What to do with Old Books?

[Midpack]

My excess books have been sold on half.com, given to friends, donated to the local prison, or just thrown out.

Though I love books, I made the decision many years ago to confine myself to one full size bookcase. Once full, if I decided to add to it, another book had to go. May seem arbitrary, but my parents and sister have bookcases all over their homes, filled with books that they never read again and many too out of date to be of any use. My bookcase has been condensed to what I consider real treasures, not just every book I ever read/bought.

And with my local library and iBooks these days, it's pretty easy to resist buying hard cover books. YMMV

 

[Katsmeow]

It is possible that some of these books could be collectible and have value. Some years ago I used to buy paperbacks for as little as 25 cents that I sold for anywhere from a few dollars to about $80 apiece. The thing is that many paperbacks in some genres were never published in any other form and are now out of print, but are by authors that are very popular and some people will spend serious money to track down those books. Nowadays, it is harder to find that kind of thing in the bookstores as the stores are more sophisticated and they find those valuable books when they come in and the store then sells them for a lot. The thing is that most people don't have a clue as to what is valuable or not valuable. A book that was a bestseller when it came out has probably been reprinted many times and is less likely to be valuable than the obscure book by an author who became popular later.

As far as hard cover books it depends. I remember one book that I was about to sell for half price books for virtually nothing when I looked it up on ebay (along with some other books). That gave me the information to finally realize it was a first edition which at the time was worth a couple of hundred dollars.

All of that said - I have found that if you don't want to just toss the books and you don't want to sell them then I have gotten the biggest bank for the buck in the past by trading them in to a bookstore that will give trade credit (nowadays though I don't do that since I buy almost everything for Kindle).

 

[photoguy]

Scan the books and keep them electronically. It's actually not very difficult with the right tools (stack cutter, good scanner).

 

[haha]

Today I went to Amazon to sell a book that I recently bought but don't want to keep. I noticed their buyback price was pretty good, and saw that my net on a buyback would be within $1 of matching the lowest price on my condition. All I have to do is package it, and drop it at UPS store for a free delivery to Amazon. There is one only 6 blocks away, so I doing this and I'll be rid of the book by tomorrow AM.

Ha

 

[Milton]

I recommend BetterWorldBooks.com as the easiest and most satisfying solution.