Your last final is behind you, and among plenty of other pressing concerns, it’s time to figure out what to do with all those textbooks you don’t want to keep. Regardless of whether or not you want to pocket some cash for your books, you have plenty of choices for clearing out your shelves. If you’re living a charmed life, your college or university bookstore wants every one of the books that you don’t and are paying top dollar for them. But back in the real world, you’re likely to find that you’re better off pursuing other options.
The ease of using the Internet has changed all the rules for disposing of unwanted books. Sites such as Amazon and eBay have made it very easy to create seller accounts, so now the book that your college bookstore wouldn’t buy or would only offer you a pittance for can be listed and sold online with minimal effort. The advantage of such sites is that they allow you the freedom to set your own selling prices. However, you also have the responsibility to ship the books and handle all customer inquiries, complaints, etc. Some folks find this process too burdensome and decide to list their books on sites such as Craigslist or a locally-operated classified ads site. Sites that have a local or regional appeal are often the best way to dispose of custom edition textbooks.
Even simpler yet, though, is to sell the book to an online book buyer. There is no shortage of websites that will guarantee the prices they pay for books, pay shipping costs, and even send you free packaging materials. The number of companies buying back textbooks online has mushroomed so much so in recent years that there are now sites that only gather prices from other websites. By entering ISBN numbers into consolidation sites, you can see what a variety of online buyers will pay you for your books and their purchase policies. This works nicely to compare online prices offered for current edition textbooks, but is especially helpful in finding prices for older edition textbooks as well as non-textbooks. Online buyers such as Textbook Recycling can be found in these consolidation sites and often buy these harder-to-sell books.
Your options really open up if you don’t want any money for your books or can’t find a buyer. Better World Books, International Book Project, and other organizations accept unwanted books on many campuses and donate these books to literacy groups all around the globe. If you want your support to be more local in scope, many books can be donated to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul and other similar organizations. Correctional and juvenile residential facilities often have libraries and typically accept many types of books as donations, as do groups affiliated with public libraries such as Friends of the Library. Beyond these local and regional options, the web offers the entire globe for donated books.
Book Crossing is a website that encourages people to leave books on busses, park benches, in train stations, etc. to give books a new and probably more interesting next life. You can even give a book a unique “tag” code that will allow you to follow your book on its travels. Book Mooch is a site that functions as a book swap where you can list books you want to give away and request books you want. You earn points by donating books and then can redeem your points to get books you want. Freecycle is a network of thousands of local groups around the world giving and getting all kinds of free stuff, books included. Simply access a group nearby, list what books you wish to give and receive, and let the online community work its magic.
Even with all these choices, books sometimes are too old or damaged to find a new life in good homes. In some communities, these books can be taken to the recycling center. Typically, these books are then sent to a company that pulps and recycles the pages of the book after de-binding and de-covering. However, if your local recycling center won’t take recycled books and you’ve exhausted all other imaginable options (need a door stop or a computer monitor stand?), it may wind up in the least desirable of destinations: the landfill. However, with such a global demand and hunger for books and knowledge, there are very few instances where you would need to chuck your books in a dumpster. Clearly, with a bit of effort, virtually every book can be re-purposed in some fashion, and you are limited only by your imagination.