My parents will be selling their house soon and my siblings and I are assisting with an end-of-summer clean-up in preparation for the sale.
We discovered all of our old uni text books, dating back 15 years, that were stored in the garage and are wondering what to do with them.
My brother suggested that we simply throw the text books out as they must be out-of-date by now however I was wondering whether there are better options.
Seeking relevant suggestions from the learned OzB community.
My brother was inspired by your bonfire idea when I told him before he found out that open burning isn't generally allowed and something about having to get a permit = a hassle!
No open bookshelves/cases in any of our homes - dust-phobes + ereader households
donate to an op shop
Thanks holoz0r - I'll give Vinnies/The Smith Family a call tomorrow
Don't bother wasting your time. OpShops don't want them - why would they? they are old, out-dated and take up very valuable space. They are also likely to be relevant to only a very small niche market depending on the course you took.
Your only options, sadly, are compost/landfill, or perhaps finding a student book re-seller and see if any of them might have some relevance etc eg might be out of print.
I stack them on the bookshelf to pretend I am smart.
*smrt
You should bind them in leather.
Would a library be interested? Don’t they have a ton of obsolete books?
Good suggestion! I'll give our old Uni library a call to see whether there is an after-life for the texts other than the recycling bin!
Or put it in a street library.
The stuff you learn on this site - thanks for this suggestion, ihbh.
I had to google 'street library' as I'd not heard about it previously - will definitely investigate this option as well.
You can find them using their website. https://streetlibrary.org.au/find/
Also You could turn them into secret stashes or into a Raspberry pi case
What subjects do they cover? If maths or science, you should be able to sell them. If they don't get traction sold individually make a bulk lot @ $5 each and they should go pretty soon.
If they're about law, computer science, or other things that change from year to year a library or second hand shop donation would probably be best
Thanks for that, Quantumcat.
The texts cover various subjects - law, business, IT, accounting, marketing, etc. It would be great if as many as possible can be reused so will look into library/second hand book store possibilities.
The fact we still use textbooks in this day and age amazes me. Give me a PDF that I can use the find function any day
There is an entrenched business model of getting schools to sign up to a curriculum with publishers. They do some ebooks, but mostly make more money from paper books.
Toilet paper #recycling
Yeah I would try some historic or vintage textbook collector society.. I know how strange that sounds but in this day and age anything is possible and something like a historical or vintage textbook society or organization sounds feasible.. personally I would try shrink wrap them or air tight seal them and store them somewhere if you can.. you never know and sometimes really old nostalgia things can just randomly become a point of interest or valuable even if for a short time you just gotta monitor the news on the internet.
I use them for a variety of things such as propping up the TV, supporting rickety tables, doorstops, curing insomnia, and so on.
I keep them in my office to encourage those with a Keen eye to think I've read them.
Me smart smart.
First port of call: Gumtree
If they sell, they sell. If they don't, you're no worse off.
Recycle them
Use them to help flatten the "do not bend" parcels Australia Post turns into origami.
15 year old textbooks when most courses won't even let you use 2-3 year old ones?
Uh…. bonfire? Or to stock a bookshelf to look intellectual.