Organising school book and toy swap

[sophy]

I am on my kids' school's eco-committee and have volunteered to organise a book and toy swap event at the school before xmas.

Am thinking of charging a small entry fee (need to raise funds for eco-projects) and then issuing tokens for stuff that is brought in which they can then "spend" on the stall.

Anyone done anything similar, or got any advice to offer?

Thanks!

I've organised seed swaps, plant swaps and book swaps. My main advice would be to find a good home in advance for the things that you will be left with!
Other than that, we've always worked on the principle of

1. anyone can take anything, regardless of whether they have brought anything or not (some people seem to bring but not want to take, others need stuff but don't have much to give away)
2. having plenty of distracting kids activities while the adults look through stuff (drawing, playdough etc)
3. not charging for anything, even refreshments, but having a place to put donations We have always made a noticeable profit even after paying for the room & tea/coffee etc, even when not trying to & discouraging large donations. IME people are very reluctant to take anything for free and always want to give a donation that is probably more than they would have bought the thing for . . .

We had a book swap recently, it worked really well. They do toy swaps too.

For the book one, children were asked to take in a book, though they could take more. They'd get a token for each book. And most books could be "bought" for a token, bigger or nicer ones or sets took more tokens. My dds took 10 books in and came back with 20. But that one was free, a recycling of books rather than a fundraiser.

To raise money wouldn't you need to ask for donations and also ask children to bring cash to spend on the stalls? We have those sorts of toy and book stalls too.