I’m resolved to get my life into somewhat better order, and one of the elements of that plan is to deal with some of the mountains of clutter in my house. By bulk, the biggest proportion of that clutter is books – read, unread, may read someday, I’m kidding myself that I’ll ever read it, where the hell did that come from, and others.
What are my options for getting rid of them? The Free Library (as the public library here in Philly is known) sometimes does, sometimes doesn’t, take them. There are a couple of used bookstores that I should call to find out what their policies are. I’ve thought about selling some on half.com – does that make sense, or would it take forever? Worth doing for expensive books? Are there charities that take books (for prisons or hospitals or suchlike)?
ETA: Most of the books are nonfiction or literary fiction – there’s probably no more than one box of trashy novels.
I work at a college, and I’m thankful that one of the campus groups organizes an annual book drive. The bulk of the collected books go to prisons. It might be worth checking with local colleges to see if their community service centers coordinate any book drives, or if they know of any agencies that seek book donations.
I tried doing half.com, but honestly, for me it wasn’t worth the work of packing the books up and taking them to the post office. They did sell, which was nice, although it was more of a rolling process and the whole point was to move a lot of books out of the house in one fell swoop and not in dribs and drabs.
I’m getting rid of at least 5% of my approximately 6,000 books right now. Most of them will go to Goodwill. It’s pretty hopeless to expect that you can sell your books for any significant price. You’re going to be basically giving them away.
I’ve got a ton of books that need to go. I’ll still have about half a ton left–no great sacrifice.
There’s a used book store in my neighborhood. The guy who runs it has already said he’ll come to my place, look at the books & make me an offer. Not that I expect much money–but it’s better than sending them to the landfill. So ask around.
Half Price Books has a reputation for taking almost anything–again, not for top dollar. But I’ve heard they are now rejecting books with yellowed paper.
(Goes back to sorting through books. Tries to avoid getting tempted into a quick read-through. Just put the good ones in the To Keep stack!)
Two words: Salvation Army. We gave them 20 boxes of books when we cleaned out the house. They never question what you give them, and presumably they go to somebody that can use them.
I’ll second Half-Price, there are some in PA, not sure if they are near you though. The good part is that they are no-hassle, fast, and will take everything you bring in, even if they don’t want it. Books deemed to be not worth reselling are donated or recycled. The bad part is that books just aren’t worth much, I’ve sold about 4 car loads of books, magazines, music, and software to Half Price over the last 5 years and have made about $250 from it.
If your main objective is to get them out of your house easily, all at once, without them ending up in a landfill, and a small payment is a bonus, then that’s the way to go. If you are concerned about maximizing your return, not so much.
A great question Twickster. I need to get rid of a bunch too. I originally was giving to a friend’s son to sell on Amazon, and for a while he was making enough to keep his interest, but after about 4 months he lost interest and now I have to find a new way to get rid of them. Half Price Books doesn’t work for me, there aren’t any stores close enough.
If you donate them to a nonprofit, you can take a tax deduction for their value. I’m fortunate that my library takes books willingly for their annual sale.
Half-Price looks great, and hopefully someone else will be able to use that info – they haven’t gotten far enough east for me yet, unfortunately. (Their Penna. locations are all on the other side of the state.)
I really need to weigh what my priority is – I think it’s going to turn out to be “getting rid of them,” sigh. I may hold back a box or two to sell, just because … I’m neurotic, which is how I ended up with a house full of books.
There is always the ‘normal’ channels like Goodwill…
However, I urge you to consider other opportunities.
Many moons ago, I dated the head of nursing at a long term care facility. I would go visit her and meet many of the patients there.
One in particular was a WWII vet with no family. He was bored out of his skull.
You see, the ‘library’ they had there was small and stocked almost exclusively with romance novels. Being a military history fan, I brought in about 50 books and donated them to the library there. He was very thankful, along with some other patients.
See if old folks homes, long term care facilities would accept your books (and not just sell them). You could be really make an impact on peoples’ lives.
Also, I donated about 200 books to a prison. A guard there said they were well received.
Donate them, throw them away, recycle them, sell them on Ebay (box of assorted books for 4 bucks).
I’d look towards donating them, and then recycling the ones that nobody wants.
I volunteer at a Senior Center and we’re always happy to take books for them. There also thrilled to get as otherwise, their options seem somewhat limited (fixed income and not being able to get to the library). Good luck.
Beware of Goodwill…
I donated many things after my recent move, including boxes of books, but when I went into the Goodwill store, I left with books.
Don’t go into the Goodwill store.
I plan on donating the books I bought back, but I won’t go into the store anymore.
Depending on the type of book, you could always check with your local high school. School libraries frequently need books (especially those in the city where the budget may be tighter then the norm).
Definitely take some of your books to the used book store. Don’t take all of them, though. Call to see what they’re looking for, and take books from those categories only, unless you have something notable. Keep that to a minimum, though. If you make them look through boxes and boxes of junk (or what they perceive as junk), you’ll probably end up with a worse offer. Pull anything that’s in poor condition. Arrange the books spine-up in boxes. You won’t get a lot of money this way, but you’ll support a local business and the books will likely find very good homes.
And do not be afraid to recycle whatever you can’t get rid of by other methods or books in poor condition. That’s what happens to a lot of them that get donated to various places anyway.
This reminds me of something (As a weird aside): When Harry Potter was hot I bought a bunch of HP books for Toys For Tots. They wouldn’t take them. “Books do not count as toys and we can’t give them out.” I’m betting there would have been a boat load of kids who would have loved a copy of HP that year, but couldn’t get them because of this policy. (Sorry **Twickster **for the high jack)
You can also box up your books and send them to Amazon – they’ll sell them for you. They even give you a rebate to help with the cost of shipping. It’s called “Fulfillment by Amazon.”
I would caution you about getting rid of books that you haven’t read. You must have had a good reason for buying them and you might kick yourself later. I did.
