old need a ticket friday?
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No ticket needed for a 9-year-old. We can issue a free “KIDS” wristband at the sale.
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What’s the breakdown of the books for sale concerning published year? Are the books more recent or are they more than 10 years old?
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You’re kidding, right? There are approximately 80 tons of books at this sale, there is no way we would be able to give you a breakdown by copyright date. Safe to say there is a wide variety of books published from 1780 to 2019.
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You have carts for people to shop I assume? Do you have boxes for those who buy lots of books, or should I bring my own? I’m getting excited!
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How do we donate books, and do you take them year round?
Do you take all kinds of books?
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For the bag sale do you think there will be plenty of children’s books left ? And what if we want two bags , one for adult , one for children – can we pay 7.50 twice ?
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Hello.
Do you have good section of children’s books?
Thank you!
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We had a great time – our first at your sale – and found many, many books to buy. One of the most organized and roomy booksales we’ve been to in many, many years of book shopping. Loved that you have carts (and that we got our wristbands early enough to get carts, too!). Checkout process was a breeze, too.
A couple of suggestions though. Several books I had purchased, intending to give as gifts, I was no longer comfortable giving as the penciled price inside the front cover was impossible to fully erase. Would you consider flat pricing by binding (e.g. $1 paperback and $2 hardback)? And a similar problem in the specially-priced area – three more expensive books were ruined when I tried to remove the price stickers – even using an adhesive remover and brief stint with the hairdryer to soften the adhesive didn’t save the books and they’re now useless to me as gifts, when they were otherwise in excellent condition. Other sales use prices on post-it notes which are generally slightly better for removal though some still scuff the pages. Those damaged books made for a big disappointment after such a delightful time at the sale. We’ll still try again next year!
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We can’t change the way we price books Karen because then people would steal more than they already do. Post-it notes would be a disaster when you’re dealing with literally 40 tons of books. Glad you had a nice time otherwise.
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I’m only suggesting post-its for the Specially Priced book area (the ones that were separately bagged and delivered to checkout). Otherwise I can’t see that flat pricing by binding type would result in any more or less theft. I’ve been involved with organizing a similarly sized, long-running booksale that used to price individually but has long since chosen to use the flat pricing. Checkout is simpler and faster than with the individual pricing, and there’s never been a problem with theft that any of us is aware of – sorry to hear it’s been a problem.
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We have issues with people taking the books out of the collectibles section, erasing the price and re-pricing them to something else. While we were busy packaging up someone’s order in collectibles, a thief took a $75 book from the auction table. It is disgusting to try to prevent shoplifting of a $12 book only to find someone has taken something truly valuable while one’s back was turned. I can’t imagine the mischief that buyers might engage in if they could change prices as easily as switching post-it notes. The books that are in the collectible section are priced with a special 2B pencil from Japan, which is very soft. Only three people price the books in that section and none apply undue pressure when writing the price. We are very careful where we attach stickers because it will raise the surface of a paper jacket and we take this into consideration each and every time. Indeed, we don’t use post-it notes at all with those books because the residue from the adhesive can be problematic on some antiquarian bindings. There are very few sales in the country of “similar sized long running booksale” (next year is our 50th) that are sorted and priced all year. With which one are you associated?
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Thanks for the thoughtful response. I do understand about the collectible area and suppose each booksale has their own way of try to prevent those sorts of problems. I could see that care was taken with the collectible titles, just that I still was unlucky with a couple. Most of my written-price thoughts were about the non-collectible titles, and the flat pricing by binding, which has simplified things for both organizing the sale and for checkout by shoppers. AGain, I appreciate all of the effort put into the sale – knowing it’s all done with volunteer hours, and was just making a couple of suggestions. The booksale I mentioned is the Newman Center Booksale in Indiana, PA which will be holding its 51st sale in 2020.
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A Ticonderoga eraser is very useful for erasing prices in books – on almost all paper. The beauty of the Ticonderoga is that it works best when just lightly running it across the surface of the paper. Also they are very good on colored end-papers. It MUST be a Dixon Ticonderoga. Other than that one, most latex erasers (such as Prismacolor’s off-white “Magic Rub”) will do a good job, but with a bit more heavy rubbing needed.
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This is Jon and rose in Florida
The man who loves books too much should be a great book for your staff to read
We are looking for a baby sitter for our dogs feb 1 to 8
We are in Ocala fl for the winter
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For the very last time on Nov 14th? Does that mean that the book fair will no longer happen in the future? If so that is a very sad loss.
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Goodness, no! The sale will go on in perpetuity we hope. This is the last year we will offer “Clean Sweep” on Monday, where customers can pay one dollar and take as much as they want as from here on out all of our excess inventory will go to our brick and mortar store “Rabbit Hole Books” scheduled to open in Downtown Dayton in December 2022.
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How are books priced?
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Most books are unit priced. Hardcovers $2, trade paper $1.50, mass market $1. There is a special section with more collectible titles, mostly $4-$7. On Sunday, books in the collectible section are half-price, books on the selling floor are sold for $10 per grocery bag. On Monday morning only from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., you can pay $1 to come in and take as much as you want.
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Will there be many history/biography books for sale?
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Yes, many tables full of history and biography books. History in particular, is one of our biggest categories.
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