I miss my old used bookstores. I had one I went to since I was twelve. The owner's husband was moving to the U.A.E. and she sold it, without telling anyone, apparently, but me. I bought the last book she sold.
The new owners tried to make it into a Christian thing but didn't understand the nuances of the used book industry the way she did, and so it folded after some time.
Meanwhile, I have thousands of used books and I have no idea what to do with them. Old programming books -- what to do with those? Are they worth anything to anyone now? Fiction I can understand, but these seemed to have aged out. I think I have books on Java old enough to drive.
>Meanwhile, I have thousands of used books and I have no idea what to do with them. Old programming books -- what to do with those? Are they worth anything to anyone now?
Mot really. Maybe some old programming, guide books, etc. are vaguely interesting for someone to flip through if they're old enough but, for the most part, no. And anyone you donate them to will just throw them out. No one wants my 1970s Encyclopedia Brittanica out in the garage either.
As an individual who doesn't want to maybe earn minimum wage or less selling them, the only real answer is donate your books in general. Understand that those that don't get sold at the library book sale or whatever will probably end up in recycling.
Oh yeah. Part of the pain is that I used to work for a library (though not as a librarian) and am therefore familiar with the well-intentioned donation concept.
Yeah. There are a ton of things where "surely someone somewhere would want this and might even pay a nominal sum for it" is probably true. But spending a couple days setting up a yard sale, arranging things on Craigslist (much less individually packaging up and selling items online), etc. just isn't worth it.
The new owners tried to make it into a Christian thing but didn't understand the nuances of the used book industry the way she did, and so it folded after some time.
Meanwhile, I have thousands of used books and I have no idea what to do with them. Old programming books -- what to do with those? Are they worth anything to anyone now? Fiction I can understand, but these seemed to have aged out. I think I have books on Java old enough to drive.