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Ask Slashdot: Prioritizing Saleable Used Computer Books?
g01d4 writes "I volunteer at a used bookstore that supports the local library. One of my tasks is to sort book donations. For > 5-year-old computer books the choices typically are to save it for sale (fifty cents soft cover, one dollar hardback), pack it, e.g. for another library's bookstore, put it on the free cart, or toss it in the recycle bin. I occasionally dumpster dive the recycle bin to 'rescue' books that I don't think should be pulped. Recently I found a copy of PostgresSQL Essential Reference (2002) and Programming Perl (1996). Would you have left them to RIP? Obviously we have very limited space, 20 shelf feet (storage + sale) for STEM. What criteria would you use when sorting these types of books?"
You've already put more into it than it's worth, but if you really want to know, find the local big book store's buyback locale and walk it in there. They have estimates for everything, and for what they don't have, they can speculate, but at that point it's usually due another trip to the dumpster/recycler.
This is my opinion.
Java--anything that doesn't say Java2 keep.
Spring -- anything
Application servers--keep anything.
Anything Windows--pitch. Anybody buying used books won't be able to afford Visual Studio.
Anything A+ -- pitch. Don't encourage that dead end.
Anything Networking--pitch, another dead end.
Anything design related--keep.
I don't know, Programming Perl would be more relevant to more people than anything written in the last couple of years.
Dump anything that is titled "for Dummies" or "Learn $X in $Y days!"
Keep anything, no matter how old, from O'Reilly books.
That book is great and has aged really damn well. I still dig out my second edition copy from time to time. The "gory details" section is great when you are trying to figure out some obscure incantation that some sadistic bastard left as a present for you in a legacy script.
I'd still recommend reading that book cover to cover to anyone that wants to learn perl. You won't be a guru, but you'll have a pretty solid foundation.
Maybe these people would be interested...
http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/
What is one man's junk is sometimes another man's treasure, but you are probably not interested in holding onto what may or may not be junk forever. These guys seem to be in the business of warehousing old stuff and may gladly pay the shipping before you dumpster it all.
You will be doing somebody a great service by slipping your discards to someone who has the resources to remarket these old treasures. Its not so much emsps, but the bloke who is dying for some documentation for some old dinosaur that wandered into his life.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Bookfinder.com is a quick and easy search that covers Amazon as well as several other used book sources. It's got an ISBN search so you can see how well a particular version is doing on the market. My wife and kids have used it to pick up college text books.
It is even easier than that. Just go to Amazon and check the used book price for each book. If the book is selling for a dollar or less, there probably isn't any demand. Set whatever threshold is worth your time, whether that is $2 or $20, and toss the rest.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
I'd add a bit of rough categorization here based on my own buying patterns.
Applications (Office, Photoshop, etc) have a very short shelve life. Anything over a couple of years old is useless.
Languages (Perl, PHP, Ruby); throw away after a decade or so. It differs though; old C books may still apply, old Java books less so.
Theory (algorithms, methodologies); should be good for a long, long time.
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1. I keep most programming books, in fact I still have 8086 assembly and qbasic on my shelf. My rational is they are as useable today as they were twenty years ago. However, books like HTML3 were recycled years ago.
2. Technical books get recycled after ten years. I.e. Windows 95 for retards, Ethernet the definitive guide, Astrisk, CNE study guide, Master Fedora 3, Absolute FreeBSD. However, a book like "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System" would be kept as it is a reference book ooperating system design... which fundamentally hasn't changed in thirty years.
3. I unconditionally keep all math, chem, electronics, science type reference books. It's not as if the laws do the universe are going to change anytime soon.
Basically, open the book up to a random section, if it is still relevant (I.e. calculus, electronics principles, x86 assembly programming, c programming, perl cookbook, etc.) keep it.