Comments on: How to use Powell’s Books for uncluttering

By: Brandon Checketts

Brandon Checketts — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:42:55 +0000

FYI, I just added PowellsBooks as another site that is searched on BookScouter.com.

By: Ulyee Foobie

Ulyee Foobie — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:29:11 +0000

First, Powells and Bookscouter both are amazingly LOWBALL on what they offer for books. I’m talking three month old books that won awards; Amazon marketplace is as convenient, the commission is NOTHING compared to the lowball offer.

I’m sure people are all happy and crunchie defending an indie, but their system either intentionally is taking money from potential customers, is outdated, or just doesn’t have the juice Amazon has. — Foob has Spoken

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:30:52 +0000

Are there any similar services for Music CDs where you can get money or credit?

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:05 +0000

Maybe I’m missing something here, but what is the appeal of selling books online? Don’t you then have to box them up and mail them out? I just carry mine down the street to my local used book store, where I can trade 2 for 1 or simply get paid in cash, and anything they don’t want gets donated to the reading room of my grandparents’ retirement home. It’s simple and I get to support a local business.

By: Cranky Scotty

Cranky Scotty — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:50:10 +0000

Some quick thoughts…

Charitable donations don’t always impact the bottom line of your taxes in your favor.

Selling online to a retailer cuts into what goes into your pocket.

Selling online via auctions is more work than some want to do and cuts into what goes into your pocket.

Trading books with others doesn’t reduce clutter.

Sometimes the garbage dumpster looks appealing.

Of course there’s a positive side to all of these nay-saying points, and the need to be considered as well. Short story…folks should do what makes sense for them.

And as far as Amazon goes…I’ll pay 10-20% more for a book at an independent bookseller before buying anything from that faceless bunch.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:32:37 +0000

For books that still retain some of their value, I prefer selling through Amazon, because in the long run I will get more back out of it than selling outright to a used bookstore. But below a certain price point, it’s just not worth my time.

I have NEVER gotten a good price for anything from Half Price Books. On my last trip, they offered me a total of 50 cents for a stack of about a dozen popular week-old monthly magazines, ones they sell for a buck or two each. Not worth the trouble, and better to take the tax deduction for donating to charity. The trip before that, they offered a dollar for a book I ended up selling for $30+ on Amazon.

By: Lisamarie

Lisamarie — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:17:23 +0000

Another group choice is BookMooch.com. It works on a points systems. Trade in books you no longer want. Receive new (used) books that you do.

I’ve been using it regularly to declutter my library.

By: kbw

kbw — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:23:59 +0000

One of our neighbours holds a bookswap party once or twice a year. Everyone drops off their old books the week before, the hosts and a few volunteers sort them by genre and on the day of everyone picks from their neighbours’ discarded volumes. AFterwords the homeless ones go to charity. Hmmm, evidently more of a clutter exchange. But it does mean you get to talk books, chose books and share books and go to party… no, I can’t think of a downside… carrying new-to-you books home, maybe?

By: Adam Kayce

Adam Kayce — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:49:02 +0000

I love Powells — we used to live in Portland, and after reading “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui” by Karen Kingston, we went through our books and took 90% of them to Powells. We must’ve made at least $300 in a few months that way.

Powells is one of the big things I miss about not living in Portland…

By: amy

amy — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:31:12 +0000

book crossing anyone? bit odd, but fun

By: JuleS

JuleS — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:13:46 +0000

If you live in the Chciago area (or don’t mind paying shipping to Chicago for a great cause!) you can donate used books to Open Books, Chicago’s first literacy bookstore. Proceeds from bookstore sales will fund literacy programs for adults, children and families. The bookstore will open this fall in Chicago, but Open Books is already doing literacy projects all over the city and nearby suburbs. The website is http://www.open-books.org

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:37:54 +0000

I agree with Susan. I cleared out 59 books, earned over $100 in store credit (which will be NO PROBLEM for me to use toward gifts), plus the shipping is free. I’ve sold quite a few books on Amazon, too, but by the time you pay Amazon their “commission” plus making a trip to the post office every time you make a sale, going through Powell’s was MUCH easier.

By: L

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:41:33 +0000

Wow, no! Donate to the library. It gives you a tax deduction VASTLY in excess of the retail value of used books on Powell’s Web site.

By: Beverly

Beverly — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:43:17 +0000

In addition to donating to the library, consider donating to nursing homes and hospice facilities. They will keep every book you donate unless it’s in bad condition and will be thrilled to get them. Also many hospices have thrift stores and these donations can be sold there and the money goes to the hospice.

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:57:58 +0000

Another fun option for east coast dwellers:

The Book Thing of Baltimore
http://www.bookthing.org/

By: N. & J.

N. & J. — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:38:28 +0000

I’ve had great success selling on half.com. It’s like Amazon or Ebay in that you sell them individually but you can post them all at once and ship them out as people purchase them. If you are signed up for paypal you can print a shipping label right online. You can also sell DVDs on half.com. I cleaned out my shelves and made over $200. It was great!

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:18:16 +0000

NICE!
I just sold a whole box of books- and I don’t care that I didn’t get “full price”– the post office is closer than the nearest used book store. I made $76 dollars without leaving my desk, cleared out a few bookshelves, and I’m building a credit account for buying Xmas present books this year (we’re a bookish clan, and it gets pricey.).

By: Aimee

Aimee — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:28:21 +0000

We always donate to our library. It’s just so much better than the hassle of trying to sell them, plus it benefits us in the long term (the book will either end up on the shelf, or the money used for new books).

By: Ed Eubanks

Ed Eubanks — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:22:08 +0000

Re: Brent and library donations:

This is a good move, and it almost always helps local libraries; however, a couple of things should be kept in mind.

First, there are a number of books that the library already has too many copies of, and can’t get rid of the ones they have. Thus, check with your local library about titles or genres that they prefer you NOT donating!

Second, realize that most of the time libraries won’t take the books you donate and shelve them for circulation. Libraries purchase very specific numbers of books in each genre and category (academic libraries have to do so, because a certain percentage of their volumes must be new releases, etc. for accreditation purposes). Most libraries host an annual or semi-annual sale of books– and most of the books donated end up in these sales.

Third (or second and a half): Thus, donations STILL help libraries– because the funds generated from the book sales will go 100% back into buying books and other needs. My point is more that you shouldn’t expect to walk into your local library and pull the specific copy you donated off of the shelf to check out! In fact, there’s no guarantee that the titles you donate will actually be on the shelf…

Just a few thoughts from a booklover who’s worked for a library.

By: Small Cents

Small Cents — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:32:02 +0000

I wrote a post on this not too long ago. Not about Powell’s specifically, but about some other sites. The best is bookscouter.com; it searches many sites (23) for you and lets you know which will buy your books. Most offer free shipping, and some offer payment by PayPal. I live in France, so can’t use this service often, only when I go back to the US for visits. I’ll be going to the US in a week, and half my suitcase is books I’ll be selling. I’m definitely going to check out Powells now too- I agree that it’s essential to support independent bookstores.