Popular Book Bounce event returns to Gordon

NEARLY four years ago, Josh Dunbar saw a box of books sitting forlornly on a roadside, probably destined for the tip.

It sparked an idea, out of which he and friend and former work colleague Garrison McErvale created Book Bounce, which sells pre-loved and second-hand books of all shapes, sizes and bindings at events around the Ballarat region.

The latest iteration took place in Gordon over four hours last Saturday, attracting a constant stream of customers.

And according to Mr Dunbar, it’s only getting bigger.

“We get people from Ballarat, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh, Melbourne,” he said, adding that one person came from interstate for the Gordon event and at least two others made the trip from Geelong.

Between 80 and 90 per cent of books are priced at just $3, while rare and unique books are priced accordingly but competitively.

Mr Dunbar estimated that after last weekend’s Gordon sale, about 96,000 books have been saved from going to landfill.

Books are also given multiple chances to find new homes before being consigned to recycling, and many people are return customers.

Mr Dunbar and Mr McErvale met when they both worked in real estate (Mr Dunbar still does) and realised they shared similar hopes and aspirations.

“I was driving home one night and saw a box of books on the side of the road and thought, if I could turn that into a business and save books from landfill…,” he said.

“It was a new friendship, and we pondered our aims for making a difference, and here we are today.

“We wanted to create a business with a conscience; even if you’re for-profit it doesn’t mean you can’t be charitable and do a good thing.

“Because we’re solely dedicated to books, people can be assured they’re going to the right avenues.

“We want to grow and expand it…and turn it into more of a movement; we’ve sort of taken the book sale model and turned it into a business.

“It’s a new journey for us. No one’s really tried to tackle this before at the scale that we have and it’s been a very interesting challenge.”

Book Bounce takes place in Ballarat and Scarsdale on an alternating, bi-monthly basis, along with the Gordon event.

“Usually Ballarat is a two-day event and Scarsdale and Gordon are a one-day event, but over the course of a month we would have hundreds of customers coming through for the two sales of that month,” Mr Dunbar said.

Mr Dunbar said an announcement of a major new location is imminent, and will coincide with the launch of a new website.

The next events on the Book Bounce schedule are 15 and 16 November in Ballarat and 29 November in Scarsdale.

Book Bounce is on all the usual social media platforms, and is soon to launch a new website. Its current web presence is at bookbounce.com.au.