Paperback, Hardback and Text Books: Recycle or Donate? (Manassas, Fairfax: get credit, buy)

[bellasdad]

Hi,

My wife and I have boxes of paperback books, hardcover books and college text books. Where can I donate or recycle these items near Fairfax?


Thanks!

[mlv311]

The public library will accept the paperbooks and hard cover books. The textbooks will be accepted depending on how old they are. Most places won't take them--I had to recycle mine.

[Gekkota]

Both the Goodwill and the Merrifield Unique have book sections and will accept your donated books. Don't know about textbooks though...it seems a lot of thrift stores will not accept textbooks.

[oneasterisk]

Try a used book stores. You might make a few bucks out of them.

[ChristineVA]

Most of mine were donated to the public library. If you itemize on your taxes, you can claim the donation.

If the books are very old and/or in wide distribution, you may have trouble at a used bookstore. They keep pretty tight control of the inventory and don't take on too many that would be poor sellers. If you have any, though, that might be good for high school kids (reading programs/AP classes etc) they seem to be good about taking those. Kids have to read many of the classics throughout high school so I found those easy to sell back.

[michgc]

Check your textbooks on here to get an idea if they are worth something, and if they are sell it to them or another online book seller. I've used them in the past. Cash4Books.net - Sell Used Books Online - Free Shipping, Fast Payment

For regular books, you can sell them to McKays in Manassas and get credit and/or cash (not much). Sometimes I feel like I am turning in 10 books for credit and can buy 2 books in exchange. But, it helps me unload books I don't want and get books for "free" that I do. It's not that hard to get to from Fairfax and a great place to spend a couple of hours browsing books if you love books and used bookstores. Plus McKays keeps a big bin outside their front door of all unwanted books that they won't accept. They're free for the taking.

If you want to spend a bit more time and earn some money, you can look your books up on Amazon and see if they are worth anything. But that could mean holding on to them for awhile until someone wants to purchase your book.

If you just want to donate, most places take used books. As someone mentioned, Unique, Goodwill, Salvation Army, libraries, Pennywise (in Vienna). What they don't use they will pass on or recycle themselves. Pennywise keeps a few "free" bins of books out front for books they don't take.

[VRE332]

amazon.com has a book for amazon credits program. They even provide the shipping label.

[ACWhite]

A friend I know at a university at one time collected textbooks for African schools with which he has contacts. He boxes them up and when he gets a certain quantity of boxes, pays to ship them (not cheap; it is his contribution along with his time). The books are very gratefully received, as he expressed it, "they have so little and need so much." So, if you have a lot of them, you might contact a university library near you and ask if they know of anyone who does something similar.

[bellasdad]

All, thanks for the tips and info!!

[claremarie]

Here is another organization that will accept books for donation (with free shipping labels). Donate - Share Your Books