Old books - What to do?

db21111

So I love having collections but lately i've thought about simplifying things and not having big collections of things I rarely use again. This includes books.

Most of them don't seem to offer much value on the usual book/cd/games etc buying sites, which granted offer minimum and ebay which is flooded with the same books generally...

One option I found was a local coffee shop in Birmingham were super happy for me to swap books, in fact the first time they let me take two books without replacing them! So i'd be happy to do book swaps.

Also I've left books with random friendly people on flights before if I've just finished the book on the flight.. Very rarely will I look at the book again.

I guess charity shops would appreciate them. Though to be fair if i could get some cash for them I'd spend that cash in the charity shop on more stuff I don't mind buying books s/h at all.

What other options do you find to be good when it comes to saying goodbye to books you won't read again?

lincroft1710

Car boot sales, but

1. Books aren't generally such good sellers these days.

2. You have to price low to sell.

3. Unless you're taking loads of stuff, pitch fee and fuel costs, will wipe out any "profit".

Even "bricks and mortar" secondhand bookshops (if you can find one locally, they're a disappearing race!) tend not to want run of the mill stuff or obsolete text books and usually won't offer much.

I now just give books I no longer want to charity shops (which is where most of them came from.

RichardD1970

Don't know where in Birmingham you are, but there is a cash for clothes type place on the car park of Castle Vale Retail Park that also takes books.

Patchwork_Girl

If you don't mind passing them on (rather than selling them) Bookcrossing can be quite fun - Bookcrossing.com.

lincroft1710

RichardD1970 wrote: »

Don't know where in Birmingham you are, but there is a cash for clothes type place on the car park of Castle Vale Retail Park that also takes books.

From reading their flyers these companies appear to pay very paltry amounts for books.

Kite2010

lincroft1710 wrote: »

From reading their flyers these companies appear to pay very paltry amounts for books.

Some books are sadly worth very little.

lincroft1710

Kite2010 wrote: »

Most books are sadly worth very little.

I've amended that for you.

I agree, it is very disappointing to find how little books are worth when you want to sell.

soolin

I sued to sell non fiction books as my main line but in 2010 the market died for me overnight . I am slowly packing all my stock up and donating it to Oxfam as they have dedicated book shops for second hand books.

I've donated several thousand so far and still have loads to get rid of when I can raise the enthusiasm to dog them out of storage. I suspect though that even Oxfam end up pulping most , but at least they might get a few decent books out of the boxes I donate.

rao_2

Amazon apparently let you trade-in books (and other stuff) in return for Amazon Gift Cards (which you can use yourself to buy stuff on Amazon or give to someone else). Might be an option in addition to selling on Amazon Marketplace, eBay etc. and giving away to charity shops or other people e.g. Freecycle etc.

db21111

Some great ideas here. It is sad but true that the bricks and mortar book shops have almost completely died off in the last decade or so. There is a shop in Birmingham and it's run by two absolute book geniuses, poor chaps barely stay in busy and do most of the remaining business online now.

RainbowChild_2

I am a dedicated booklover and we are in the process of moving house. I SADLY have to part with some. I have a massive collection, and some I can't bear to part with. From the others:

1. I have given friends and family first choice

2. Sold some through webuybooks.co.uk, fatbrain and zapper - not all sites accept all books so I lovingly sat and punched in ISBN's , the best price got my business - I am up to about £50 so far

3. The rest I will donate to a charity that supports literacy or a hospital

4. Rapidly filling my Kindle up with the books I am parting with