Over the last three years, we’ve all helped create two wonderful used bookstores in Dallas neighborhoods (which have not had such stores in many years if ever) to compliment the original one in downtown Mesquite. But they are not yet self-sustaining and need your help immediately if they are to survive much longer.

I say “we’ve all” because stores like these are not built just by the owners of them, but rather by a creative staff, and by patrons who are willing to share their books, movies, and music with their neighborhoods making the enjoyment of these pursuits more affordable and interesting for everyone.

This is a personal appeal to each of you to be an angel as your means permit and make a difference in the lives of so many by helping save some of the most engaging bookstores in town.

We could use an entity like Indiegogo to try to do this, but there is a lot lost to overhead there and that model seems to rely on asking you to just donate money in exchange for some lesser value of premiums or recognition. We are not doing that. We feel more comfortable giving you full value in the bookstores for any help which you provide.

There are several ways that you can be of help that you will find listed here with links to more info about each. Even the smallest of these (our new Mini-Gift Certificate bookmarks with a value $5) can make a big difference when combined with the also new ability to “subscribe” to the bookstores through Paypal for as little as one of these each month.

For those of you with more resources, please check out the section involving the financing for two of the locations and consider helping us redo these mortgages that we have on those buildings that we own or are buying in order to give these bookstores greater long term stability. We need to reduce the interest rate on one of them and lengthen the term of repayment on them all to improve our monthly cash flow position.

We hate having to ask you for this, but we here at the bookstores have put everything we can into them and find they need a little bit more to finally get over the hump.

Thanks to those of you who helped out back in August with purchasing Gift Certificates and Special Book Certificates to assist the bookstores in getting past an unexpected hurdle that came up. And that month was our best month of sales at all three bookstores since the Great Move of the Lakewood bookstore to Lochwood, and the opening of the Oak Cliff bookstore.

However, we still need to get back to finishing our original fund raising goal which we began back in the late spring, of which we accomplished about 70% of our needs. This has become extremely important since this last part of these funds was needed to be able to promote the bookstores so that we can finally get our monthly volume up to a sustainable level by letting more folks know about the wonders of these bookstores, and the money to be saved by using them.

And our time to achieve this is running really short. Our landlord at the Oak Cliff location has been incredibly understanding and patient over the last year or more in which we have not been able to pay him more than about 35% of the amount that we originally agreed to. He now has a new potential tenant that will pay the full amount. He is in no position to turn this down unless we have strong support from our neighborhood to show him that it would be a sound choice to keep the bookstore.

Buying regular Gift Certificates or Special Book Certificates are still the primary way to help us in this effort and they now enjoy a bonus of 2 $5-off bookmarks as a thank you for purchases of either amounting to at least $100 and each additional increment of this amount.

We are also adding the ability to purchase smaller single use "certificates" in the form of the $5-off bookmarks that we have given away on occasion, and the capability to subscribe to a certain number of these or their equivalent each month that can be received by email. Please click the link for them to learn about some of the helpful uses that we envision for these.

Click on any of these items to get more info about them and to make a purchase online. Or you can buy or order them at any of the three bookstores.

This week, we need to raise $7,500.00 by selling 75 Gift Certificates or Special Book Certificates for $100 each in order to pay our most pressing outstanding obligation.

That's only 25 per bookstore. Will yours be the first to achieve this and which of you will put us over the top? To encourage you, we are adding a little bonus value to each purchase at this $100.00 level.

Buy a Gift Certificate at this level and get a $5-off bookmark as a thank you. Or buy a Special Book Certificate for this amount and get 2 $5-off bookmarks as well as the other special benefits of these.

Click on either of these items to get more info about them and to make a purchase online. Or you can buy or order them at any of the three bookstores.

What we are really in the process of doing here is finding out if enough of you have enough use for us to make it practical for a place to be here for the functionality that we can offer to your life and your family, friends and neighbors.

We have presented a variety of ways to approach helping the bookstores as suits your circumstances and interests. To the degree that we can accomplish these financial goals right here through our own web site or in the bookstores themselves, we are able to put more of the money raised to the purposes needed.

If you think of other ways in which we might be useful to your and yours, please share them with us at info@luckydogbooks.com.

Your help will be much appreciated.

The following buttons are also at the bottom of the "Money" page, and so you will come to them again if you'd like to go there to see the details of that part of things, and more about how the Special Book Certificates, that you can buy with one of these, will work for you.

We present them here in case you already know that you want to participate financially and just want to get that done, and can do so comfortably.

Special Book Certificates

Option 1 $100.00 USD Option 2 $250.00 USD Option 3 $500.00 USD Option 4 $1,000.00 USD Option 5 $5,000.00 USD Option 6 $10,000.00 USD Option 7 $20,000.00 USD

We are not looking for anyone's life savings or for someone to go in the hole for us. This should be money that you won't miss day to day until we get over the hump, and we can pay you back.

We are not really encouraging outright donations, but if that is your preference, we present that option as well.

6/02/2014

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