Specializing in quality used and out-of-print books since the Twentieth Century

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Treasure Island Books' purchase policy is to pay only in store credit.

Store credit is valid for twelve calendar months from the date of payment.

After the twelve months have elapsed, any remaining store credit will be considered void.

To purchase books using store credit requires one-half cash and one-half store credit.

Since we’ve closed our brick-and-mortar store, it is rare that we purchase any sort of books or magazines directly from the public. Our online-only bookstore is in our home and we want to keep that private.

In today's economy, your chances of finding an online bookseller willing to purchase your collection from you sight-unseen are slim. There's also not much chance of said seller willing to pay you for the shipping necessary to get the books or magazines to them if the seller is any distance farther than driving can easily take you in a few hours…especially if you have a large collection. Even shipping via USPS Media Mail can prove costly for a great many books and magazines.

Frankly, in this economy, there are a lot of booksellers who simply can't afford to buy large collections via mail or directly. Treasure Island Books currently falls into this category but we still like hearing from people who have such collections because the market is capricious and, depending on what you have to offer, we might be interested.

The following information may help you understand generally how not only Treasure Island Books but many other used bookstores work with people wanting to sell used books and magazines.

The first thing to understand is that market for some book genres is limited and capricious. There generally isn’t a market for used general-interest magazines unless they are vintage (e.g., circa 1970s and older) and/or feature a lasting, historically interesting event. Even then the market would demand such magazines to be in, at least, near-perfect condition. There is, however, a market for many specific-interest magazines such as science fiction, craft, history, sports, etc. but it comes with several provisos.

A search for the names of whatever books and magazines you're hoping to sell, as well as similar publications, in ABEBooks.com, Amazon.com, Alibris.com, and Biblio.com will provide you with a lot of sellers that carry those publications. You could try contacting them to see if they're interested. Looking through their listings you'll get a very good idea of what the books and magazines are worth. Don't expect to be paid what they're listing similar publications for! Booksellers need to make a profit on what they sell and they won't buy from you if you demand a price that is very near or equal to what they're selling other such publications for. Keep in mind they may have to pay you for shipping costs, too, which will bring the amount of money you could possibly make even lower. Expect to receive about one-half the value the bookstore will sell the publication for and less if they have to pay for shipping.

It's important for you to understand that the bookseller would have to invest a great deal of time researching on the Internet and via other sources the value of each and every publication you're offering to get a fair idea of what they are worth. Unless you're willing to provide them with not only the publication information of every single one of your books and magazines but also their condition or, better yet, photos or scans of at least their covers...which would take a lot of your time...don't expect any bookseller to immediately jump up and say "We'll take 'em!"

Condition is extremely important. We cannot emphasis this enough. If hard cover, do the books have dust jackets? Do the magazines have mailing labels on the front covers? Is the front cover art (book dust jackets, paperbacks or magazines) clear or are the covers scuffed, rubbed, and/or creased? Are the spines creased? Are the spines of hard cover books loose? Are they completely intact...no coupons clipped in magazines or loose/missing pages? Are you a smoker or do you own a pet? If so, do the books and magazines have any odor (smoke, cat urine)? Where have these books or magazines been stored? In a warm, dry place away from heat and sunlight or in a damp basement? Were they stored flat or on their edges; in other words, are they at all bent? Are they dusty? Do they have water damage such as mildew or "wavy" pages or pages stuck together? Some of these problems...outside of the odor and major water damage...may not be a bad thing if only one or two books or magazines exist in any store anywhere.

Unless the magazines are vintage (e.g., circa 1970s and older) and in perfect condition...or are signed by authors in the case of science fiction or mystery magazines...or have the first and/or only publication of a now-famous story, you will find that most of the magazines won't have a huge value. In other words, you're not going to get $10 or $20 an issue for them. We found the April 1959 issue of "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" in a thrift shop which had the original publication of Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon." Our asking price was around $40 and it took us about a year to sell it because it wasn't in perfect conditon, yet it was rare enough to be valuable to just the right customer. That was a very unusual circumstance.

As for books, unless they are scarce (which is not the same as rare), are current best-sellers, of unusual and specific special interest, or fit into a used bookstore's genre-specific speciality, AND are in a saleable condition, they may not be as valuable as you think they are. Please refer to “How We Rate and Describe Our Books” HERE for our guidelines which may not be equal to other sellers' but which will give you a general overview of how books are generally judged by used booksellers. Also...and this is important...keep in mind that just because a book is old does not make it valuable.

We suggest you first contact the used bookstores in your area and search as far away as you're willing to drive round-trip in a day. The ones that specialize in or at least have some inventory of what you have to offer (science fiction, crafts, etc.) are your most likely candidates.

Call first before you load up your car and give them a realistic idea of how many you want to bring them. Be prepared to either stand in a line of several other people also selling their books and/or wait around for an hour or more while the store clerk checks values. Unless you have a hand truck or can borrow one, or have a willing friend, don't get big boxes to pack the books and magazines in because you are going to be the one schlepping them from your car into the store. And, unless that store has a loading zone or you score a parking space near the door, this is going to be a bit of hard work.

These days, a lot of used bookstores may be willing to buy your books and magazines but they may not be willing to pay you in cash. A lot of used bookstores will pay half in cash and half in store credit but, when you wish to purchase a book from them, will charge you half cash and half store credit. Other stores will only pay in store credit.

Another option you have is to sell your collection on eBay, which will charge you a fee to list plus a fee on the sales and, if you're not familiar with how it works and don't have a great deal of time to devote to all those listings, it may not be attractive to you. Further, eBay pretty much insists that all buyers pay with Paypal these days and that sellers not accept checks or money orders. Sellers still can, of course but, by paying with Paypal, buyers have a way of getting their money back if they're not satisfied with what they've purchased or if they don't receive it. You'd also have to set up a Paypal account for one that accepts credit cards and, of course, Paypal will charge you a fee, too. Full information about all of this can be found on eBay's and Paypal's websites.

Etsy is another option for craft-related magazines and books because they can be listed there as either “vintage” or “destash” items. Etsy's definition of “vintage” is at least 20 years old. “Destash” is Etsy shorthand for clearing out one's personal collection...or stash...of items. In the case of “Destash” listings, items do not have to be vintage. The advantage of Etsy is that they charge only $.20 per listing and listings are for 4 calendar months. They do charge a nominal fee when items are sold. Full information can be found on Etsy's website.

If you're in an area that Craig's List services, this may be an option for you; it's free. Keep in mind that your buyers will be coming to your home and, if you're not comfortable with that, it could be a problem. The alternative would be to deliver the books to them but, again, this may pose a problem if the buyers aren't comfortable with that or if you're not willing to load up your car and/or drive any real distance.

If you don't mind folks coming to your home, you could have a garage sale. You could put up flyers around your neighborhood, place an ad in your weekly shopper newspaper (if your community has one) or your daily/weekly newspaper, and also place an ad on Craig's List for free. The newspaper ads may cost you money, though. (If you live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association, be sure to check with them first that having a garage sale is allowed. Homeowner's associations can be very nasty.)

Be specific about what you have to sell; this will keep customers not interested in your books and magazines from clogging your street and driveway if what they're looking for is clothes, furniture, toys, or kitchen items. Say "science fiction magazines" or “children's books” or whatever you have instead of just “magazines” or "books."

If you work for a large company that has an employee bulletin board in, say, the cafeteria or a main hallway, you could try posting an ad there. You may be surprised to find coworkers interested in purchasing some of your books and magazines, and might even make a new friend with similar interests. Again, it's a good idea to be specific or even provide a list of of what you have if the bulletin board (and your company) allows the space.

If you feel that all the time and effort necessary to determine whether or not your collection is worth something is more than you're willing to invest, we are certain that most thrift shops would be delighted to take the magazines as a donation. We suggest you steer clear of the big three...Goodwill, Salvation Army, and St. Vincent de Paul...because they get far more donations than they can handle...and, instead, find a smaller thrift shop that doesn't get as many donations.

Your local Humane Society, hospital, or other charities may have a small thrift shop, for example. They might be alarmed at the sheer number of what you have to give them, especially if they don't have the shelf or storage space; in that case, spread the love around. And remember that these small thrift shops are invariably staffed with volunteers who may not be knowledgeable about books in general and specific genres such as science fiction, crafts, etc. in particular. If you encounter stubborn ignorance such as "Why would we want a bunch of old magazines?" then just find another shop. Also, your local public library might be interested in them for their next Friends of the Library booksale.

In order to avoid taking the time and effort of loading all the books and magazines in your car, call these places first to see if they're interested. And, remember, donations are tax-deductible, so be sure to get a receipt from wherever you donate to. Keep in mind, though, that the IRS has strict rules about donation deductions depending upon each individual's financial situation, so it's wise to check with them for the current specifics to know if your donation is tax-deductible-worthy. And if you choose to assign an inflated value to your collection and you're audited, keep in mind that the IRS is not above doing a bit of book and magazine value research of their own.

If donating to a thrift shop doesn't appeal to you, you may want to consider nursing homes and adult assisted-care apartment complexes. Many of these have libraries in their common or gathering room, and it's our guess that not every resident likes to while away their time staring at the TV.

Daycares are good candidates for children's books. Be sure to inquire if they have certain guidelines for the titles they will accept. Some daycares have religious or other agendas that your books may not match-up with.

Also consider donating to schools, both public and private. Oftentimes public schools, especially these days, don't have the budgets they used to for stocking their libraries. Like daycares, be sure to contact school librarians before you just show up so they can tell you if they can accept what you're offering. Schools sometimes have “friends of” sales they may appreciate having your books and magazines to sell there as well.

We hope this information helps you. Again, we must emphasize that this is general information and does not cover all circumstances.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at tibooks@yahoo.com.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The United States Congress passed legislation in August 2008 against merchants and libraries selling or lending children's books published BEFORE 1985 because of POSSIBLE lead content in the inks used to print the books. Therefore, Treasure Island Books is selling such books as COLLECTOR'S ITEMS ONLY FOR ADULT USE ONLY. It is the BUYER'S responsibility to supervise the use of such books around children, and Treasure Island Books assumes no legal responsibility thereof.

Thank you for shopping Treasure Island Books!