Collecting and De-Collecting

[surreysmum]

I have a question for other book-lovers like me who have also indulged in active collecting of paper books, on some pet subject or author or other criteria.  (First of all, hail fellow-spirits!)  As I get older, I realize that the thrill of the hunt has largely disappeared for some of my collections - in fact, the thrill took a huge hit overall when online bookselling became the dominant thing, but that's a whole other topic - and I'm now considering downsizing.

So, if you're in the process of moving books back out from your shelves into the big world, or have been through this, what strategies would you recommend? I'm in a large city, but second-hand storefronts are much rarer than they used to be, and the dealers much more defensively picky than they used to be if you walk in with a big pile you want to sell.  I don't really want to get into the hassles of individual shipping of books and conducting sales on eBay or kajiji or such, but if that's the only option, can you recommend a platform?

Any other suggestions? All advice very welcome.

Also, if anybody out there has a compulsive interest in biographies of figure skaters... :)

[OtterMommy]

It sounds like donating is not an option you are considering, or else I would suggest giving them to your local library for their book sale.

I get the desire NOT to get into the shipping business--I've done that and it is a major pain in the ass.  If you were willing to do a little bit of that, you could offer your books in one large group or 3-4 lots.  That way you could let go of a larger number of books in fewer shipments.

Since everything is also on one topic, you could venture into the world of figure skating fandom and see if anyone there is interested.

I also get the issue with the second hand stores.  I have 2 in my area and one will only accept paperbacks and the other (Powell's) is inexplicably picky.  Since your books are pretty niche, I think the 2nd hand route would be difficult.

[Melgaypet]

If you're willing to forego making any profit, then I second the suggestion of donating to your local library.

[Hanahope]

Last year, I gave away several boxes of books to the library.

This year, I'm endeavoring to completely empty one of my four bookcases (as one is falling apart), and I'm allowing my kids to hold a book sale in our front yard during the summer to try and get rid of them.  I told them they could keep whatever they sell them for, so motivation.  They're also going to go through books and their American Girl doll clothes to try and sell some of those.

Its a bit hard trying to decide what to get rid of.  I'm tossing any book that either I can't remember very well (so it obviously didn't make much of an impression on me) or that I don't think either of my kids would like.  There are many that I really hope to have time to reread again someday.

[henrysmom]

Oh my.  Such a problem--I know because I share it :0

First, selling.  Used bookstores are quickly becoming a thing of the past around me.  Even when they were around they generally didn't want the odd stuff I read so I wasn't too upset when they started disappearing/going online.  So i feel your pain there.

I do sell books, on Amazon and Ebay.  Amazon is incredibly competitive.  All of the big sellers are on there, and little sellers can't compete (there is just no profit on a penny book unless you are getting a major shipping discount, and you need to be a big seller to get that).  I would not recommend Amazon really, especially if you don't have anything rare or special.  Plus the fees Amazon is charging are getting higher all the time.  I've stopped bothering with anything priced under $15 because it just isn't worth my time.

Ebay is iffy too, but the great thing about them is you can do books in lots.  You can't, or aren't supposed to anyway, on Amazon.  And sometimes something strikes a chord with bidders and all of a sudden you are getting $45 for a little group of paperbacks you've had sitting around the house unread for ten years.  Or you put a really nice book on there, where the lowest priced copy on Abebooks is fifty bucks, and you can't sell your copy for $5.  You just don't know.  But--the job lots clean things out quicker, and even a single book sold on Ebay is less in fees than on Amazon.

What I would do if I were you--go to Abebooks (www.abebooks.com) because it is really the most stable of the book selling sites.  Look up the prices of your books.  Set aside any that sell for more than $5.  Take the rest and put them into job lots on Ebay.  If they don't sell after two auctions (I think you only get two free auctions before higher fees kick in), donate them.  It isn't worth your time.  Then you can do the individual books.  If some sell, great.  If not, do the job lot thing again.  And if they still don't sell, donate them.

Since you specifically mention ice skating books, you might want to try selling when ice skating is "hotter".  I know we just missed the Olympics but maybe the next national tournament would be a good time.  Ebay buyers tend to be more willing to buy at such times.  So if you are willing to wait awhile you might do a little better.

So that is my selling advice for what it is worth.  I'm going to talk donating in another post because that is a whole other kettle of fish.  

[henrysmom]

I'm just going to post a little about donating books because I've just had to donate TONS of books, almost literally.  It was roughly 2,000 books from a now defunct lending library at my workplace.  These were really nice books, popular fiction and non-fiction.

And it was incredibly hard finding places to take them.  

I know the main reaction of people is "the library will love to get them".  Sadly, not really true.  I called several local libraries.  All said no.  Reasons varied from "no space" to "no need" to "we have too many donations already".  So please, don't just pull up to the local library and drop them off.  You probably won't get a genuine thank you from them.  And since I'm a librarian myself I fully understand that.  Not all libraries do book sales, and those that do often have very little storage space.  Please call before you donate anything, and make sure they can use it. 

I had made a list of roughly ten places to call about donating the books we had.  As I said, every library said no.  So did the local Goodwill and a couple of smaller charity thrift stores (too many on hand already).

I ended up with two places.  One was a small charity store that was willing to take one large box or two smaller boxes of books a week.  The other (thank god) was willing to take anything we had.  This is a local group that does an annual book sale for charity.  And what was really great was that they had a large book drop outside their building so I could go there anytime and drop books off.

You may want to look for a similar organization in your town.  If you go to https://booksalefinder.com/ and look for sales in your state, you may find a similar group.  The American Association of University Women also often has book sales as fundraisers so you may want to look on their website for a local chapter and get a contact name (https://www.aauw.org/)

I know you'd rather sell, but if you do do decide to just donate, I hope this helps.

[GaT]

I usually go to Half Price Books because they will take anything. You don't get a whole lot of money, but it's easier than trying to get rid of the books one at a time. Of course, if there isn't a Half Price Books near you, this is irrelevant LOL.

[Hanahope]

I have a Purple Heart that I donate clothes and odd stuff to a couple times a year.  They will take books too.  I can call or go online to schedule a day for them to come collect the donations.

[surreysmum]

Thank you to everybody who responded - you've definitely given me some good ideas. I should have specified that I'm in Canada, but even so, many of your suggestions are still relevant.  I live next door to the major downtown branch of my public library, and they have a permanent (although not terribly big) standing resale store that I actually browse now and then. I'm not sure they'd take so many books all on one topic at once, but I certainly should ask them. Also, you just reminded me that several colleges within the University of Toronto do big booksales in the Fall to raise money, and i think one of them even picks up (transportation of bulky stuff is a problem for me since I don't drive, so even a rental car is out of the question).  As for money  - sigh, I never expected the darned things to be an investment, but I wouldn't mind recouping a little on the nicest items at least. I'll have to think about whether it's worth the hassle of an eBay listing or two on those.  Thanks to the person who reminded me I could do some pricing by scanning abebooks - I've done that before on my really nice stuff (my small collection of 18th and 19th-century leather-bound material, for instance), but of course it's probably worth the effort to see whether any of the skating material is worth isolating for rarity or timeliness. It seems Ms Tonya Harding is undergoing a bit of a public redemption, for instance (ugh).

Thanks again, and if anybody has still more ideas, please chime in! I'm not in any hurry, but it's going to have to happen sooner or later, and I don't want curses from my surviving family after I leave this earth.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 5/18/2018 at 1:39 PM, henrysmom said:

I know the main reaction of people is "the library will love to get them".  Sadly, not really true.  I called several local libraries.  All said no.  Reasons varied from "no space" to "no need" to "we have too many donations already".  So please, don't just pull up to the local library and drop them off.  You probably won't get a genuine thank you from them.  And since I'm a librarian myself I fully understand that.  Not all libraries do book sales, and those that do often have very little storage space.  Please call before you donate anything, and make sure they can use it. 

I'm a recently retired librarian who did most of the processing of donations at my branch  and I can't stress enough to all of you how true this is.  I don't think any librarian wants to refuse gift materials  (we mostly got some wonderful things that we were thrilled to get)  but if you had any idea of the number of times people just pulled up in front of my Manhattan NYC branch library with a literal TRUCKLOAD of books and just brought them inside without asking first - our  branch was in the ground floor of an office building, we had no basement or attic.  The whole staff would be climbing over and around all the damned boxes for the many days it would take before we could get enough bins from shipping to pack them up and load them into the trucks to bring them to the department that would deal with them. 

Also, though of course I know nobody here would do such a thing, we got our share of books that weren't just filthy and damaged, but crawling with vermin - meaning staff had to drop everything they were doing, send somebody out to buy garbage bags, and then seal the infested materials up before the whole library was infested.  Just one experience like that will leave the staff severely gun-shy about donations so be aware that other people's crummy behavior may affect the library's policies.

Edited May 20, 2018 by ratgirlagogo

[Irlandesa]

Another donation option is prison libraries.  Obviously, investigate whether or not they accept donations and how to do it but prison libraries aren't always the first libraries people think about when donating so they may be more in need.

[Hanahope]

One thing I noticed while I was unpacking/decluttering my bookcases is just how huge books have gotten in recent years.  Back when I was a teen (getting close to 40 years ago), the fiction books I bought were pretty thin, maybe 250 pages tops, most were less.  There were the few 'big books' (like The Thorn Birds), but they were relatively few.  Now, its almost normal for books to be 500, 600 pages long.  No wonder some authors struggle to finish a series, or their books seem like half filler crap.  Agatha Christie wrote very good mysteries and her books are so thin.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Hanahope

[NutMeg]

On 5/21/2018 at 3:59 AM, Irlandesa said:

Another donation option is prison libraries.  Obviously, investigate whether or not they accept donations and how to do it but prison libraries aren't always the first libraries people think about when donating so they may be more in need.

This is also a good option for expats. When I lived in Bangkok, I happened to have an Australian neighbour who visited inmates and would take any books I wanted to donate. It's worth checking with embassies of English (or other languages, as the case may be) speaking countries for contacts of prison visitors.

[topanga]

On 5/24/2018 at 11:36 AM, Hanahope said:

One thing I noticed while I was unpacking/decluttering my bookcases is just how huge books have gotten in recent years.  Back when I was a teen (getting close to 40 years ago), the fiction books I bought were pretty thin, maybe 250 pages tops, most were less.  There were the few 'big books' (like The Thorn Birds), but they were relatively few.  Now, its almost normal for books to be 500, 600 pages long.  No wonder some authors struggle to finish a series, or their books seem like half filler crap.  Agatha Christie wrote very good mysteries and her books are so thin.

I agree. And thanks for your shout-out to ‘The Thorn Birds.’ This took me back to 8th grade, when almost all of us girls were reading yet another novel about Forbidden Love. 

[Hanahope]

22 minutes ago, topanga said:

I agree. And thanks for your shout-out to ‘The Thorn Birds.’ This took me back to 8th grade, when almost all of us girls were reading yet another novel about Forbidden Love. 

Gosh, remember the days when all the girls were carrying fun reading books?  Nowadays, its such a chore to get my kids to read a book for fun.  Instead of a book, their heads are buried in a phone.

[kathyk24]

Are there any senior centers or senior housing near you? They will often have community rooms with books. Our city has a mobile library and I'm sure they would appreciate some new books.

[SmithW6079]

Late to the topic here, but hospitals may be another option. I've been in some hospitals that have little lending libraries for patients or people waiting for patients. 

[AuntiePam]

I've known people who bought used books by the yard in order to fill bookshelves in their new homes.  They wanted the look of a library without actually reading anything.  So maybe join a few local Facebook buy-sell-trade groups and offer books for a penny, or free. 

I've been donating books for years, trying to winnow before my kids have to deal with them.  I even talked the mayor into building shelves at city hall, since my little town doesn't have a library.  I stocked the shelves and people can check out books as they please -- no due date, no fines, etc.  I got rid of a couple hundred that way.

If your friends have garage sales, ask if you can put some books on their sale, let them keep the money.  Or they could use "Free Books" as a come-on for their sale.