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Old Books .. Where to Off Load them

DulwichFox

By DulwichFox
in The Lounge

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oimissus

oimissus

Posted
Posted
Speaking as someone who has worked in the book industry for 30 years, and is therefore well aware of the thousands of books pulped by publishers each year, I would just bin them. I know some people think that throwing books away makes you tantamount to a Nazi, but they are wrong and daft (and not lining up to take those books off your hands). You are right that some books are simply of no value. Bin them and don?t worry yourself about it for a second longer.
tomskip

tomskip

Posted
Posted
But if a charity shop can use them why just throw them? Far too much goes into landfill. Everyone can make an effort to reduce what they chuck out even if it seems insignificant in comparison to what big companies or the poor chronic hoarders throw away. Re-use is better than recycling! Have you tried putting them outside your house on a dry day Foxy? Someone will take some of them.
oimissus

oimissus

Posted
Posted

tomskip Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> But if a charity shop can use them why just throw

> them? Far too much goes into landfill. Everyone

> can make an effort to reduce what they chuck out

> even if it seems insignificant in comparison to

> what big companies or the poor chronic hoarders

> throw away. Re-use is better than recycling! Have

> you tried putting them outside your house on a dry

> day Foxy? Someone will take some of them.


Foxy has rightly pointed out that a charity shop is unlikely to want a Guinness Book of Records from the 70s. Why do you think charity shops wants unsaleable books? What do you think they?ll do with all the crap that?s donated to them?


I used to run the book stall at my daughter?s primary school. People seemed to think that is was fine to donate torn, scribbled-in, encrusted-with-food, missing pages books. They all went into the bin. Because no-one would buy them. Would you?

RichH

RichH

Posted
Posted

Some titles like the Guinness Book of Records are collectible so you might be surprised to find that charity shops will indeed be interested in them. Ones they can't sell through the shop may be sold on eBay or to big online retailers like "World of Books". You can sell to "World of Books" yourself via Ziffit which is part of the same company.


https://www.ziffit.com/en-gb/sell-my-books

JohnL

JohnL

Posted
Posted

oimissus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I used to run the book stall at my daughter?s

> primary school. People seemed to think that is was

> fine to donate torn, scribbled-in,

> encrusted-with-food, missing pages books. They all

> went into the bin. Because no-one would buy them.

> Would you?



When I was a youngster I loved reading what people had written in second hand books.


But that was before social media :)

Sue

Sue

Posted
Posted

JohnL Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What happened to the second hand book stores of my

> youth - they were a treasure trove back then - the

> local one to me was called "Ralph the Books"


They're still around!


There's a tiny one at the bottom of Oglander Road. I bought some books there a few weeks ago!

Sue

Sue

Posted
Posted

oimissus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> I used to run the book stall at my daughter?s

> primary school. People seemed to think that is was

> fine to donate torn, scribbled-in,

> encrusted-with-food, missing pages books. They all

> went into the bin. Because no-one would buy them.

> Would you?



But torn and damaged books are a quite different kettle of fish to books which are just old.


As pointed out above, some old books can be quite valuable from a money point of view, and others will be of interest to people for various reasons.


I quite often buy old books, because I find them interesting or amusing, or because I like the pictures, or sometimes to use them in collages or decoupage.


ETA: As BNG says above, the Oxfam book shop in Herne Hill will take any amount of books. I imagine they check them all and know which are worth more than others.


I have taken a large amount of books there in the past. In my shopping trolley (I know you don't have a car, Foxy 🦊 )

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