I never know what to do with books I’m done with. I hate throwing them out and have had too many disappointing trips to the used bookstore, which only seems to want to buy current hot sellers in tip-top condition. Thus, I have a collection that I’ve hauled around from home to home over the years, with few of them ever getting opened again.

I finally went through them today and managed to cull about 2/3 of them out, sorting them into three piles: Keep, Donate and Sell.

Everything that wasn’t a definite Keeper went into a big pile. Then I went to Amazon and typed in the ISBN number of each book into the search box. (The ISBN number is the unique identifier of each book, and it’s usually conveniently printed on the back cover.) Amazon doesn’t just sell new books, but allows anyone to sell used ones as well. For each book, you immediately see the current lowest price for both used and new editions. It only takes about 30 seconds to go through each book.

Most of my books have a current market value of penny, so they went straight to the Donate or Trash piles. However, about a dozen were still worth something. Since Amazon takes a pretty good commission out on each sale, I decided to just sell those where the lowest price was over $10, which left me with seven that were worth listing. It just took a few clicks and they were listed for sale. Once someone buys them, Amazon emails you a packing slip and deposits the money into your bank account (minus commissions but plus postage) within a few days. All you need to do is drop the book into the mail to its new owner. It’s one of the easiest ways I’ve found to sell things online, though obviously with thinly sold titles it could take a while before your book finds a buyer.

My biggest surprise? It was the oldest and dustiest books that had the highest value. Some of my religious and text books that were well out of print are still selling for nice prices, and in a few cases, substantially more than I paid. See, I knew it was worth holding onto them for ten or twenty years! Plus, nothing beats getting paid to do chores you’ve been putting off forever too.