Getting Rid of My Books!
I know a lot of PF bloggers are selling their books through Amazon or eBay. Great. Good luck to them. I’d rather not wait in a post office line.
Today, with a friend, I donated books to a non-profit literacy charity and used book store. It was awesome. They took every book I had. I made back $4.00 of value for every hardback book I bought on sale for $7.00. How’s that? I donated them to the charity and that’s the fair market value the clerk quoted to me. The paperbacks, trade and regular, were $2.00 a piece. I did include an audio book, which I also valued at $4.00, for lack of a better figure. (And to be rid of it completely.) The total donation was valued at $68 for a 5 minute errand. Well worth it.
1) I got rid of everything. Even at used book stores that give you credit or cash, they don’t take everything.
2) It was uber-efficient. It took 5 minutes! I didn’t even have to park the car, but leave it in the alley/loading zone with the blinkers on.
3) I didn’t incur a cost to do it. No posting an ad. No postage. No shipping materials. Nothing! It was a teeny diversion from our final destination.
4) I made a charitable donation, which is tax deductible.
If you’re living in the DC area, go to Books for America at 1417 22nd St, NW, Washington, DC 20037. It’s a few blocks west of Dupont Circle, just one block south of The Brickskeller. They also take audio books and CD’s. Take a look at their donation page for a full list of items they accept and pick-up services.
Consider donating your used books to your local library. They can sell them to raise funds for the library.
Savvy Steward wrote:
I agree with you that unless its a really expensive textbook or something, it easier to sell or give away books in bulk instead of trying to sell each of them online.
Its also worthwhile to donate to small town libraries that might be struggling to get more books.
Posted on 03-Feb-07 at 5:36 pm | Permalink
udandi wrote:
obviously given my profession it is awesome when people think LIBRARY, but as one who has to thin out the donation bin weekly, please consider asking what books do well being donated. For our system, if it is a textbook, yellowed, musty, moldy, smokey smelling, tattered or out of date, it probably won’t make it to the Friends of the Library sale.
People don’t realize most of the time we are doing them a service by recycling their junked books for them!
Posted on 04-Feb-07 at 4:51 pm | Permalink
» Linky Linky! on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity wrote:
[…] Flexo gives some advice on what you shouldn’t do when looking for a job. Mighty Bargain Hunter writes about our woefully pathetic savings rate (or should I say unsavings rate?) Mapgirl writes about donating her books, which is a good alternative to trying to sell it. […]
Posted on 04-Feb-07 at 9:37 pm | Permalink
AllFinancialMatters » Blog Archive » JLP’s Weekly Roundup XL wrote:
[…] Mapgirl’s Getting Rid of Her Books - I have lots of books I need to get rid of. I thought about slapping some “AllFinancialMatters.com” stickers inside my books and donating them to the library. […]
Posted on 05-Feb-07 at 11:09 am | Permalink
Debt Hater wrote:
I’m with you.
I had about 50 books listed on half.com and sold maybe 6 of them and only made coins on each sale anyway. I delisted the rest and donated them to the city’s library system. They took every book and I can write them all off.
Posted on 05-Feb-07 at 11:52 am | Permalink
» The Carnival is Up, and Thoughts On Finance Writing on Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog wrote:
[…] Getting Rid of Mapgirl’s Books […]
Posted on 05-Feb-07 at 7:42 pm | Permalink