A book worth $1000 was snapped up on the second day of the Lifeline Big Book Fair.
The fair runs from Friday to Sunday at Illawarra Sports Stadium in Berkeley, with a special VIP even held on Saturday night.
It was at that VIP event that someone paid $1000 for a volume of Major TL Mitchell's 1838 work Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia.
Other rare books on the shelves at the fair included a first edition of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit from 1857 priced at $200 and an 1810 edition of Sir Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel at $100.
Lifeline South Coast CEO Renee Green said the big-ticket items appealed to collectors, while the range of books drew in readers looking for all sorts of things.
"It's a bit of a niche market for people who are looking for a really particular and special book," Ms Green said.
"I think it's there for everyone. I think it's there for the people who want to pick up some great fiction to read for enjoyment while they're relaxing. We have a whole section of non-fiction as well so people who are looking for their particular hobbies can find something and then certainly there's some collectable items."
It was Lifeline's second Big Book Fair this year, with about 85,000 books on offer - and none of those were on sale at the previous fair in March.
Ms Green said the vast majority of the 85,000 books get sold over the weekend, and whatever is left is either donated to other charities or recycled.
While it was too early to tell how much the latest sale had raised, Ms Green felt it would be on par with previous fairs where up to $200,000 was made.
Ms Green said the book fairs were crucial to allow Lifeline to continue carrying out its work.
"They are absolutely vital, they are our biggest fundraising events," she said.
"We get about a third of our funding from government and the rest we need to generate ourselves so things like the book fair are what allow us to generate the funds and keep the providing the services that we do."
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