Comments on: Book Purge

By: blauereiter

blauereiter — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:57:43 +0000

I’ve been buying many graphic and illustration books but I fear the day I have to return home to Singapore - the freight cost for those books is going kill me I think…

By: Shari

Shari — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:52:28 +0000

Bravo for you, Roy! I bet you feel liberated getting rid of them.

I disagree that you should have sold them via Amazon or eBay because those methods are more cumbersome and time-consuming. For your goal of just getting them out without just tossing them in the trash (which is wasteful), I think ditching them at a used book store is ideal.

Once you’ve pared things down a lot and are getting rid of books bit by bit, then that’s the time to consider more profitable methods though personally, I’ve found that books aren’t the sort of thing which move or make much money unless they are rarer or highly-sought after volumes.

BTW, I agree that most “self-help” books aren’t worth completing. Most of them get pretty repetitive pretty fast.

By: Edward

Edward — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:41:11 +0000

I have such a hard time letting go off books as well. If I hadn’t moved so frequently for a few years I won’t have reduced my collection.

I understand all to well, once I start cleaning I just keep going. Right now I’m on a cleaning crusade myself.

I think foreign books sell well on Amazon Japan because the retailer may be buying large lots of reduced price books. My fiancee often buys cooking books we have here in the U.S. for ridiculously low prices on Amazon Japan. Possible because of this Amazon Japan has earned a reputation for cheap foreign books.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:55:14 +0000

Try eBay. You can get a lot for them on there - especially if you have grouped collections of computer books on the same subject. Computer books go out of data fast so it’s better to read them all and then sell them ASAP before they become worthless. Better to just gain the knowledge and then keep it in your head.

By: rick

rick — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 05:34:28 +0000

Coincidentally my student today told me that she brought a 100 books into Book-Off and made 7600yen. Mostly comics and some novels. I know the condition of the books and their popularity is a huge factor but maybe Robbie is on to something.

By: Roy

Roy — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 05:19:37 +0000

Interesting! I will have to remember that next time. This time, however, I just wanted to unload the whole lot and be free of “stuff” so I wasn’t expecting much. Having to go back several times would be alright if the shop was on the way to work but both shops are out of the way for me.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 05:14:22 +0000

I have found from selling used books and LPs (geez, that dates me know) that taking in smaller lots will make you more money. They never give you a big return on a large stack. It’s more work to keep going back every week or so but it does work in my experience. I know it wasn’t the point to make money but it’s an interesting observation. I once took back a stack of albums the store didn’t want then went back after a few weeks and they took about half of the remainders.

And don’t just give them the leftovers. Take them to a charity organization and get a tax deduction. In the US anyway. Actually you would get more in deduction then the stores will usually give you anyway.

By: kirai

kirai — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:18:33 +0000

hahaha! I was going to tell you that just watching 10% (or less) of the speech is enough to get the message ;)

By: Roy

Roy — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:02:48 +0000

The video is based on a book called Paradox of Choice. And it’s one of the books which I sold!! Is that ironic or what?

Good book but it was one of those books which is 90% filler.

By: kirai

kirai — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:28:12 +0000

lol! I see you are using the RSS limiting rule for everything, I’m scared ;) For me, getting rid off books is VERY difficult.

Btw, next time try selling your books using Amazon Japan. I don’t know why but foreign books sell pretty well on Amazon Japan.

Last thing, I recommend you watching this talk http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200&hl=en

it just says that having many options, many things, many information is not always good.