01 Feb How to Donate Used Books in Los Angeles
As the owner of a collection of books, you may find yourself wondering just what to do with them. Sure, some people inherit book collections and intend to keep them, especially when they have the space to do so. That isn’t the case for everyone, though. Book collections tend to be highly personal, and books invaluable to one person may not be to another. If you aren’t sure what to do with your used book collection, consider donating it. Here’s where you can donate books and how the process works.
Assemble Your Collection
The first thing you’ll need to do when preparing to donate used books is to assemble your collection. This process may take some time, especially if you aren’t sure what you have or where it is in your home, but starting by gathering all the books together will make it a lot easier to complete the rest of the process. Assembling and organizing your collection will help streamline the book donation process. Go through the books to see if you wish to include any others in your donation. Once you have everything together, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Photograph Your Collection
Take pictures of your collection. We don’t mean just a picture of the entire collection as a whole, though that can certainly look impressive. Each individual book must be photographed in detail. These pictures provide evidence of the book’s condition, its edition, and any exciting notes or signatures. Details like these will affect the valuation of a book. To get the best results, make sure to take high-quality, high-resolution photos. The lighting should clearly show the book without creating reflections. Make sure the books are positioned so that it is easy to tell what you’re looking at and that the book’s dimensions and shape don’t look skewed.
Get a Free Quote
Once you’ve taken your photos, it’s time to move on to the appraisal step. Figuring out how much your books are worth is a pretty involved process, given all the factors that go into determining the worth of a book. You can upload your book collection images online to get a free quote for them. The collection should be evaluated by professionals who know what to look for in books so that you can determine what a fair price is.
We’ll Pick Up Your Donation
If you decide to move forward with donating your used book collection, the next step in the process is for us to pick up your donation. We can move pretty quickly on this once the decision has been made. In fact, depending on how well you’ve described your collection and where you’re located, we can meet you within 48 hours. Your work is nearly done at this point. You just have to sit back, relax, and let us handle the pickup.
You Get Cash
There is one final step, though. Remember how you got a free quote for your collection? Once we’ve picked up your books, you’ll get cash for your collection. How much cash will depend on your specific collection. Since every book collection is unique, there isn’t a way to say precisely how much you should expect without having gotten a quote. Suffice it to say that once you have the quote and agree to donate your used books, we will pick up the collection and give you the amount of cash agreed upon in the quote.
Donating your used books can be a great way to pass on your book collection. The steps for the process are relatively simple and easy to follow. Your books will get passed on to people who want to have them and read them, and you get back the space they were taking up, along with the money the collection was worth. It’s a win-win all around.