I love having books and love having them on display. I feel surrounded by the characters and the covers mean a lot to me. But something most of us don’t think about is the longer term implications of collecting books.
I see posts on Instagram all the time of people with absolutely enormous libraries with thousands and thousands of books – many which are hard cover. And sure, they are gorgeous for the ‘gram and are gorgeous to look at, but what about long term?
I’m coming from a place with this post as someone who is cleaning up and tidying after the passing of a family member who was a massive book lover. So these are things I’ve realized recently that make me pause before I buy a ton of books. It’s not something we want to think about, but it’s a reality that we have to consider. And it isn’t even about death, but about the reality of a ton of books!
Books depreciate in value most of the time.
Like a car, the moment you purchase a book it is going to depreciate in value. Very rarely will a book be re-sold for the same price or more than you purchased it for. And those hard cover special editions of books that you know are not going to be popular in 20 years…yeah they won’t be worth much. Books are not an investment strategy and while not everything is about investments and a return, it’s something to be aware. When many have access to free books through a library, purchasing books is a massive expense. I’m a big fan of second hand as at least then you can own the book but you didn’t have to pay the crazy new price. It’s just pre-loved!
And god forbid there is a natural disaster which is becoming more common – fires, floods, hurricanes – once those books are gone so is all your spending. And while buying books is certainly not about a financial investment at all, in a time where many people are struggling to make ends meet and live life, yet choose to spend hundreds and hundreds on books, that may not be the best option when there are libraries out there (going to do another post on this soon).
Example of some of the books that we have, but not all!
They take up a ton of space and are difficult to move!
For those of you with lots of books, you know how much space they take up. But if you have to downsize or move, they take up a ton of room. They can massively up your moving costs if that ever happens just naturally in your life or because of a situation. One box of books is a lot more difficult to move than you realize and with books being weird sizes, they are very challenging to pack and move. We all like to think we won’t ever move but the reality is, most people will have to move in their life. And the extra space for the books means a larger house needed, storage units and increased moving costs.
Getting rid of books is hard!
It is incredibly surprising how difficult it is to get rid of books! People always say just donate them, but it’s increasingly difficult to do so. Donation locations don’t want books or are limiting how many you can bring due to space and they can’t sell them. Libraries only take so many books and only in certain qualities so that they can resell them.
I even tried to sell my books for a $1 a book and that barely shifted the books at all. And then when I did it as free pickup it was still limited and a constant struggle! Others only have so much space so they can only take so much.
Then you have to throw what is left away. Which means throwing away money that was spent. Not to mention having to get them somewhere to throw them away, paying for a dumpster/skip to get rid of them, and physically moving books to
Now if you’re like me, someone who also is collecting a small amount of books, adding all of these books to my collection is impossible. Not to mention I don’t have the storage space to take a lot of them, or the energy to. consistently dust that many books.
You cannot feel guilty having to get rid of this many books. It more hurts me throwing away the money for books that were maybe read once. We have a book that was bought for $250. We’d be lucky to get $50 for it now and that’s on the off chance. Most likely I could sell it for free or have to just get rid of it. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars of books here and besides the ones I am keeping that I can read and will enjoy and have sentimental value, they are worthless unfortunately, and that is just the reality.
I see all these people on Instagram with massive rooms filled with books, and sure, buy those books. We don’t have to think about time after we move on and someone else has to deal with it. But it is something to keep in the back of your mind as it’s not just about when you pass on, but also applies to moving, downsizing and just general maintenance in life. So buy those books that you really want, but be smart about it.
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