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About Our Store

UPDATE: As of October 17th, 2020, the store is open daily from 11am until 8pm.

Proper face masks covering the mouth and nose and using sanitizer prior to entry will still be required by all customers and employees.

Online, Phone, and Email Shopping Still Available for No-Contact Pickup or Free shipping

We are accepting trade-ins to be dropped off until December 18th. We will be taking a 2-week hiatus from taking in books for end of year inventory.

FAQs

What Services do you offer?

• Special Orders: We can special order most new, in-print books, games, and other items from our distributors, most items arrive within several days. We can also try to find used and out-of-print titles from other booksellers and order them in for you.
• Direct Shipping: Most new titles, even ones we do not currently have in the store, are available to ship to you directly. Contact us by phone or at the store to order. 
• Book Requests: We can be on the look-out for out of print and used books. Our System will notify us of a waiting customer when a title is traded in to Firefly.
• Holds: We are happy to put any item on hold for one week.
• Wish Lists: Birthday or other special event? Any item in the store can be noted as a wish list request. Your friends and family will be able to shop worry-free!
• Gift Wrapping: Free for all Firefly purchases. Please let us know in the notes field if you want your internet purchase gift wrapped. 
• Dust Jacket Covers: For $1.00, we are happy to put a protective mylar cover on any dust jacket.
• Prison Shipping: For the price of shipping we will be happy to ship softcover books to inmates. We will need complete mailing address including ID#. PLEASE NOTE: Many prisons have made changes over the last couple years, tightening restrictions on where books can be shipped from. Please make sure that you review a particular prison's policies before asking us to ship for you. Most times, any refused items do NOT get returned to us. Some institutions have limited incoming packages to a specific list of vendors or organizations.
• Book Donations: Any book that we are unable to offer store credit for, we are happy to add to our donation boxes. We donate most of our unwanted material to Opportunity House in Reading PA for their OpShop. We also have donated to the Louisa Gonser Community Library (Kutztown), the Leo Club/Kutztown Area High School Annual Media Sale benefiting the American Cancer Society, and The Friends of Berks County Public Libraries annual Book Bonanza sale.

Do you sell textbooks for college?

We don't carry most course textbooks, but we do carry assigned reading books for literature, history, philosophy and education and other sections. For Education Majors, we have a fantastic children's literature and picture book selection. We are also happy to look at books to purchase, so come in at the end of the semester to trade in books.

Do you have a storefront I can shop at? Can I visit your location?

Yes we do! you can visit us at 271 West Main Street in Kutztown PA. This web site has most, but not all of the items we carry in the store. If you do not find the items you are looking for, do contact us. We offer shipping locally and can arrange pickup on request.

I have a published book that I want to get in your store! Can I set up a store signing event?

We do have local authors (Berks County PA) as a featured section, and we will, after evaluation, invite authors to sell their book through our store. Outside local authors, we also are constantly evaluating books to see if they are right for our store collection. You are welcome to send us an email with the book information (including ISBN) and we will take a look. If you have an author web page or social media pages, let us see those too.

As for author events, we would make the observation that just inviting an author to our store generally does not generate sales (unless you are Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling, etc.). Signings are a great way to reward an existing audience. Building an audience means finding ways to make a book relevant or interesting. So if you are a local author and want to get your book in our store to sell, contact us.

Do you have a mailing list?

We send out emails 1-2 times a month with event announcements, news, current sales and special email-only offers. If you are interested, sign up here. We, of course, will never never never ever give, sell, trade or allow access to anyone else. This list is for our sole and very occasional use.

Can I send you a list of what I'm looking for?

We do track and maintain Customer requests. If you wish to send us an email, we can add your name and requested items to our database, and contact you when they are available. You are also welcome to use the Wish List feature on this site.

Do you buy books?

Yes, we are actively seeking books for our store. If you are located within our area, we would be happy to discuss with you our availability to come pick up your items. We welcome inquiries from estate sales, moving sales, and store liquidations. Depending on the volume and type of material, and how far away you are, we will make an appointment to come to you. Please contact us for more information, or review our buying and trading information.

I have a list of books to sell. Can you give me a quote for which books you want and how much you'll pay for them?

We have had a long-standing policy of not doing quotes over the phone or by email. We do have customers that send us lists with the expectation we will pick and choose which ones we want and make an offer at that time. Due to the number of issues that such a process creates, we have to be hard and firm that we need to see in person all items the customer wants us to evaluate, and make an offer only AFTER we have selected the items we know we can use in the store.

How are items shipped?

We use padded envelopes and boxes for all our material. To protect fragile or vintage items from being damaged, we will add additional material, or cover. We can try to accommodate special requests, please contact us at time of purchase.

How is shipping calculated?

Due to shifting shipping rates, we have established flat rate pricing based on average shipping weight. Items that are lighter (ship at less than 3lbs) may qualify for reduced shipping. Please contact us if you have any questions or would prefer a shipping quote. We offer Standard (via USPS Media Mail) or expedited (Via USPS Priority). Some heavier items, and the games and puzzles, have fixed shipping costs. Non-books usually have to be shipped Priority.

International First-Class is not being currently offered for most locations. Please contact us directly if you want a current rate quote. Please note that packages that ship at over 4 US pounds (1.82 Kg) cannot be shipped International First Class and must be sent via USPS Priority

Do you have volume or other shipping discounts?

Bulk shipping may require additional postage or handling. If you are making a purchase of a very large number of items, we may be able to offer some discounts. If you live in the Kutztown area, (19530) we are happy to hold the book for pick-up.

If you have other questions not answered here or on our shipping page, please contact us.

Contacting Us

We are available by email: contactus@fireflybookstore.com