Old Med School Books

[Vishenka69]

I'd like to purge as much stuff as possible before our next move. One of the piles that I have absolutely no idea what to do with is DH's med school books. We have tons. I'm pretty sure most as useless (I think he might want to keep a few for reference). I can't find any place to donate or sell them (the editions are pretty old). Should I just put them in recycling? That just seems to be such a waste.

What did you do with yours/SO's?

We should definitely have a thread or an article on purging stuff before the move (clothes, books, etc.).

[DCJenn]

We donated them to the local high school's book sale. Most public libraries have book sales, too. I also found a place that takes donated textbooks and ships them to other countries- my friend in the Peace Corps requested that we all send our old econ books to him when he was in Russia.

We're still carting around old text books- I have a feeling that we'll have some of them until he retires.

Jenn

[Vishenka69]

I did find a website that lists various charities that distribute textbooks in other countries but they're all located in those countries. I'm not too keen on sending several boxes of books internationally and paying for them myself.

[DCJenn]

I just added to the list of deductible expenses for tax time.

Jenn

If you have time to see if any are still being used, sell them on the ebay , half.com . You put them on, by using the UPC code, super easy , and they stay listed for months, if someone buys one it goes into your paypal account, could mean another pair of shoes...

[Amiens]

we donated old textbooks to the medical school, and dh has a "library."

dh won't part w/a single one thank God our move was paid for - they weigh a ton!!

dh has just started weeding them out after 7 years. We have moved them three times! Our library public library and the high school biology class
are the happy recipients

[Vanquisher]

OUr public library won't take textbook donations, and a lot of the ones I want to get rid of are so old, I couldn't possibly sell them. I know, you never know, right? Well, I do. I already tried to sell them!

Anyway, does anyone now a free place or way to donate old textbooks?

OUr public library won't take textbook donations, and a lot of the ones I want to get rid of are so old, I couldn't possibly sell them. I know, you never know, right? Well, I do. I already tried to sell them!

Anyway, does anyone now a free place or way to donate old textbooks?

freecycle :huh:

[Meenah]

The medical info is really obsolete in old textbooks, and I mean 3 years old or more!! They aren't necessarily good for reference, especially clinical guidelines. What was the gold standard of care 3 or 4 years ago is not necessarily still the same.

Before we moved, we put many on Amazon.com marketplace. I think we probably sold about 10 of them and made quite a bit of $$.
Now we are lugging around the rest bc DH won't get rid of them.

[Vishenka69]

I really don't want to sell them book by book. I just don't have that much free time to run to the post office weekly. I'd rather just dump the whole pile somewhere. They are 5-8 years old, so probably not very useful for anyone though. I'll check the local library this weekend and may be a few thrift/used book stores.

I also have a pile of chick lit books that I'm looking to get rid of, if anyone is interested.

You don't have to go to the post office to ship books labeled media mail. As long you know how much they weigh, you can throw them in with the mail at work or drop them in a mail box. It was still a hassle but we made maybe $150 just on old texts alone. Packing them up etc was also some work but DH wanted to sell them, so he was happy to pack them up and label them and I took them to work with me and dropped with the rest of the outgoing mail.
OH- I also sold a lot of my chic lit books this way too and made some good $$.
There are used bookstores that might take them. Your only other option might be Goodwill? Or recycle bin?
Those dusty, large old books will add a LOT to your moving costs.

[Vishenka69]

How would I know how much they weight?