Where to sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and gaming stuff in Chicagoland?

April 24, 2009 9:59 AM

What are the best places in the Chicago area to sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and tabletop gaming materials?

My wife and I are moving into a new place in a month; since we're largely a digital-only household these days (Kindle, MacBook, iPhone), I'd like to take this opportunity to clean out the physical media that keeps following us around. We have a bunch of DVDs and CDs, as well as quite a few boxes of books (largely non-fiction and older tabletop gaming stuff, e.g., AD&D 2nd Ed.); I refuse to drag it all to yet another apartment.

I'd ideally like to be able to visit as few places as possible to offload the majority of what I have; I'm willing to drive (both within Chicago and the suburbs), but I don't want to end up having to visit 15 different places. I also don't want to list items individually on Craigslist since what I can expect to be paid per-item isn't worth the hassle of making many individual sales; by the same token, I really don't want to bother with eBay. My primary goal is getting rid of the stuff — not making the most amount of money possible. (Anything I don't end up selling will be given away and/or tossed.)

So, Chicago submodule of UsedStuffFilter ... suggestions? (The closest AskMeFi post I've found was this one for used CDs.)

posted by korpios to shopping (9 answers total)

Check out Myopic for books and Reckless Records for CDs. They're essentially next door to each other on Milwaukee in Wicker Park. I'm not sure about gaming stuff.
posted by ekroh at 10:22 AM on April 24, 2009

You should try Gallery for the books. I know they have some VHS, but I'm not sure how they feel about DVDs. The dude is cranky; I'd advise calling first, but sometimes that irks him... Also, Reckless is right down the street for the CDs and DVDs.
posted by esmerelda_jenkins at 10:26 AM on April 24, 2009

I also don't want to list items individually on Craigslist since what I can expect to be paid per-item isn't worth the hassle of making many individual sales; by the same token, I really don't want to bother with eBay.

Why would you have to sell the items individually through either of those venues? Just throw an ad up for the whole shebang.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 10:32 AM on April 24, 2009

When Imoved and de-stuffed last year, I had a moving sale in my apartment's living room for six hours and advertised the morning of on Craigslist, as well as putting a few ads in other places and posting flyers. I ended up making about $75 (I had a lot of stuff) and donated what I couldn't sell to Brown Elephant, who take just about everything. It was a lot of fun.
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:58 AM on April 24, 2009

After-words buys used books:

http://www.biblio.com/bookstores/afterwords.html

They're down in River North. Big used section in their basement. I've never sold books to them, but they have rules up in the store stating what they buy and when. IMPORTANT: call them first. I'm pretty sure they only buy at certain specific times during the week. Don't just show up expecting to offload.

Check out community yard/block sales to get rid of the other stuff.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:58 AM on April 24, 2009

I usually unload books at Half Price Books in Niles. They don't pay the best, but they gladly take everything.

2nd Hand Tunes in Evanston gives good prices for used CDs. They also buy DVDs, but I've never sold those there.

If you're only interested in unloading as much as you can in one place, then Half Price takes CDs & DVDs, too.
posted by limeswirltart at 10:59 AM on April 24, 2009

Late last year, the Trib had an article about places to sell used CDs. But since their site search is horrible, I can't find it. Permanent Records was mentioned, and you might want to checkout secondspin.com.
posted by tenaciousd at 11:16 AM on April 24, 2009

Disc Replay takes CDs/DVDs/games.
posted by steeb2er at 11:23 AM on April 24, 2009

I want to second the Brown Elephant. Tax deduction (whoo!) and all the money they raise goes to help AIDS patients in the Chicago community. They'll come and haul (they took my futon and bike and books!) and are extremely nice.
posted by melodykramer at 9:35 PM on April 24, 2009