HOURS:

Effective immediately, we are open for an extra day–Saturday.

Hours are:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday 12-4

Other days may be available by appointment with 24-hours notice. I don’t take appointments on days I’m already open.

NEW FACE:

If you come in the store, you may notice a new person has joined me and Lisa. My daughter Sarah is in training with hopes of one day taking over the store! With 10 years experience as a software developer, she has lots of ideas for improving the efficiency of the business. Five years ago she wrote the programming that runs my checkout and consignment procedures. For some reason, she was horrified at my system relying on doing everything by hand with notecards 😂.

After 27 years in the business (22 here in PA), I’m starting to look toward that end point, so I’m thrilled she’s interested in having the business.

EMAIL LISTS OF BOOKS

I am happy to look up lists of books for people before they come in the store, to give them availability and pricing. But it is starting to become something of a problem, so I thought I would mention it on here.

During the summer, I receive about 20 lists a day by email. It can take about two hours to look everything up and respond to them every day. The results of this are… About 50% I hear nothing back, 25% aren’t interested or found it cheaper somewhere else, and 25% have me set the items aside to pick up. Of the ones set aside to be picked up, approximately 50% never show.

So it’s not really a good use of my time for 10 hours/week, when I’m already spending 30 hours a week outside of store hours just pricing consignments. I’d rather not cut off the service altogether as some people really rely on it because they are driving quite a distance or faithfully come look at what’s been set aside for them.

So some guidelines:

• If you’re just in the pondering stage, don’t send me a list. Ex.: “I’ve changed my mind about using that curriculum, so could you look up this new list for me now.” You could ask if I tend to have something you’re pondering–that’s fine. That’s not me looking anything up.
• My discounts on used items are standardized: 40% off retail on curriculum and 50% off on readers. Some items are cheaper, but no used items are more than that. No doubt you can find things cheaper at times online or eBay etc, but please do that research before you send me your list. Ex: “Thanks, but I found it cheaper elsewhere.”
• Contact me the week before you plan to come. I will hold items aside for one week. Contacting me a month ahead is worthless because my turnover is very high. Whatever I just told you is in inventory now may not be remotely correct in a month. Ex.: “Thanks, I’ll be by in a month or two to pick them up.” You can have books set aside further in advance, but they need to be paid for at the time of the order and there’s no return period available.

Books set aside for you do not have to be purchased. One of my goals for the store was for people to see things before they bought them. All I’m asking is that you show up to look at it.

CONSIGNMENT DROP OFF UPDATE

Consignments can be brought in any time I’m open. You don’t need to notify me ahead of time. We are still being choosy on what we take due to the massive volume that comes through the door, but there are definitely items we still need. You can click on the “consignment” tab for a general list of things we do and don’t take, but it’s not kept up to date because of the turnover. If you want to know before you come in, feel free to email me a picture of your books (a stack of spines is usually enough) and I can give you a basic of idea of what I can and can’t take at that moment. But that’s not required. I can sort through pretty quickly when you come in.

Generally, bringing a ‘car load’ is not a good idea (20-30 boxes). It’s usually an indication that you have a lot of out-of-date curriculum. Curriculum must be current and it must be homeschool branded (no public school or cyber school publishers) to be accepted. We also take games and manipulatives. No science equipment taken at this time (BTW, we have lots of microscopes).

The busy season starts now…and ramps up through August. I look forward to serving you and hope to see you in the store!

Thanks!

Julie Helms

PA Curriculum Exchange 

▪ 25 Ridge Road, Dillsburg, Pa 17019

▪ Email: [email protected]

▪ 717-432-9947

▪ Open T/W/Sat 12-4