What to do with old college books?

[Red Squirrel]

I have about 20 books I just never bothered doing anything with. They've been sitting around in my room since I graduated (over a year ago).

It's time to do a cleanup.

The Linux book is definably out dated, the windows 2003 is probably almost there, though it's still a widely used server OS and will be so for quite a few years I think.

I have some programming books, but evne though I code as a hobby I never find myself looking at time. I either post specific questions on forums, use google, or PDF books. Dual monitor makes it easier to use electronic resources instead of paper.

So with all that said, what is the best thing to do with books like this?

-Donate back to the college? (wont realy be usable for classes as they're probably using newer editions, but maybe some students would still like them)
- Bring to the book bin (place in town that sells 2nd hand books
- Library?
- Other?

I've thought of keeping them, but if it's been over a year and I have yet to touch them, odds are I wont ever so they're just collecting dust. About the only book I've actually used as a reference is this really big php5 book. It's very well done and I actually learned most of php through there and there's still lot of stuff in there I don't know. But even that, there is tons of php resources online, and php6 will be out soon, making that book obsolete (php5).

I just don't want them to go to waste when there could be someone who could make good use of them.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Donate them to your library.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

I keep all the ones I think I might need for referencing in my professional like. The rest, take to a second hand dealer and try to offload them for some cash.

 

[FoBoT]

feed them to termites or beavers

 

[imported_Imp]

I use them to line my 2 bookshelves. $2000 worth of books, sitting on display...

 

[amdskip]

Sell them on Amazon, otherwise recycle them?

 

[eplebnista]

I've got mine stored in a closet.

<-- Pack Rat

 

[MartyMcFly3]

I either kept mine if I thought I'd refer back to it for work, or sold them.

 

[Alienwho]

half.com my friend. It's so easy and you set your own price. I sell nearly every book on half.com (after buying it on half.com) for the exact same price I paid for the book. Very rarely have I ever really taken a loss on books for school.

 

[OCGuy]

Step 1: Put a hole in the book

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: Alienwho
half.com my friend. It's so easy and you set your own price. I sell nearly every book on half.com (after buying it on half.com) for the exact same price I paid for the book. Very rarely have I ever really taken a loss on books for school.

Since that's part of ebay, do I need to ship each book individually to whover buys it, or is it ebay buying off me then they sell it? First time I hear of them. Since if that's the case I can just put them all in a box and ship it right? (probably at a loss though, would be heavy).

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE do not donate outdated textbooks to the library. In all but a few rare circumstances they do NOT want them and can't do anything with them.

That said, if anyone has any biology, botany, soil science, or other related books that are a bit outdated I could use them to brush up.

 

[marincounty]

Look into donating your books to people in a poor country. My family sent a bunch of books to some folks in Romania, they were very appreciative.
Here's a possible place to donate: http://www.booksforafrica.org/

 

[Noirish]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Sell them on Amazon, otherwise recycle them?

got rid of half of my very old textbooks this way.

 

[txrandom]

I think I'm going to try to sell all mine on Amazon. Most of things in the book I can easily look up via Google and half the text I won't ever need to use in my life. Failing I guess I'll donate them to a library and hope a nerd comes across them.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'll have to see how much shipping books to the US would cost and see if it's worth selling to Amazon or other company. Though think otherwise I'll just try the library or College. The college might actually still use them, though I doubt it.

 

[DVad3r]

I never had any and passed college.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Thats the thing, they made us buy all these but we only used like 1/3 of them.

I'll call a few places in town tomorrow and see who wants these type of books.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
I'll have to see how much shipping books to the US would cost and see if it's worth selling to Amazon or other company. Though think otherwise I'll just try the library or College. The college might actually still use them, though I doubt it.

shouldnt take but a few minutes to check, dont they put out booklists? see if anything you have is on them...and post some flyers or send out emails to a group student account and try to sell em

if i dont sell mine, ill set them on fire...or shoot them or something.

 

[IronWing]

Burn them, they dangerous!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Actually I wanted to burn my math book because math was my worse class. I hate math. Never got to go camping though.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Actually I wanted to burn my math book because math was my worse class. I hate math. Never got to go camping though.

So you never got the chance to throw a log on the fire, eh?

 

[mcmilljb]

Old books must be sold for beer money! That's how college works.

Outdated books - recycle
Books useless to students (but not outdated) - donate to library, etc
Useful books - sell online for more money than bookstore pays or sell to other students

I usually got the best deals by selling to other students for the about the lowest listed amazon price since I didn't pay commissions.

 

[Imdmn04]

I am probably one of the few that kept every single one of my text books.

Looks nice on my book rack.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
I am probably one of the few that kept every single one of my text books.

Looks nice on my book rack.

How many times have you moved since college?