What can I do with unwanted books?

[belindarose]

I could freecycle or charity shop. But very short of money at the moment as I've lost my job, so if there's any chance of making money from them I wouldn't mind having a go. Ideally, I'd like to keep them in storage as one day I'll be working again and we may have a bigger house with more space. But the immediate priorities are space (need room for new baby) and money I suppose.

I have a lot of random non-fiction books. I suppose a lot of them are out of date. Medical and education text books, again, I don't suppose people want them. Poetry, plays, literature all from university days. I also have hundreds of fiction books, all on shelves in the kitchen which we are hoping to gut and alter shortly. These could all be moved to the living room but would reduce our space in there a lot.

I read on my kindle now and don't want to buy any more paper books. But I love them all and they've always seemed important to me. I might regret it in the future if I get rid of them all.

Any advice, if you've managed to make sense of my waffle?

bookcrossing?
sell them on amazon marketplace or ebay?

Amazon would be your best option but books don't really sell for much and you wouldn't get it all done in a few days unless you sold them to Amazon for about 25p each.
If you put them in storage then they will be costing you money rather than just the space at the moment.
Realistically how likely will you look at the books again? I felt the same but sold most of my books and charity shopped some others and I have never missed any of them...

I've sold loads on Amazon. Sometimes you make very little profit but sometimes you will be surprised at how much you can make - I've sold bog standard paperbacks (albeit in decent condition) and made £3+ on each one, which represents good profit. Non-fiction sells well. When you're listing a lot and get into the habit of trotting down to the PO with an armful of parcels, it all adds up. I made £80 in a month and like Goandplay says, I never miss any books. And if I do, so what? I'll buy it again second-hand for a couple of quid.

What's that website that buys textbooks? Fatbooks or similar?
When I moved country I offered them to the local library. They took them all, anything they didn't want they sold to dealers (as do charity shops a lot of the time).

Books don't have a lot of resale value, apart from sought after out of print books- maybe some of your literature? It is worth having a look on Amazon Marketplace to see what the asking price is.

Out of date text books and paperback fiction (especially if it's greasy from the kitchen) will have zero value.

You may be able to get a book dealer to take the whole lot off you as a job lot - but don't expect much money.

Try to be hard on your collection - think how much the space is worth to you versus the potential value of the books to you sometime in the future.

I find that the problem with Amazon marketplace is that they charge very high sellers fees and that Royal mail now charge £2.16 to post a standard paperback 2nd class - so you have to be careful that you will make a profit on the book you are listing. However it is super easy to list books for sale. My DD made £100 recently selling her A level texts from last years (dread to think how much that added up to new) but ended up charity shopping guides and paperbacks as it would have actually cost her money to sell them for the lowest price. I have (like Brianbutterfield) made money from selling non fiction and specialist books, but popular paperbacks, even in pristine condition are virtually worthless (after fees)

A friend sells her old books on greenmetropolis - but the turnover is very slow.Ebay also has a book section and lower fees.

When I moved cities a few years back we got rid of thousands of books - we kept a standard bookcase full of special treasures and it has been fine. There is the odd book I find I end up pining for and having to re purchase, but I think our new house looks a lot less cluttered and its really cut back on the dusting.

Javo - the posting costs do depend on whether they're thin enough to send Large Letter or not. If they fit through the LL slot you can send a thinnish book for under £1 which does make it worth listing even at 1p! But I agree that for a bigger book it's not worth it.

Amazon is quite good for selling non-fiction and text books. Popular fiction regularly sells for 1p + postage so it's much harder to find books you might make a profit on.

I love Amazon over eBay for just being able to do it via isbns/barcodes and whack it up forever.