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by dmtroyer 112 days ago
I’m convinced people pick these over to resell the books in some cities.
2 comments

I’m sure that happens but it may still be a net benefit. The original owner gets rid of a book they don’t need and don’t need money for, somebody who needs money takes the book and sells it, and somebody who wants the book buys it.

But some do seem to just have high turnover. When I moved away from a place in New Orleans I probably took about 100 books to one of these over the course of a month. Most of the time I’d come back a couple days later and find all the books I dropped gone—and entirely different (and not obviously inferior or cheaper) books in the library.

agreed, it is a net benefit, but maybe not the intention. I drop off books in these regularly that probably have decent resale value (relatively speaking) but very rarely find anything I am interested in reading.
The margins on used books aren't there to make this worth anyone's time.
Yet I still see someone scanning books with their phone to find the value most times I am in goodwill.
any idea what app they were using? I want an app to scan a bookshelf for books I want or may want to read.