Biggles book fetches $150 at sale

Biggles proved as big a hero as ever at Zonta's Great New Zealand Book Sale, with the buyer and seller being delighted with the $150 paid for a limited edition book.

While it attracted the highest price of the day, the Biggles book was only one of thousands of bargains, treasures and discoveries picked over and happily purchased by a steady stream of punters at the annual book sale over the weekend.

"It's been wonderful," said Bev Cowley, one of the organisers of the annual event staged by the combined efforts of the Hatea and Whangarei Zonta Clubs.

Goods for sale included puzzles, games, DVDs, videos, maps, magazines and journals.

New this year, replacing the silent auction for more expensive books was a special and rare books table, where people could make an offer. That was where the Biggles book was sold, coming in slightly under what internet auctions valued similar books.

The two Whangarei based clubs are aided in their mammoth task each year by volunteers from a number of other clubs and organisations, including from Mangawhai Zonta and the community groups which benefit from grants the book sale funds. Also called on each year to help lug about 1000 boxes of books into the Forum North venue the day before the sale opens are people sentenced through the courts to do community work.