We Love Your Old Books (and Vinyl)
Here are our guidelines for donating them.
First, a big thank you!
We are a mission-driven business seeking to find new homes for old books and make them accessible to our customers at affordable prices. We are very grateful to our community for helping us accomplish this goal by donating thousands of books since our store opened over two years ago!
Most of the pre-loved books and records in our store are donated. We are NOT a nonprofit, so we can’t give you a tax receipt, but we will give you store credit for pre-loved books and vinyl records as a thank you for your donation.
If you have books to donate, please email us at janet@hvbooksforhumanity.com and follow the guidelines below.
Book Donation Guidelines
Quantity Limit and Book Selection Process:
We accept 40 books or less per donation at the store.
Please email some sample photos of your book stacks before dropping them off so we can assess if they are books we currently need. Send email to janet@hvbooksforhumanity.com, and we’ll respond promptly.
We welcome most book categories but not all (see below for books we DO or DON’T accept). Contemporary fiction is our bestselling category.
Due to storage space issues, we usually can’t take all books offered, but we will give you store credit for all the books we can take.
Home Visits
For larger book collections or moving/estate sale donations, we are sometimes able to make home visits. Please send sample photos of your collection so that we can assess if you have books we currently need (bookshelf or book stack photos are fine; individual book photos not required). We don’t take pre-packed boxes without seeing the books, and we are typically able to take only a percentage of large home book collections. But we do give store credit for all books we take and we can provide recommendations for ways to donate the remainder of the books.
Book Condition Requested: Very Good
We stock books that are in very good condition. We can't accept books with any of the following issues because we are unable to sell them:
no moisture damage, mold, or mildew
no excessive dirt or dust
no stained, yellowed, or torn pages or covers
no broken bindings or missing book jackets
no highlighting or underlining, or heavy wear of any kind
Book Categories we DO AND DON’T ACCEPT:
We DO ACCEPT and welcome the following book categories: Children’s Books and Young Adult Books, Biographies and Memoirs, Business Books, Cookbooks, Fiction (our bestselling category and the books we need the most), Foreign Language Books (especially books in Spanish), Graphic Novels and Manga, History and Politics, Home and Garden, Hudson Valley History and Culture, Music and Dance, Mysteries, Parenting, Philosophy and Ethics, Photography and Art, Poetry and Essays, Psychology and Sociology, Race and Gender, Religion and Spirituality, Self-Help and Personal Growth, Science and Nature, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Travel, Theater and Film, Vintage Paperbacks, and Rare and Collectible Books.
We DON’T ACCEPT the following categories due to being overstocked: Sports Books, Health and Diet Books, Thrillers in hardcover (we DO take paperback thrillers) .
Other Books we DON'T ACCEPT (because they are hard to sell)
Textbooks and Library Books
Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Study Guides (we DO accept Foreign Language and ESL Dictionaries and Study Guides).
Outdated Reference Books, Professional Books and Technology Books
Reader’s Digest Books and Time-Life Books
Books in poor condition (see "condition requested" guidelines above)
Other Donations we DO ACCEPT:
Vinyl Records (Good+ condition, no water or mold damage, currently no classical)
Puzzles and Games (Good+ condition, all pieces intact)
An Invitation to Come and Shop
We are SO grateful to all our book donors, and we welcome you to come back to the store and become book shoppers (don't forget to bring the store credit book coupons you’ll receive for donating!). The more books we sell, the more room we'll have for future donations!