I've been trying to tidy up the house a bit these past few weeks, and in the process I've gathered up a box of books that I no longer wanted. In the past when I've gone through one of these book purges I've sold them at the local Half-Price Books bookstore. The last couple of times I've done this the price they've given me has been pretty dismal. I've read about some of you shopping for books at half.com so I decided to give a try a selling some books there. I had about 20-25 books to list, it took me about an hour and it was extremely easy. I listed them at 8pm last night and by 8am this morning I had already sold 2 of them and made $14! That's about what I would have made off of the entire box at Half-Price Books. I think that our huge video and CD collection is going to get a good going-over tonight plus another box of books. This is fun!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Answers

Books?! You're getting rid of books?! What books?! Where?! How do I find these books?!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

I don't think that half.com lets you search by seller's name like eBay does. At least I can't figure out how to do it. My seller's name is CeltiaSkye. The books I listed last night were mostly quilting books, the ones I put up tonight will be mostly Celtic history.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Aaaack!! 13 pages of quilting books!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

If you've got books to get rid of then selling on Half.com is the way to go, IMO. I've sold a *ton* of books through their site (mostly science fiction and a few political books).

What I've sold so far are hardcover books - I've got tons of paperbacks (science fiction) that I'd like to sell, too, but I'm not sure if I'd get enough money for them to warrant the effort...

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Jim I have a feeling that you and Keith would get along just fine! He has tons of science fiction paperbacks too, the only diference is that he would never consider selling any of them. We only have room to have half of his collection unpacked, the rest is in boxes in the garage. You know those cheap little 2-shelf bookcases? He has 10 of them with the books stacked flat rather than on end, two layers deep on each shelf and on top!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Hey,Have you guys thought about putting your books for sale on this forum first? I would much rather buy books from people I "know" and sell to people I "know". Just a thought. Daryll

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Jim I have a feeling that you and Keith would get along just fine! He has tons of science fiction paperbacks too, the only diference is that he would never consider selling any of them.

Definitely my kind of guy, Sherri. :-)

There was a time when I would NEVER have even considered getting rid of any of my science fiction collection. But now that I've had the chance to move from home to home on several occasions it's gotten MUCH easier to part with them. There are a few that I plan on keeping - books that I really ,really enjoyed and never get tired of reading (and have sentimental value) - but most of them just sit on the shelf and gather dust now.

I've sold quite a few online and I've donated quite a few to the library, too. Now that it looks like we'll be selling our home sometime in the next few years, I'm REALLY motivated to get rid of the rest of the ones I no longer read.

Hey,Have you guys thought about putting your books for sale on this forum first? I would much rather buy books from people I "know" and sell to people I "know".

That's a really good idea, Daryll.

I created a new category so anyone that wants to sell their books here can do so. The new category is "Books for Sale". I'll rummage around in my hard drive as I'm almost certain I have a database list of all the books I still own. If I can find it I'll post the books here on the forum...

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

WARNING: Thread Drift Alert

BTW, has anyone else noticed that it seems like the number of science fiction books being published is declining and the number of fantasy books being published is increasing?

I've seen this at Barnes & Noble and B. Dalton bookstores - fantasy books seem to crowd out any science fiction that might be available. There seems to be far more fantasy books out there right now (as well as serial novels - i.e., Star Trek, Star Wars, DS9, etc.) which is a real bummer to me as I don't like fantasy or serials all that much. :- (

I guess some of the old-timers like Arthur C. Clarke, Niven & Pournelle, Pohl, etc. are burned out (or maybe they're dead I didn't hear about it?)...

One newer author that hasn't written anything new in a while is Greg Egan (from Australia). I love his style of writing and wish he'd put out another book here in the U.S.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

For a long time it was the other way around! I prefer fantasy to sci- fi myself but since I rarely buy books for myself it don't much matter for me. :o) Just to be contrary though I'll say "Yeah! Fantasy Rules, Man!!" hee hee Wow Sherri, you make me want to go glean our yard sale no sells from the storage cupboards and try to sell them online! maybe I'd make enough to buy a book. Is that new George RR Martin book out YET??!~ :o)

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Yeah, everytime I see a book on there that I already own at an outrageous price - like one of my homesteading books from the 70's; I get this little urge to SELL!!! SELL THEM ALL!!!

Then, I remember how most of them have been drug out to the garden or the barn, multiple times; and they probably wouldn't even qualify for "very poor condition"; and I get over it.

I just can't turn loose of books very easily; though I have taken some trashy romances in to work to share with my co-workers. I keep putting gift certificate for UBS on my wish lists every year; and no one ever picks up on it. Then again; I finally got dishtowels this year after them being on the list for at least 5 years, so I guess there's hope!!

I've found a LOT of books on half.com that I'd been looking for for quite a while at my UBS; and some that I had given up and ordered new copies of from the book store - whimper!!

I always thought the fantasy section of the bookstore was where you went for the Harlequin romances; but buddy Jon has gotten into fantasy lately - knights and dragons and whatnot. I guess that's fair - we both used to read action/adventure and swap books back and forth (Crais, Parker, Jance, Paretsky, Evanovich); then I went to trash romance and he said he was getting tired of being made fun of at work for the covers. Reckon if spring doesn't get here soon, I will end up borrowing some of his fantasy stuff.

Anybody else read one book by an author that you like and then go try to find copies of all their other books, too?

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Oh, Alison, Martin's book isn't out until September -- and since he's pretty good at delaying, it might be even longer! If he brings it out too near to December, I probably won't even be able to read it. I'll be thinking about the upcoming release of The Two Towers (second Lord of the Rings movie).

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002