When wandering round charity shops in search of my latest bargain, I’m always amazed at the overwhelming number of books. They fill shelf after shelf and in much smaller shops they’re likely to be seen covering almost every surface.
As fantastic as it is that books are still as popular as ever, and we’re willing to give our old copies away to another home, I think we all need to ask ourselves whether we really need a brand new copy of that must-have novel. If it’s really that good, and the first people to buy it really can’t put it down, they’ll be done with it within a few days and before you know it, there’ll be a copy or two in your nearest charity shop! I realise that if any authors were to read this they would probably hate me right now.
Overrun with the big hits
A regular sight every time I visit a charity shop is the 50 Shades of Grey series. And I’m not imagining things here, it’s been confirmed that charity shops are struggling to know what to do with all the copies of E.L.James’ trilogy that are being offloaded on them. I recently tried to sell my old copies on a carboot sale (I had all three but could only bring myself to read the first) and it got to the stage where I couldn’t even give them away! This must happen with so many popular books, but I guess since so many copies have been sold originally, there aren’t that many interested parties left to buy them second hand.
Other than passing them on to other readers, books can be fairly difficult to recycle.
Maybe if all of us book lovers were to halve the number of new books that we buy, this wouldn’t be as much of an issue and we’d all save lots of money in the process. But then again we’d also make the likes of E.L.James a lot less rich.
Charity shops need to play ball too
While I firmly believe that we should at least consider second hand books, I can see why so many people are put off from buying them. There’s something nice about opening a brand new novel, with its perfect spine, that has never been read by anyone else, particularly when some charity shops charge so much for their books anyway.
I recently stumbled across the blog of a fellow charity shop lover, Charlotte Adams, who, after begrudgingly handing over £2 for a book that she wanted, wrote: “Having worked in charity shop management in the past, I can say that charity shops are overrun with books which just sit on the shelves in the shop or take up space in the back for months and it really annoys me that they charge so much for them.”
I agree. I don’t understand it. Charity shops never seem short of books and I suspect that of all the things that are left outside their doors, books should probably be one of the easiest to shift at the right price. I imagine that if all charity shop books were priced at 50p each or three for a pound, they’d fly off the shelves. But at £2 each, many of these books are just less than half the price they would be to buy brand new. For many, that’s not a good enough incentive to buy something second hand.
As Charlotte adds: “I think (that price is) extortionate for a potentially fourth-hand, slightly dog-eared, slightly yellowish book.”
Untouched copies
However, with many people feeling put off by creases and yellowing pages, the good news is that it IS possible to find charity shop books that are as good as new. You may or may not have read a recent post of mine about how Jake and I are having a Second Hand Valentine’s Day and are only buying each other gifts from charity shops. He loves reading, but has told me before that he likes his books brand new. Imagine my delight when I spotted these two on a shelf in Oxfam with immaculate spines and no gaps between the pages. Considering they’re seemingly unread, I hope that he likes them.
If you’d like to build up a home library without breaking the bank, check out my recent post, How To Save Money On Books.
What are your thoughts on second hand books? Do you think it’s the best way to get your hands on some great titles at a fraction of the cost, or do you prefer them brand new? Let me know in the comments below!
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