Libraries—they sell ‘em, too
Maybe somebody has died recently, and a relative is now inundated with the deceased’s books. Or perhaps a person is moving soon, and it seemed as good a time as any to winnow through their personal library. Whatever the circumstances, when people find themselves with a large number of books to get rid of, they’ll often donate them to their local library. It’s good karma, and they can take a bit of a deduction on their taxes. Most libraries have a “friends of the library” club that will display the books for sale in a designated area of the building. There’s a library near me that has a special offer on the first Saturday of every month, on which members of their “friends of the library” club can cart away a paper grocery bag full of books for a flat fee of two dollars. The club membership cost $15, but I made it back in what I saved with that very first haul.

Advantages: The prices are consistent—usually fifty cents or less for a paperback, and somewhere between a dollar and $1.50 for hardbacks. People who would think to donate their books to the library are usually folks who go to the library, so the caliber of books is a cut above what you’ll find at thrift stores and yard sales.

Disadvantages: That same consistency of prices pretty much guarantees you won’t be able to pull any of the book banditry you could get away with at a yard sale. If the library charges a dollar for each hardback and you’re looking to buy a dozen of them, that’ll set you back $12. Period. And unless you spend your days at the library, you’ll have to live with the fact that some over-zealous bibliophile—whose tastes may or may not coincide with yours—has already sifted through the books and bought what they considered to be the best of the bunch.