In ten years Robert Ticehurst has built a rapidly growing business because people have fed perhaps millions of used books in his ubiquitous gray bins with purple and yellow signs asking, "Got Books?"

Donate: from the Latin donare, donum, gift. To give to a fund or cause. Contribute.



- from The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition

In ten years Robert Ticehurst has built a rapidly growing business because people have fed perhaps millions of used books in his ubiquitous gray bins with purple and yellow signs asking, "Got Books?"

Since first selling used books from the basement of his parents' home, the 32-year-old ex-Marine and former accountant has opened five thriving used-book stores - three in Massachusetts and two in New Hampshire - employs 80 people, does a booming Internet business and donates to scores of charities.

On a gray Wednesday morning about 20 customers browsed through his bright, spacious Used Book Superstore in a Burlington plaza where all the estimated 100,000 volumes sell for $2.99 or less. A careful browser could find best sellers and nearly current trade paperbacks at 20 percent or less the price of major chains. Several bins held used DVDs from current blockbusters like "Pirates of the Caribbean" to black-and-white classics like Bette Davis in "Now, Voyager" and current and classic CDs, all under $4.

Ticehurst has been scouting MetroWest locations and hopes to open a Used Book Superstore in Marlborough, Natick or Framingham perhaps within a year.

Outside the Burlington store a large white window sign reads: "Donate Your Books Here." In the center of Got Books home page, a yellow and purple boxed statement asks: "Want to Donate Books? There are three easy ways."

A "Recent News" segment on the homepage states donated books will support YMCAs in Methuen and Merrimack, N.H., schools in Hull and Carver, Plymouth residents serving overseas in the military.

His frequent and visible use of words like "donate" and "charity" are why some people in the used and antiquarian book business and local library groups regard Ticehurst with the same displeasure they normally reserve for book worms that bore through treasured volumes.

For Nancy Haines, who co-owns Vintage Books in Hopkinton with her husband David, Ticehurst is receiving huge amounts of free books from well-intentioned people misled by the word "donate."

"It's probably legal. But I think people donate believing they're giving to a charity," he said. Haines, who stocks about 35,000 volumes of mostly out-of-print books, including the world's largest collection of books and pamphlets of rare Quakeriana, said virtually all book stores donate to charities, churches, senior centers or veterans groups because they've part of the same community.

"To me, what (Got Books) does is false advertising. People see the bins at high schools or churches and think they're donating to a charity. But they're donating to a for-profit business. If you're going to donate books, I suggest giving them to Salvation Army or your local library," she said.

Betty Ann Sharp, who owns Bearly Read Books in Sudbury with her husband, said, "There's certainly a place for Got Books because lots of people have books they need to get rid of" that antiquarian stores won't pick up.

But she shared Haines' view Ticehurst's use of "donate" is "somewhat misleading."

"We donate to Good Will, doctors' offices, yards sales. We've given gift certificates to military personnel and sent books to the women's prison and nursing homes," said Sharp. "If I didn't have to pay for my books, I think I'd be more than breaking even. I'd be happy if people donated books I could sell."

Yet, like several others, Sharp doesn't claim Ticehurst has broken any laws - except perhaps the outdated code of collegial respect once shared by book-lovers.

"I'd run my business in a more up-front way. The way (Ticehurst) does things can lead to misconceptions about what his business is. I can't live by being defined by someone else. If he wants to be defined as a charitable organization, that's his business. But it's definitely a business," she said.

Mary Whalen, past president of Friends of the Wellesley Free Library, said she has "no problem with people selling books."

Like several others, her problem is Got Books peppers its self-promotions with words and phrases such as "donate" and, on its website, "community involvement" and "books for troops" that "have the implication you're giving to a charity."

Whalen said when people donate to the Wellesley library or any library they receive receipts that can be used for tax deductions and "the full value of the donated book" goes into library programs and activities.

"His book sales go right into his pocket. There's nothing illegal," she said. "But in a master way, (Ticehurst) gets people to donate to his bottom line and it's making him rich."

Ticehurst rejected all their claims as based on misunderstandings about his business and the breadth of its charitable contributions.

He said he's "absolutely comfortable" there's nothing deceptive about the way he uses the word "donate."

Ticehurst said that over the past several years "95 percent of our revenue has gone to nonprofits we work with or our expenses."

"Virtually everyone is befitting," he said.

Ticehurst said Got Books "never called itself a nonprofit."

"People think we get books for free and sell them. Nothing could be further from the truth. When people put a book in one of our containers, we're paying for them whether it's through our employees' salaries, our expenses or our charitable contributions," he said.

He said Got Books had purchased a $63,000, 15-passenger van for the Lowell-based organization Retarded Adult Rehabilitation Association, often called RARA, and had raised money for "over 300 groups."

Ticehurst may be referring to Got Book's 360 signature used-book bins distributed throughout the area. In Framingham, for example, bins can be found in the town Recycling Center and parking lots of the Hemenway and Brophy schools. In Marlborough, they can be found in the Marlborough Recycling Center, First United Methodist Church of Marlborough and Marlborough Middle School.

When a school, church, or business allows a Got Books bin on their property, Ticehurst said they typically receive about four cents for every pound of books donated at that site, which he said averages to more than $1,000 a site. Lots of donated material, such as computer manuals, can't be resold and is recycled.

Ticehurst said he founded and serves as CEO of two businesses, Got Books and Used Book Superstores, which divide the collecting, sales and charitable activities.

"I don't think we're hurting independent booksellers," Ticehurst said. "They have the same opportunities and challenges we have. Right now, we're still growing."