Where can I donate old college text books?
Asked by
jlm11f (
12416
)
July 19th, 2010
By “old”, I mean around 2–8 years old. I’ve tried the local library, but they don’t accept donations since they have some strict book binding requirements. Donating to the local high school is an option, but the relevant teachers aren’t there for the summer. Most of these books are in decent condition and I’d rather they were used by less privileged kids that are trying to get an education instead of going to the dumpster. Books range from SAT preps, to MCAT preps, Bio, Ochem and everything in between.
I do want to donate somewhere locally so I don’t have to worry about shipping them (they are ridiculously heavy and shipping them would be quite expensive). I tried googling “donate books” in my area, but nothing of value came up.
Thanks!
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9 Answers
Look up “Books for a Better World” online. It is an organization my library donates many of their discards to; the books go to developing countries. Maybe there is a library in your area that collects for them so you don’t have to ship them. Otherwise, you could try a local prison library.
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My son may be interested. PM me with what you have. I will cover the shipping cost on any books he could actually use. It would still be a great deal cheaper than even the used cost on most textbooks nowadays.
Could you donate them to the library at the university? I know the textbooks in our collection are always very sought after. Also, we can never keep our test prep books in – even ones for older versions of the test.
@Blondesjon as soon as he gets his syllabus and before he buys any books at all have your son go straight to his university library and look for the required texts. Even if the campus library doesn’t have the books, ask if they can be ordered on inner-library loan. But you have to move quickly because other kids in the class might have the same idea. If the college utilizes a course delivery program such as Blackboard or Angell, the information should be up on that site a week or so before the start of class (depending on the professor) – that might give him a jump on getting the books.
You could google used book sales in your area, and then donate them to the sale. My dad buy and sells books, mostly text books, and he scouts at book sales in libraries and churches mostly, and also at used book stores. That is another idea, go to a used book store and they will possibly give you cash or credit dollars in their store for your books. Did you go onto amazon.com to see if the books are worth anythng?
Try Craiglist’s free stuff section.
You could sell them on Amazon for one cent.
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