What do you do with old books?

Liz and I decided to clean out our basement in order to make room for whatever new clutter we collect in the next few years. We decided to start with our bookshelves.

Liz and I love books. Liz belongs to the local "Friends of the Library" organization and we support both our local and county library. Generally, once we buy a book, we don't like to get rid of it. Now, unfortunately, we have to make some room. We have quite a few hundred books.

Many of them are our old, outdated college books. I majored in economics back in the early 1970s and I still have all of the textbooks that I bought. Liz studied Physical Therapy (also in the 1970s) and still has all of her books. In the early 1990s I went back for my MBA with a concentration in Accounting. I still have all of those books.

We want to give them to our local library for the upcoming book sale, but they don't want to take them because they already have a warehouse full of textbooks and ours are too old and out of date. We tried our local charities, our favorite The Market Street Mission, and The Salvation Army among others, but they are no longer accepting books. They too have too many.

The books are far too good, and in too good condition to just throw away. And, it would bother us to trash them.

So, the question is this, what do you do with old books? Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

Why not try putting an ad on Craigslist? Maybe "free to a student" or whatever you want to do. Lots of college students surf Craigslist for free/quasi-free stuff, and if you are looking to donate, that might be a painless way.

 

Not a bad idea. I'll try that. Thanks.

The only problem is the books are 35 years old and much of the information in them is out of date. My Samuelson "Economics" is the 4th edition and I believe its now up to about the 25th (perhaps later) edition. I found the price tag inside the book. Back in 1970 I paid $3.50 for it used (new it was $4.50). Today's edition of that same book is somewhere in the neighborhood of $60.00to $75.00 used and probably over $100.00 new.

 

Books are expensive! Certainly a charity that supports an overseas community would need books. Get creative .... Google!

 

When you find the answer to this one, be sure to post it.

 

I recommend recycling the paper. That is what I do now Rob.

 

Unfortunately, that may be the only alternative. It seems there are so many old textbooks around that nobody wants books with 30 year old knowledge.

Years ago I used to live across the street from the main branch of Barnes and Nobles in New York City. They opened up a sale annex and sold old books, including old text books for 15 cents each. When I asked a clerk why people bought them she told me that people would sometimes buy them for props (ie:furniture stores) and sometimes just to fill up libraries in their homes. It seems that there is such an oversupply today that you can't even give them away.

 

^ You are right, Rob...it seems a shame but old books just aren't wanted these days. Too bad.

 

Have to agree. It also seems that each Prof will ensure you buy his latest publication. I think its the old "publish or perish" mentality.

 

I donated all of mine to the local library. I told them keep what ya want, put the rest in your annual sidewalk sale.

I was not going to take the time to try and sell a ton of old used books on ebay or something, too much work, I did not want the money I just wanted them to go away.