When I wrote a post on Friday asking you to share your spending weaknesses, I was surprised at how many of you are book-a-holics like me. It seems I’m not the only one who had piles of books lying around, begging to be read, but never picked up. So what does one do with all the extra books? Fortunately there are many options.

eBay

eBay is probably the best option if you have a lot of popular books in the same genre. It’s easy to sell books in a lot of 5, 10, or even more, as long as the subject matter is in demand. And shipping books via media mail is really economical, so the shipping prices don’t impact the bidding too much. Just make sure you take good pictures and provide accurate descriptions, payment terms, and return policies.

Half.com

eBay’s Half.com is one of my favorite ways to unload books. It’s easy to list books on half.com. You just enter the ISBN number, list the condition of the book and any description (such as “a few pages are dog-eared”), pick a selling price, and you’re good to go. You’ll get an email when someone buys your book, and you have 3 business days to mark the book as shipped. Half.com pays you twice a month by transferring money into your bank account. It’s convenient and easy. It works really well if you don’t mind storing your books for a long time while you wait for them to sell.

Amazon

This is a method I’ve never used, but I hear it’s similar to selling on half.com. You list your books, the condition, and the price. When someone buys a book, you ship it, and Amazon pays you.

Cash4Books and Blue Rectangle

These are great options if you have a lot of books to get rid of in a hurry. I sold one batch of books on Cash4Books.net and another batch on Blue Rectangle last week, when I did my book purge. Since both of these sites buy books for reselling, you won’t get a top notch price for your books, and there are a lot of books that they just won’t take. However, if you have a lot of books that you want to get out of your house, it doesn’t hurt to run the ISBN numbers through each of these sites to see if you can make a little cash.

When you sell your books to either Cash4Books.net or Blue Rectangle, they will give you a postage paid mailing label to put on your box, so you don’t even have to worry about postage reimbursement. Once they receive your shipment, they pay you via Paypal or check in the mail.

Craigslist

There’s always the possibility that you can sell your books on Craigslist by putting up an ad for a box of books for sale. You can stipulate that the buyer must take them all. I’ve never tried this, but I’ve seen the ads on Craigslist. If you don’t mind putting up an ad and dealing with the massive amount of email that Craigslist can generate, it’s a good way to make a few bucks.

Donate

If you can’t get rid of your books any other way, or you don’t want to deal with storing them while you wait for them to sell, donating your books to a charity is a great option. Just make sure you keep a detailed record of your donation, so you can get a tax break.

Do you have anything to add to the list? Any experience with selling on half.com or Amazon? How do you get rid of your books? Please share your experience and advice in the comments.