Comments on: What to do with old college textbooks?

Question: What to do with old college textbooks?

keswick — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:52:11 -0800

I have some older college textbooks from the early to mid 1990s; is there conceivable market for these, or should I just throw 'em in the recycle bin? (They're mainly communication studies/theory, if that matters.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:59:11 -0800

Try looking them up on Half.com or ABEBooks to get a sense of the market. I doubt there'll be much.

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:03:23 -0800

eBay.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:19:29 -0800

It's probably not worth the trouble to sell 10 year old textbooks. I'd give 'em away through freecycle, or (as is common in my neighborhood) by putting them in a box labeled "free books" in front of my house.

By: prettyboyfloyd

prettyboyfloyd — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:24:49 -0800

Formerly an employee at a top 3 textbook publishing company we were instructed to destroy all superceeded editions of old books. I even asked about sending them to the developing world and my boss at the time (a very nice person) said that we had to destroy them.

So if you're at all concerned with the profit margins of the large textbook conglomerates...I'd say just burn 'em ;-]

By: wryly

wryly — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:40:02 -0800

Look on Amazon and see for yourself what they're selling for. To make sure you're comparing the same books, type in the ISBN number instead of the title.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:42:25 -0800

Not worth the bother of putting them on ebay or looking up prices. Bin 'em.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:43:39 -0800

It depends. Are they classics of the subject, like Marshall McLuhan texts, or are they just general textbooks? Like, are they actual books that you bought for class and that exist outside of classroom settings, or are they things with multiple authors and for intro classes?
If they're real books, there'll be a market for them. If they're just anthologies of "current" theory or something they'll be pretty well worthless.
When I see neat textbooks around town during move-out, I like to take the pictures and use them for mix cd liner notes.

By: cushie

cushie — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:07:43 -0800

If you are willing to pay the postage (cheap if you use book rate) you could consider donating them to prisoners/prison libraries. Here's a list of some of the orgs, there are probably others.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 20:47:49 -0800

Prison libraries have some pretty specific guidelines, so if they're hardcover you may be out of luck, but I'd try them first. I'd go the routes others have suggested, or if you're just going to recycle them anyhow, you can roll the pages [if they're not color printed] soak them in parrafin and they make great firestarters.

By: teece

teece — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 22:39:02 -0800

I doubt there worth selling, but don't just throw them away. Donate them somewhere. I know the college library here in Denver has a donation bin. I'm sure thrift stores would take 'em too.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 01:25:56 -0800

Why would you destroy perfectly good books? That's insane. At the very least donate them. Around here you can just drop them off at the municipal recyclying facility, where they have a "book recycling" area where you can rid yourself of and/or acquire unwanted books for free.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 09:56:06 -0800

No, don't donate them. If you donate them, what you will in all probability be doing is forcing a charity (or cash-strapped government agency) to spend money storing the books for a brief period, sorting the books, and disposing of the books. This is not a nice thing to do, and boils down to saying to the library or whatever "Here, you throw this away so I don't have to."

Just chuck them, or turn them into firestarters, or make furniture out of them.

If you must donate nearly-useless and totally unsellable items, also donate some amount of money with them to compensate the charity/agency for taking them off your hands and helping you feel warm fuzzies.

By: scody

scody — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 14:46:58 -0800

I actually had pretty good luck selling some old (early-mid '90s) textbooks on Amazon last year -- most of them were in communications/cultural theory. Not all of them sold, by any means, but I'd say a good half of them did.