Used Books, by Flikr's "babblingdweeb"; © 2005 "babblingdweeb" CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Holly Lisle’s move inspired me. In the process of moving, she got rid of a huge amount of stuff, and now she has a clean house. Wow. I’d like a clean house, one where everything has a spot and there’s a spot for everything.
As it turns out, we’re coming to the end of our lease, and now we’re looking to move to a cheaper apartment. Which provides a great opportunity to get rid of massive amounts of the stuff we’ve been piling up for the past 16 years.
Included in this stuff are over 5 bookcases worth of books, and some of these bookcases are literally falling apart. Now, there are a number of books I haven’t yet read (and plan to read), a number of books I read again and again (or refer to from time to time), and a number of books that are classics (or that don’t actually belong to me). But that still leaves most of those 5-bookcases-plus of books. I so wish to keep my books, because I’m a sentimental pack rat. (Besides which, they’re still good books, and it would be a shame to waste them.) But we need to make room. So I’ve been doing some soul-searching, and I’ve resolved to get rid of at least half of my old books.
So how to do it? Like everyone else, I’ve heard stories of people selling used stuff on eBay. So I did a little research into that possibility. A few of the books I have, I might be able to unload on eBay. But most book auctions on eBay have 0 bids, even the auctions will bargain-basement minimum prices. So I guess that means there are some great book bargains to be had on eBay! But at the same time, it means eBay is probably a poor way to get rid of old books. All those eBay sellers were still left with the old books they were trying to get rid of.
So, a number of my used books I could probably unload on eBay, because they fall into a category of books that are actually popular among eBay buyers. A number more I could probably sell to the used-book store down the street.
The rest I could give away. And I would be happy to do that, as long as I believed the recipients would actually read them. However, I have my doubts, because everybody likes to get free stuff—especially on the Internet. I too have graciously accepted numerous free books, books that I’ve never read. However, the books that I’ve bought myself, they’re on the top of my to-read list (if I still haven’t read them).
So I’ll probably end up going with a compromise: Maybe sell them super cheap, just to filter out the pure freebie-seekers, and probably throw in a copy of Love through the Eyes of an Idiot as a bonus.
For now, I’m still going through my shelves and shelves, putting books into two piles: the “keep” pile and the “give up” pile.
What do you think? What should I do with all these books?
-TimK
Craig’s List….you own’t make tons of $$$$, but at least you can get rid of them.
Check out Librarything.com they have a member book giveaway program, that encourages those that get the free books to read them, since they should write a review on the book when they get it, or it lowers their chances of future free books.
(drawback there is you may not be able to charge shipping, would have to check that)
Otherwise, Craig’s List is a good choice, especially since you can encourage local pickup.
When we did a book purge about a year ago, we did the following:
(1) took the books to the used book store. What they didn’t want:
(2) yard sale. What didn’t get sold
(3) donated books with a religious theme to our church library; and other books to the local Goodwill/Salvation Army.
The ultimate goal was to not let the books back into the house, so they were in the car trunk for a couple days between step 1 and 2. Step 3 happened immediately after the yard sale.
Online options tended to become expensive because of shipping.
There are several things you can do.
Sell books on either Half.com (part of ebay) or Amazon Marketplace. You can go to the sites to see how much the used books are selling for. If there is a surplus, they sell for very cheap and may not be worth the time and effort (personally if the book is worth less than $5, I don’t think it’s worth it)
Donate to your public library
Donate/sell to your local used book store
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I’ll definitely consider them.
-TimK
1) sell on craigslist. What they don’t want:
2) sell to the used book store. What they don’t want:
3) give away on freecycle. What they don’t want:
4) donate to the public library for their book sale
I too am weeding out tons of books!
I too want a clean house!
Check out gotbooks.com. Wonderful place. They make money for charity, theirs or yours, they send books to soldiers, give them to teachers for their classrooms, all kinds of good stuff. They have hundreds of drop boxes around greater Boston or you can call them for a pickup at your house. They help you with fundraisers even.
Anything worthy of the attention of a used book store? I wonder if “Turn the Page” could use some? Missionary stories, biographies, histories are all good. Computer books, many college text books other than math are probably outdated.