How do I get rid of books?

[VaguelySensible]

My dc are having a clear-out, and we've got a load of old annuals (Lego, Dennis the Menace, Horrible Histories, Guinness WR etc) that nobody wants. They're from 2006-2014. Charity shops won't take them, nor car-booters, nor the school.

Suggestions?

No one will want old annuals.

Just dump them.

National trust properties take second hand books of all types if they have book shop.

How about offering them to a children's ward? They must get through books quite quickly.

I'd take them if you lived near me!

Our local cash for clothes place takes them by weight.

I donate stuff to a lady who rescues cats, she does boot sales and will collect it on her rounds to visit her fosterers, pick up food donations etc. Maybe you have a cat lady near you.

Ask in your neighbourhood groups, FB, Nextdoor, Kahuti or whatever if anyone wants them, or even find selling groups.

Most of the stuff on our Freecycle and Freegle goes quickly regardless of what it is.

Our Hospice shop takes books, so does the animal rescue shop but it is a single shop for one rescue and they take most things. The Hospice only has 3 shops, so not a big chain which might make a difference.

Just remembered, rescues also have 'Fayres' and have bric a brac stalls, or stalls in other events for similar fundraising. Try a charity that does that. Summer is usually better though.

My favourite charity bookshop gets rid of surplus to requirement books by weight for cash.

Doctots, dentists, hairdressers? Their kids books are always the same few, they might take a few off your hands

My cousin went to the Lakes for a few days.Her kid found a book in a clear bag.
There was a note on the front of the book saying something like....

Read and Re Hide.
Put your pic on Facebook Cumbria Look for a Book.

So my cousin brought it home and re hid the book and some others in her area

Okay, options for recycling/repurposing books:

1. Some charity shops will still take annuals - our local hospice shop certainly does (I had to stop myself buying a Princess Tina one the other day as we're hoping to move soon so trying to cut down on stuff...) and also many branches of Oxfam (there's a copy of a Dennis the Menace annual from 1964 currently listed for £22 on the Oxfam website, just out of interest). You can find your nearest Oxfam shop or Oxfam book shop at www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/shop-finder; British Heart Foundation might be another good option.

1. You could try selling via Ziffit, WeBuyBooks or MusicMagpie but this is quite time-consuming, even with the (not always obedient) app; demand for books does vary. I normally try a couple of times with our books to see if we can sell them that way and then look at donating them. We have raised enough in the last year to buy a couple of tablet-type devices as gifts for family members using this method so it can be worth it. We've mainly sold old textbooks and up-to-date fiction; I'm not sure about annuals.

Occasionally you will come across an Oxfam book donation point - when I lived in Exeter one of the Sainsbury sites had one (but not the other).

1. List on amazon or ebay; again, this is very time consuming and there's no guarantee you will shift them. If you have plenty of time and space this is an option.

1. I don't know if your local auction house might also be an option - it depends on what they specialise in.

1. You could also check out Betterworld Books - when I worked outside the home in libraries we used to send our books to them (minimum number of boxes though to make it worth their while sending the van), and we got a very small amount of money back which went straight back into buying new stock. Where they can't sell books on they are sent to developing countries to help with literacy programs. I'm not sure what the current stance is for individuals donating books.

1. Some local authorities will take books and pulp them in some way at the local tip - again, this varies so dramatically across the country. When I lived in Devon and Belfast each area had one of the tips that took them; where I live now, no way.

1. Would local nurseries or early years or mum and toddler groups or dementia groups or hospital volunteer sessions be able to make use of them for decoupage or similar? I know someone who attends one such group and one of the brilliant projects they worked on was cutting up old superhero comics to decorate a chair. It looked fantastic when they'd finished, unique and incredibly retro. (I'm sure they'd have been able to auction it for mega-pennies in London or New York....only half joking there!)

1. As others have said, shredding for rabbit or hamster bedding might also be an option.

1. I'm not suggesting this seriously, but this link has to be about the best example I have ever seen of ultra-creative use of old book pages: www.ryanjudenovelline.com/golden-book-gown

School library?

Oxfam Book Bank.
Near me there are dedicated charity bookshops and there is a charity that takes books and lets people have up to 3 free books or magazines.

Have an on-line search.

On the school libraries thing, can I offer a bit of a plea here from an ex-subject librarian who used to regularly get offered piles of out of date health-related books when professors retired? It's one of the reasons I didn't list this as an option above.

Out of courtesy we would usually take them, but the titles we could add to our collection were often few and far between. We were then the ones who had to find somewhere we could pass them on as sadly they simply didn't fit with our collection policy (published within the last 10 years in general unless it was, you know, Florence Nightingale).

Mostlibraries (at KS3/4), like most specialist libraries, would need recent books to support the non-fiction curriculum. There's not much space for fun these days!

Some supermarkets or NT places have a charity bookstall you can donate them there.
Or look to see is there is a local jumble sale.

My school would love them. And I think hospital wards can’t have old books - they have to be brand new and unused.

Wow that’s crazy that charity shops don’t want them - my 7yo loves old comic albums bought there. It’s the only books he’ll read over and over again.
His school library has a strong emphasis on reading for pleasure so I would expect them to be a hit there. It makes me sad to think school libraries only have non-fiction to support curriculum.

I always get books collected by putting them on free cycle.

There’s a book bank in the car park of my local Sainsbury’s. Maybe your nearest big supermarket has one?

A few years old editions of Ripleys and Dennis The Menace are not classic annuals as suggested above. They are mass produced, I've just looked some up on Amazon and they have a selling price of 1p.

Not all books are classics, or worth being kept, don't try and palm off your junk on others who don't want it like charity shops or hospitals. Offer it online for free and if no takers then recycle them.

I gave some of my son's old annuals to the local barbershop. We still see children reading them while they are waiting for the barber.

If you don't recycle them the charity you give them to will and hopefully get a small amount of money for the by weight disposal of the paper. Maybe travel out of area if your local tip doesn't have a book recycling/donating bin. I sorted books for a charity and can't tell you how many copies of shades of grey I put in the recycling bags! At least they're useful that way and if they're annuals you can't sell them on if they've done the puzzles or whatever that can be filled out in inside them.

What about women's refuges? They often want toys/books to keep children occupied, often they've fled home with very little

AndMiffyWentToSleep Well, and Harry Potter if they're lucky.... ;)

Gingerkittykat Having sold on there occasionally, Amazon are notorious for selling second hand items at the lowest possible price; it's a pretty saturated market these days.

I mentioned a particular year of Dennis the Menace on Oxfam's site as an example, not one I necessarily agree with; for a comparison, a rare Beano annual from the beginning of WWII was put up for sale for over £1k by a Fine Art auctioneer in Norfolk a few months ago though I haven't checked the selling price, or, indeed, if it sold at all.

Everything is about supply and demand and it fluctuates massively - we have some "Who Do You Think You Are" and other genealogy books that would have been much in demand a few years ago but there's such a glut of them now no bookselling site will take them. So we have a choice of letting them rot in the shed or donating.

I'm not decrying Freecycle, having used it ourselves in both directions, but there are people who scan the listings to obtain items for free in this way and then sell them on.

Some more good ideas, thanks.