A torn or missing dust jacket, water or insect damage, missing or torn pages, severe foxing and/or toning, and underlining are just a few of the things that can take a book from fairly valuable to utterly worthless. If you’re selling us trade paperbacks, they’re not worth much to start with. Throw in some condition issues and save yourself a trip: just throw the books away.

7. Our Needs Change From Day to Day

And sometimes from hour to hour. If we just bought 7 volumes of To Kill a Mockingbird, we’re probably not going to take yours. Other factors may include how much shelf space we have at a given time, what our budget is, and how fast we can sell what you have. A well-rounded store will be stocked with the classics of literature, but the truth is some classic works sell better than others. Hawthorne does not sell as well as Salinger and Orwell sells better than them both. It’s just the way it is. So if we turn away your copy of The Scarlet Letter, it’s because we already have 5 copies that haven’t sold in 3 years.

8. We Don’t Want Your Encyclopedias & Neither Does Anyone Else

With the rise of the internet, encyclopedias became superfluous. With anything you could possibly think to ask being only a casual google search away, no one needs a 20 volume set of books taking up massive amounts of space. We can’t sell them and neither can any other bookstore. Donate them or fob them off on a young niece or nephew as a graduation present.