selling used books: classic or frustrating dud?

I ebayed the immediately valuable books I had (surprisingly, a collection of shitty John Norman mysogynistic Gor crap I never even read; Eric Idle's terrible 70's novels), and I did sell a good amount of this stuff just now, but am still left with a box that not even Half Price Books (a west coast, maybe US chain, of bargain used books) wouldn't even buy (and they only gave me $15 for the other four boxes!). Some of it isn't surprising: does anyone need the TV-tie in Signet edition of Tale of Two Cities? Richard Bach? A tattered copy of Lady Chatterly's Lover? No. This is garage sale stuff at best. But some I'm still surprised to have: A basically NEW copy of the Gormenghast books (all three bound together, the overlook edition; selling it because I found nice hardbacks of the books); Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books (scifi).

But after looking at so many books, I began to, ahem, HATE books. I can't imagine what working in a used bookstore must do to people. There is so much printed material. There are SO MANY copies of Walden. All the books get dusty, no-one wants to read them....so sad!

Blasphemers!

Still, you are right about the things that no-one needs. I spend my days ripping the covers off Len Deighton and binning John Galsworthy. No-one wants these books, and what's even more tiring is the idea that somehow these crappy paperbacks are worth preserving. They weren't built to be preserved. Let them go.

But I still love books. I still love it when we get nice Penguin editions of classic books (I've always loved that grey Penguin edition of Animal Farm with the detail from "Guernica"). And I love how pleased people are to find those things. Last week a woman found a book in our shop that her mother had written. The book has been out of print for ages and her mother only has one copy left. She was really pleased. So it's not all doom and gloom.

Although yesterday I was physically assaulted by someone I was trying to remove from the shop. But that's another story...

just take the ones you don't want to a library booksale or charity shops.

This means I can always find a new home for a used book I need to get rid of. I also have lots of good sources for buying them. This wealth of opportunities has deeply shaped my book buying habits. I buy used books almost exclusively and I sell or trade my books rather often. I feel very lucky.

we did wind up putting many books on the sidewalk for people to take. Ha, I know exactly who picked up the TSR choose-your-own-adventure books, Mr. Kilt-wearing Goth Type in the Building Next Door!

have there been any astonishing advances in methods to sell used books since August 17, 2004?

i'm getting ready to make a big move in a few months, and i think it's time to get rid of about 2/3 of my books. it's not like most of them are worth a lot of money, individually, but taking them to some bookstore or goodwill and getting $50 for the whole thing (most likely) seems like a total ripoff. but the other option is listing them individually on amazon and making hundreds of visits to the post office, i guess?

i've never sold a book online

but in my experience, selling books is like selling cds

it's good to bring in a sizeable chunk and salt it with more valuable books so they will take pity on you and offer some for the not so valuable ones

also it's good to visit a store that knows you as they will be inclined to be generous

the impulse to rid yourself of books is wise tho

Classic if you don't want books. Dud if you want more than taco money.

My wife and I just took about 75% of our books to a good used bookstore. The store bought about half of that amount, and we made a few hundred bucks. (I'd estimate that we made about $2 per book that was sold.) I was pretty happy with the outcome, tbh.

Yeah, not that's bad! And I guess you took the others to a goodwill or a flea market or something similar?

I think I brought about 150-200 books to a good used book store last week and got about 50 bucks for like 30 of them. They have a p strict quality and wear policy, too the rest to a lax thrift store.

took

as someone who has bought many bargain books on ebay i can say it's totally a buyers market. there's no competition for sales unless you have particularly rare books. coupled with the cost/hassle of shipping there's no profit in online book selling.

we made about $2 per book that was sold
that's an exceptional amount to make. you'd be lucky to make that at most used bookstores. you must have had decent books.

whenever i want to get rid of books i just give them to a decent used independant bookstore and figure that's my way of supporting local businesses.

decent independant used bookstore

http://www.powells.com/sell/

^^they even give you a label to print out.

Well, it depends. By and large, it is an experience superior to the sale of records and clothing in every way. Someone will always complain about vinyl, I would only sell it if I were absolutely certain of the condition and worth. Ditto for books. Otherwise the books can easily be donated to someone ... records - I'd sell low if I were not sure - people might complain to you about your ludicrously low price but it's a learning experience. As with books those things can take a lot of space.

Selling records or clothes is stressful - books, not at all, but perhaps it's because I also spent a good chunk of my adult life buying them.

Info on your book is much easier to find, prices more stable. You'd be surprised at how many $200 and $300 books you can sell if you are branching beyond novels! I sold my dad's law and math books and netted about $600!! Art and architecture is a good investment, too - and what I like is that you are certain of the item's worth, whereas really expensive vinyl can be - musically speaking - SHIT.