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Take the time to follow these steps as you determine how you will use your used books.
Gather your books you want to get rid of in one space, preferably one that has a large table for your to work. Your dining room table will do just fine.
Sort the fiction titles into two boxes: Keep and Yard Sale. In the keeper box, I would put first or early editions writers. In a yard sale box, I would put popular fiction by authors, plus anything from reading clubs, damaged books, cooking books, losing weight books and the stacks of magazines you want to get rid of fast.
Before you take those books off to the dump, take a little time to learn about how to donate or sell used books to help charities raise support, to recycle, and even earn more money for your family.
Usually, the first few books are priced at a $.01. If you see the first two pages containing nothing but $.01 books, then place your book in your yard sale box. Pick up the next book to look through.
Any damaged books, moldy books, or those titles that have torn or damaged covers or are missing pages, discard them because no one will be interested in them.
Keep relationship books, travel books, and any other books which look to be of a limited press run or contain unique content. In the yard sale box, put in books that are heavily marked up with highlighting or writing, outdated college textbooks, and heavily used kids books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, or self-help books.
Separate out fiction from non-fiction. The best titles to sell online are ‘how-to’ titles because people love figuring out how to do things. You also need to distribute books into particular categories. Often times you will be able to separate the books into particular categories:
Spiritual books- These would be books that would help people with their relationship with God or how they can engage with helping others. An organization that would be able to help you with this would be St. Mary’s Bookstore.
Health books- These books are in high demand at this moment as we live in a culture that is focused on health related issues. These books could vary from what to eat to how to get better fit with your health. There are lots of health related books that can be found at Goodreads.
How To Books- These books are very popular. People are looking for anything for how to paint your home which a lot of people will end up using sites like Youtube to find help with painters or painting their home. There are also other books or websites of organizations or even Facebook that can help with issues such as painters or home contractors or plumbers or electricians, etc. Here is an organization where information can be found to help with painters and house painters. There are great resources to help with finding out which books are great to use for how to projects. Here is an article about these types of how to books.
Now, somewhere in the steps between when you checked the online price for your used books and you haul the unwanted old books off to the store, you’ll want to list the books left over in your boxes that you want to keep books at online websites to raise extra cash.
I would suggest that you not list your keeper books at less than $6.00, as you won’t earn much more than 2 dollars each, and you’ll be running yourself ragged running back and forth to the Post Office. I would not bother posting a book that has a rank above 6 million, as this book likely will add to your clutter forever, instead of leaving your home more open– your ultimate goal in your home improvement housecleaning exercise in the first place.
In the giveaway box, I would put popular fiction plus anything from book clubs, slightly damaged books, recipe and cooking books, weight loss books and the stacks of magazines you want to get rid of fast.
Used books sell fast online. Amazon.com, eBay.com and CraigsList.org help to sale these fasts and are filled with listings of used books. And, some titles simply help people save money by buying used over pricier new books.
And books, those dusty relics taking up space on your bookshelves in boxes in the attic– often become the target of most house de-cluttering campaigns. How long has it been that you’ve read that book?
When springtime comes and you hold a big yard sale to dispose of unwanted items, unpack all your giveaway fiction and non-fiction book boxes, set them out on a long table, spine facing up, and sell them for 26 cents to $2 each. On the final day of your sale, offer up a “bag sale”– that is, let people stuff a shopping bag full of books into a bag for $3.
Now, click on the book or the image title, find the correct format (hardcover or paperback) and then select “Used” pricing. Your used book results page should deliver several pages of book listings for sale right now.
I encourage listing on the Amazon Marketplace, then expand to other websites if you need to. Start slow, learning how the system works, and price your books competitively to move them quickly.
By considering the sales rank of your book, you’ll have a fairly decent idea of how quickly it will sell. If a title is selling used at $21 or more, drop yours to $10-$12 for a quick sale.
Somewhere on the back cover you should see an ISBN (“ISBN” stands for “International Standard Book Number,” which since the mid-1960s has helped the publishing industry keep track of millions of books).
When the yard sale is done, take the remaining fiction and non-fiction books to your favorite local non-profit thrift store or church charity shop to donate them. Ask the store manager if you can get a donation tax receipt before the books get unloaded.