Dayton Book Fair

Dayton Book Fair Good Works Since 1970! We are open year-round to accept donations, not just of books but also records, movies, puzzles, and games.

The Dayton Book Fair has a double mission: we sell donated books to benefit three different local non-profits each year, and we provide a meaningful place for people to donate their beloved books. Items collected are sold at our annual sale, the largest of its kind in Ohio, held the second weekend of each November at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton, Ohio. The proceeds from that sale ar

e distributed in the form of grants to different organizations in the Miami Valley. Since 1970, the Dayton Book Fair has donated nearly two million dollars. New beneficiaries are chosen each year. In 2021, proceeds from the sale will benefit WYSO Center for Community Voices, Dayton International Peace Museum, and Xenia Area Community Theater. We also sell books online through eBay, check out our listings at bookfairexpress and for more specialized listings, also at daytonbookfair

The Book Fair Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, incorporated in the State of Ohio.

Though the fire was not in our store, it was on a common wall, and it will take us this long to get cleaned up.
02/13/2026

Though the fire was not in our store, it was on a common wall, and it will take us this long to get cleaned up.

Out of a large stack of extremely worthy applicants, we have selected three. This year we really wish we had the ability...
02/10/2026

Out of a large stack of extremely worthy applicants, we have selected three. This year we really wish we had the ability to fund more groups and encourage those who weren’t chosen this year to please apply again. The beneficiaries of the 2026 Dayton Book Fair are Daybreak (www.daybreakdayton.org) Threads of Miami Valley (www.threadsoutreach.org) and Preservation Dayton (www.preservationdayton.org) We are honored to assist them.

It’s so much fun to give away the money! Congratulations and thank you to our 2025 beneficiaries, Gem City Roller Derby,...
02/10/2026

It’s so much fun to give away the money! Congratulations and thank you to our 2025 beneficiaries, Gem City Roller Derby, Family Promise of Greene County, and Ohio Performing Arts Institute!

And congratulations to our new three for 2026! Daybreak, Threads, and Preservation Dayton.

We have a new (temporary) home. We were not able to get any grace from our previous landlord to even stay in our home of...
02/10/2026

We have a new (temporary) home. We were not able to get any grace from our previous landlord to even stay in our home of 23 years for an additional month, so at a great deal of expense and backbreaking effort we are having to move twice.

This is a rental and we will be here for a few months while we ready the building that we are buying to be our permanent home. So write this address in pencil— 175 Campbell St. It’s just off of Stewart Street on the old campus of Standard Register, the former home of Pathways Financial Credit Union.

*We are open Tuesday through Thursday 10-4.*

Given the level of chaos and our exhaustion— if you’ve been thinking about volunteering, this would be a fantastic time to come join us. We could use more hands at Campbell, at our eBay offices at 11 West Monument and at Rabbit Hole Books.

We are veering from our usual presentation date of February 2, because the weather is supposed to be questionable again....
01/31/2026

We are veering from our usual presentation date of February 2, because the weather is supposed to be questionable again. But do plan to come see us on Saturday, February 7th instead. We'll have a lovely afternoon together, with plenty of refreshments!

We will be celebrating the following Saturday instead-- February 7th at 2 pm. Come on out and enjoy the festivities and ...
01/30/2026

We will be celebrating the following Saturday instead-- February 7th at 2 pm. Come on out and enjoy the festivities and meet our new beneficiaries and see how happy organizations look when they get a giant check for $10.000!

Save the Date!
01/22/2026

Save the Date!

We have spent the last few weeks moving, and since Monday the good folks at Dow Moving helped with the cartage of more t...
01/22/2026

We have spent the last few weeks moving, and since Monday the good folks at Dow Moving helped with the cartage of more than 70 bookcases, dozens of desks, packing tables, and hundreds of cartons of books.

We have moved to two temporary sites for the next few months. We will be accepting books at one of those sites in the next week or so, stay tuned for that announcement. And then late this spring we will move one last time to our permanent home in Dayton’s historic inner East neighborhood.

We thank you for your patience. ❤️

Today we moved the first section of our offices to a temporary address downtown. It was hard work and we had great volun...
01/11/2026

Today we moved the first section of our offices to a temporary address downtown. It was hard work and we had great volunteers to help us, and we are extremely grateful for them.

For the last 10 days we’ve had a notice on the door that we are closed and cannot accept any donations at this time.

A woman came through the door this morning and said she had a donation for us and I apologized and told her that we would not be able to accept the donation right now. She wanted to know the address of where we were moving to so she could take the books there.

When I said we couldn’t take the books there either— in fact we couldn’t take any books until February 3, she said “Well, that doesn’t work with my schedule. I’ll just have to put them in the dumpster then.”

Please, folks, don’t do us like that. We went on taking donations as long as we possibly could – probably longer than we should have— before we HAD to turn to packing. It’s a 5000 square-foot building and the organization has been there for 23 years. There is so much to pack. We truly hope she didn’t put them in the dumpster.

Can you give us a hand on Saturday? Please feel free to respond here or even just show up on Saturday at our soon-to-be ...
01/08/2026

Can you give us a hand on Saturday? Please feel free to respond here or even just show up on Saturday at our soon-to-be former address 2181 Embury Park Rd.

Do you know a Dayton area non-profit who could use $10,000?
01/08/2026

Do you know a Dayton area non-profit who could use $10,000?

Address

175 Campbell Street
Dayton, OH
45417

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

(937) 999-4491

Website

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