While cleaning out my garage a few weeks ago, I accumulated a huge pile of “stuff” to give to the Goodwill — enough that they were happy to come out and pick the “stuff” up from my garage. They took everything…except the 3 boxes of books I had. They told me that nobody read books anymore and thus it was hard to sell or even give away the books.
I thought they were out of their minds, so I took a trip to my local Half Price Books and was told the same thing. Unless I had a collectible of some sort, all my books were “trash” to them and they couldn’t even give some away.
My wife of course said to just throw the books out with the recycling to get rid of the boxes, I couldn’t imagine just throwing out these books that someone took so long to write and get to print!
I searched further to find a solution to my book problem and stumbled upon Better World Books.
Better World Books
Here is the part that struck me about the Better World Books book program:
“Every year thousands of libraries had millions of excess books as they made room for new editions. Some books sat in storage, and others were given away. But some were simply thrown out. Tossed, abandoned to the landfills for all eternity.
Convinced that something could be done to rescue these discarded books and help the planet a bit in the process, the founders set about partnering with librarians all across the country. Not only could they rescue books from landfills, they could also sell those books and raise money for the libraries themselves.”
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The best part about all this! I can send them my 3 boxes of books for free! All I do is tell them who I am and where I live and they give me a packing label to print out and put on my box and drop it off at the post office. They get billed for however much it costs to send the huge package of books, then they either give my books to another country who might need them or they sell them and make profit from what I was about to throw out! Either way, I feel good for giving away my old and dusty books.
If you know of a bunch of people within your church or maybe your church has a library of old books that could be used in a better way by more readers than just clogging up areas in your buildings! Perhaps you should check out the donation section, where you can host a book giveaway and earn money for your school or library by donating books to Better World Books.
Learn more on the Better World Books website.
Jeffrey Wiggs says
Seth,
My local library has a friends of the library sale where they set out their overstocks and excess volumes and has a big party selling the books by the paper bag. It works like this, you pay $20 for every paper bag you fill. The community has a great time with it.
We also have a local used book store that buys most of the books I have from me. They purchase the books for trade credit or a diminished amount of cash. Same with CDs, records, video games, DVDs and most all media really. They have a “Free Bin” out front where the customers put their rejected books and they find a home with people leaving the store.
Books aren’t dead! Thanks for providing one more option!
seth says
Jeffrey,
That is awesome! Where do you live? Back in college in Kansas my local library at the time did the same thing and I scored some really awesome old music books! I haven’t found much here in Texas…but would relish the opportunity it sounds like you have!
Thanks for your response!
Jeffrey Wiggs says
Sorry, just saw this question, I live in Tennessee.
Joanna says
Better World Books is wonderful. Not only are they doing great work for the community, they are often one of the best places to find older, more obscure second hand books.
Another option with second hand books is to look out for community groups and charities that run book fairs as a fundraiser. There is a yearly one I go to that is so well loved that people get there well before opening and queue on the first morning because they are so excited to get at the books.
seth says
Joanna,
Thanks! Where is this awesome book fair you speak of?
Joanna says
It’s in Bendigo, Australia over easter
Eric Dye says
I love this idea!