What happens to your books
The short version is that they get a second life. The longer version is below, because most sites in this business are vague about this on purpose and we would rather just tell you.
The short version
We are book resellers. Your books are sorted by hand, the ones with a buyer waiting are listed and sold online, and everything else is sent wherever it will do the most good: our $1 community book sale, Little Free Libraries, children's wards and Friends of the Library bookstores.
That last part is the commercial engine. MaxX Multi Media is a business rather than a registered charity, so books given to us are not tax deductible and we cannot issue a donation receipt. Reselling what has resale value is precisely what pays for the truck, the fuel and the hours, and it is why the pickup costs you nothing. If a tax deduction is what you need, your library's Friends group is the better route and we will gladly give you a name.
Step by step
Everything is sorted by hand
Each box is opened and gone through. This is the slow part and it is where the value is.
We resell what has resale value
Books, discs and games with a real market are cleaned up, described honestly and listed for sale online. This is the commercial side of the business and we are not coy about it: it is what pays for the truck, and it is the reason the pickup is free to you.
Some items go into the MaxX Book Bonanza
Plenty of perfectly good books are not worth listing individually online. Those go on the tables at our monthly $1 sale, which is how a lot of local readers end up with them. That sale raises money for South Holiday Library and the Clearwater Library System.
The rest goes out into the community
This is the part we are proudest of, and it is where a lot of your books end up. We work with a number of local groups and initiatives:
- Groups that stock Little Free Libraries, the little boxes on posts around Tampa Bay neighborhoods. They need a steady supply and we have one.
- Children's books for kids in hospitals, through groups who get them to the wards.
- Friends of the Library groups who ask us for donations to stock their own library bookstores and sales.
- Community groups who want to run their own book sale, who we host at our venue.
- Other local literacy and reading initiatives as they come to us.
If you run a group that could use books, or you want to hold a sale at our place, get in touch. That is a real offer, not a line of copy.
Why we work this way
MaxX Multi Media started on the library side. Our founder built the eBay store for East Lake Community Library as a volunteer, and Friends of the Library groups started asking for the same help. Today we work with more than twenty Florida library and Friends groups, selling their donated stock and splitting the proceeds with them.
Household pickups feed the same operation. The difference is simply that a Friends group has a revenue share agreement with us and an individual donor does not.