Used Book Stores

Wondering how many of you do as I do: when I’ve got 10 or 12 books that I don’t want to keep/re-read/give away, I take them to my local used book dealer. I always opt for store credit (instead of cash), and walk out with 4 or 5 “new” books — often by authors I’ve never read before, but sometimes filling in gaps in a particular series or going back to a favorite writer. (Those they don’t want go to Goodwill.)

I live in a rural area, so those online bookswap sites was a good option for me.

I donated most of my physical books to the local library sale and to a prison book program in a death-cleaning effort to give away things I was tired of maintaining. Alas, this backfired because it just made more room on the shelves for my husband to put his crap. Grrrr.

>1 AlexanderPatico:

I did that, too. Well, I did before the pandemic. Now they are closed, so I can't just walk in and do it. Appointments are necessary, they restrict the number of books, and don't return unwanted ones (they send them off to Better World Books).

There's a charity in my area that runs a used bookstore - proceeds go to their literacy programs - so I've been donating my unwanted books to them.

As I’m downsizing, store credit is not a good option for me. The only remaining used book store likes “as new” condition, which really does not reflect my collections or interests. The bookstore I really enjoyed selling to sadly closed its doors last year. Our arrangement had been that the credit was allowed to be spent by my daughter.

I donate most books now to the local library for their sales. I’m building a Little Free Library for in front of my house too.

My town’s Senior Center has a truly pitiful library for its residents, so I’ve been dropping off 15 or 20 books at a time for them. It’s funny, but I still don’t have any additional space on my shelves!

I'm also downsizing -- but not really. After MrsHouseLibrary died (3 years ago in November,) I planned on being in a much smaller place within a year. Being a pathetically slow reader, I realized that if I kept only 200 books, I still wouldn't finish them all before I joined her in the urn. We had, at one point, over 2,500 books on our shelves, and not all of our books were cataloged her on LT.
I loved her very much (still do,) but she was a hoarder -- a collector, she would say -- of so many different things. I couldn't lower the blinds because all the window sills were full of ... crap; junk; memorabilia; trinkets; and a lot of dust because there was no way one could spend the time to clean them and the sills off.
Regardless, I haven't bought a book in easily six years now; not even digital ones. My only reason to go to B&N is to buy a new blank book for my journaling.
And now with the exponential growth in population in the Austin area, sure I could get almost twice for this house than it's really worth, but I still wouldn't be able to buy a smaller house anywhere near here. And it will be quite some time before I can unload all the stuff in my house that I don't need or want.

I used to take my used books to "Book Stop" in Nairobi. They would give cash, which I would immediately spend on new second-hand books. Unfortunately they stopped dealing in used books a few years back, although they still exist as a very good book shop. They were one of the first shops in the Yaya Centre, which was probably the first modern shopping mall in Nairobi, but they are struggling now in the face of rising rents.

My friends of the library stopped taking donations during Covid and have not resumed. The 2nd hand bookshop nearest me is 12 miles away and it's not really worth it to drive to...in a not so nice neighborhood to boot. The good news is I rarely read tree books anymore. I prefer ebooks as they don't take up space and I can adjust the font to read in bed without glasses, and they are cheaper. If by chance I read a tree book (I have about 250 of them left on my shelves), I will usually donate it to Goodwill, the only charity near me.

>1 AlexanderPatico:. I do! I am also a Little Free Librarian and a member of my public library's Friends, so all my books are second hand and get circulated for many more hands. I prefer physical books (except for audiobooks when driving) and it would be an expensive habit otherwise.

It got difficult when things were shut during the pandemic, but my overly stuffed TBR shelves and Little Free Libraries kept me going.

I live in a rural area, too, with a small town library but no bookstore of any sort.

I have a growing stack of books that I want to give to the library, however they want to use them. Most are hardcover, read once and deemed unworthy to make room for on my shelves.

>2 nohrt4me2: "Alas, this backfired because it just made more room on the shelves for my husband to put his crap. Grrrr."
Omg. That made me laugh out loud, as I can relate so well! Thanks for the laugh!

>10 terriks: Glad to provide a laugh.

My husband is probably on some type of spectrum--overly attached to objects and inflexible about any changes to his surroundings, which includes crammed bookshelves.

The motor burned out on my 60-year-old sewing machine last week. I will have to sneak it to the curb on garbage day or it will go into the cemetery of broken power tools and typewriters in the garage.

>6 WholeHouseLibrary: I was the executor for my mother's estate, and she was also a "collector." I know whereof you speak. There are services you can hire to sort, sell, and haul. Then get a crew in to deep clean. It is money well spent.

I live in a big city so I have 3 or 4 good used bookstores where I like to sell back my books for store credit.
I also have a Little Free Library!
littlefreelibrary.org

>12 nrmay: Does anyone use those little libraries? They're cute and everything, decent idea, but we have about a dozen of them around here, and the books never seem to turn over. Sometimes they are vandalized by drunken high schoolers with baseball bats. Nice to think that elsewhere people do use them.

>13 nohrt4me2: They do in my neighborhood. We have a neighborhood group email too. And when someone has other small items to distribute they stick them in the library and send out a notice. Seeds is the most recent other item.

>13 nohrt4me2: & >14 2wonderY: Little Free Libraries are used in my neighborhood, too. Of course, a good librarian has to cull and curate them. I take out books that don't move and replace them with others. I also replace religious (proselytizing) materials and things that folks seem to put in there just because they are embarrassed to take something without leaving something. Got a bunch of 2022 wall calendars last week which I left in, as well as a nice hard bound notebook which I kept for myself.

>15 vwinsloe: I also switch things around from the other LFL on the other side of town and the free cart at the library itself. That helps too.

>16 2wonderY:. Good ideas. Thanks.

On a hunch, I did a search and found that there is a Little Free Library Group here on LT, although it appears to be dormant.
https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/17465