Ryan Merriman, 20, made the trip to the sale with his mum and brother.
The trio each had a bag full of books and were still scouring the tables for more bargains.
Mr Merriman said it was the first time they had been but all loved to read.
"We all read. It's inherited," he said. "I read things pretty quickly."
He was excited to have stumbled across Jean Auel's Earth's Children series and quickly snatched up the set.
"Each of these in hardback is worth $40," he said.
Rotary Club of Tauranga president Ann Pritchard said there was a line of people stretching out of the car park and around on to the road when the doors opened at 9am on Saturday.
"That's the usual way," she said.
There were 45 volunteers floating around the building and manning the checkouts but still they were overwhelmed by the volume of people.
"It's chaos at the moment," Mrs Pritchard said.
The club were hoping to raise $100,000 from the sale and were also appealing for donations for the fight to end polio and for oil heaters to assist the Bay of Plenty District Health Board in helping heat family homes.
The sale runs until 4pm today.
