How To-2: "How to Get Rid of Old Books"

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Old books can pile up and take up a lot of space. But what can you do with them besides let them collect dust or throw them in a bonfire? Here are some ideas.

Steps

1. Go to http://www.bookcrossing.com/ where you can release your books "into the wild". Register your book with this site and leave it somewhere so someone can find it and enjoy it.
   
2. Consider trading your old books for new books. Visit http://www.bookmooch.com/, http://www.paperbackswap.com/, http://www.titletrader.com/ or http://www.frugalreader.com/. For every book you send to someone else, you get a credit toward a new book. There are similar services at http://www.bookins.com/, and http://www.americasbookshelf.com/.
   
3. Head to eBay, half.com, and Amazon if you want to make money off selling your book. You can also start a part-time business selling your excess books online. Visit http://www.weberbooks.com/selling/selling.htm for ideas on how to sell your old books and obtain other books for resale.
   
4. Used bookstores will buy back or give trade credit for books in good condition.
   
5. Give your books to a thrift shop like Goodwill or Salvation Army.
   
6. Sell them in a garage sale.
   
7. Hold a book/stuff swap. Invite friends and trade things you want to get rid of.
   
8. Hold a White Elephant party, where everyone brings an unmarked wrapped gift of a gently used item which could be books, CDs etc.
   
9. Find a charity online that needs books by searching for book donations in Google. There are a lot of countries trying to rebuild their libraries in Asia and the Middle East.
   
10. Donate books to your local library or a Friends of the Library Group. Most libraries have yearly book sales. They'll resell to raise money for the library the Library and you get a tax write-off. You'll feel good too. Please make sure your donated books are in resale condition and remove any personal items (photos, bookmarks, letters, cards). Please don't donate books that have water stains, mold or mildrew stains or are bug infested - it can spread to other books and damage an entire collection.
    
11. Lend old books to your friends and vice versa. That way gain exposure to a variety of books without spending a lot of money.
    
12. If you are a college student, the college book store will buy back your books.
    
13. Offer them on one of the many online free recycling pages. Visit http://www.freecycle.org/ , http://www.recyclecentral.org/ , http://freesharing.org/ , or http://www.sharingisgiving.org/ to find a group in your area to free recycle. These groups list many listservs (based on what part of the country you live in) where you can post listings of things you want to give away. People will come to your home or workplace to pick them up.
    
14. Make a hollowed out book.
    

Tips

• When donating your books to charity, be sure to keep a receipt so you can get a tax deduction.
  
• File cardboard boxes work well for hauling books.
  
• If selling at a garage sale, be creative (and cheap!) with your pricing. Starting with 50 cents each, or 5 for $2.00, encourages people to take more books. Especially if you have lots of books, remember the goal is to get rid of as many as possible, because books are hard to store and heavy to tote to the resale shop. Make the price hard to resist and you will have better sales.
  

Warnings

• Garage sale books do not always sell well.
  
• College bookstores are notorious for only paying out small amounts in their buyback programs.
  
• Most used bookstores sell items for half the cover price. Expect to get around 20% of what the bookstore makes in trade or cash.
  
• Some bookstores charge tax on items when you use your trade credit.
  
• Don't give a book away before researching its value on a site such as abebooks.com .
  

Things You'll Need

• Old books
  
• Packing materials - envelopes, packing tape, stamps (if using a website which will involve your packing and shipping)
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Organize Books
  
• How to Package Books for Shipping
  
• How to Make a Hollow Book
  
• How to Read Good Books
  
• How to Clean a Book
  
• How to Pack for College
  
• How to Hold a Used Book Sale
  

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