Are encyclopedias worth anything?

[big A]

I'm trying to help clean my mother in-laws house with the recent passing of her husband.
They have an entire wall in the living room with book shelves and included would be not less than four, probably never opened full sets of encyclopedias. Such as popular mechanics and others.
I want to just get to work and take them to value village and if they don't want them, then I will carry on my way to the dump.
Now the siblings won't let me do that because they say they are worth three or four hundred each.
Now I can see some on kijiji for a few hundred but that doesn't mean they are selling.
Does anyone have any proper knowledge on this topic.

[D'z Nutz]

I really doubt they're worth anything, but I'd call around some schools and see if they'll accept the donation. Failing that, put up a "free for pick up" post on Kijiji and I'll guarantee some Asian guy will come get them.

[FixedGear]

They're worth more as fuel than they are as books.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by big A

Now the siblings won't let me do that because they say they are worth three or four hundred each.
Now I can see some on kijiji for a few hundred but that doesn't mean they are selling.


Have your siblings never heard of the internet? They're for decorative purposes only now, but I could definitely see them selling for at least $100 a set. I would probably buy one for that.

[dirtsniffer]

I'd probably take the mechanics ones for $100

Edit.. Looks like you can buy the set on abebooks for $50 US.

[big A]

I will take pics and let you know what is there.

[dirtsniffer]

Sounds good.

[CanmoreOrLess]

I was in a used book store on the corner of 14th Street SW and 17th Ave. Can't recall the name. They had a set for sale. I'd use them as a quick and cheap way to turn my desk into a stand up desk.

[revelations]

Ebay is great to see what the market is willing to pay for something odd like this.

eg, years ago I put up an old 80s Casio wrist watch (broken) on ebay and the bidding got to almost 50$ before I managed to completely break the watch (facepalm).... after I closed the auction and informed the bidders I still had people asking me about it weeks after .....

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Cos]

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[botox]

Do an advanced search on ebay for sold listings and you'll see what they actually sold for. I would make sure you look for sealed ones like yours cause that can be a big price difference. If they aren't worth anything I would just start to ask around and someone might want them for decorative purposes.

[rookie101]

I tried to get rid of a set a couple years back for my parents and could not even get a used book store to take them for free.. Made for good campfire starter.
Markets and trends change a lot though, so they may be all the rage with the hipsters now, who knows.

[gogreen]

A friend got me a used set of the Popular Mechanics do-it-yourself books as a Christmas gift. While I'm sure the majority of the content can be found online, there's something to be said for the way the information is laid out in the books. On one page there's diagrams on how to add a room to your house, and on the next it's an article on building a speedboat out of plywood.

That being said I wouldn't expect them to be worth much, so in the event that you can't sell or give them away I believe you can remove the hard covers and recycle the paper.

[heavyfuel]

Originally posted by gogreen
A friend got me a used set of the Popular Mechanics do-it-yourself books as a Christmas gift. While I'm sure the majority of the content can be found online, there's something to be said for the way the information is laid out in the books. On one page there's diagrams on how to add a room to your house, and on the next it's an article on building a speedboat out of plywood.

That being said I wouldn't expect them to be worth much, so in the event that you can't sell or give them away I believe you can remove the hard covers and recycle the paper.

You don't even need to remove the hard covers, they're cardboard. Just throw them in your community green bins, I do it all the time if the load is too small to justify the trip to Capital Recycling.

[eglove]

The siblings are just trying to hold onto to part of the past from their dad. They aren't worth anything in this day and age. Just recycle them or donate them if anyone will take them

[CLiVE]

Google encyclopedia carvings. lol. :dunno:

http://api.ning.com/files/DtcI2O2Ry7DFHzklQDzcP8DiqJyRbmUTcKUFPskIrbiLfIIYIpqn1iDTDmB-am2F4PiB*nt3RQvZbJ0pTUvrqKOHbu9NNH-9/1082138127.jpeg

[CLiVE]

Originally posted by heavyfuel


You don't even need to remove the hard covers, they're cardboard. Just throw them in your community green bins, I do it all the time if the load is too small to justify the trip to Capital Recycling.

Have to remove the covers and spine. Easy to cut off.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Not since the internet.

[flipstah]

Mine are just at home collecting dust. It's pretty sweet to look at once in a while.

[Black Gts]

Why does anything have to be removed? Am I a terrible person, when it doubt it goes on the blue bin if they recycle it great of not it goes trash anyways

[gogreen]

I was just going off the information from the City of Calgary's waste and recycling site:

http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/What-goes-where/Paper-Hardcover-books.aspx?DCSext.w_wgw=aToZ

I was looking into it recently as my wife has a bunch of outdated textbooks to get rid of, and other sites suggest it's the glue in the spines that makes them non-recyclable.

You can search for other common items in the main index here: http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/What-goes-where/Default.aspx

[CLiVE]

Originally posted by gogreen
I was just going off the information from the City of Calgary's waste and recycling site:

http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/What-goes-where/Paper-Hardcover-books.aspx?DCSext.w_wgw=aToZ

I was looking into it recently as my wife has a bunch of outdated textbooks to get rid of, and other sites suggest it's the glue in the spines that makes them non-recyclable.

You can search for other common items in the main index here: http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/What-goes-where/Default.aspx

Same. We had a bunch of old text books to get rid of. Easy to separate the covers, exacto knife to the inside of each cover and it will separate, then rip the spine off.

[gogreen]

Cool. Haven't attempted it yet but it sounds therapeutic. :)

[msommers]

Not worth anything unless someone wants them for aesthetics. Information wise, Encarta is probably more up-to-date

[heavyfuel]

Originally posted by CLiVE


Same. We had a bunch of old text books to get rid of. Easy to separate the covers, exacto knife to the inside of each cover and it will separate, then rip the spine off.

I have dumped entire truckloads of hard cover books from estate clean outs and the like of which, at Capital Paper recycling and never a peep about glue not making it recyclable. All that is, is city hall red tape formalities bullshit trickling down to us.

Trust me- the ripping spines off thing, is so if you should show up at a landfill rather than your community bin, they can flag your load and charge you the full-garbage rate.

[CLiVE]

Originally posted by gogreen
Cool. Haven't attempted it yet but it sounds therapeutic. :)

Especially for old text books...

[gogreen]

Originally posted by heavyfuel


I have dumped entire truckloads of hard cover books from estate clean outs and the like of which, at Capital Paper recycling and never a peep about glue not making it recyclable. All that is, is city hall red tape formalities bullshit trickling down to us.

Trust me- the ripping spines off thing, is so if you should show up at a landfill rather than your community bin, they can flag your load and charge you the full-garbage rate.

Interesting, it doesn't say anything about the spines on the Capital Paper website either, though it does specifically state that hardcovers and encyclopedias are accepted. Good to know.

It could be due to the way the mixed blue bin loads are sorted and processed at the City recycling centre. There's a video that shows parts of the automated sorting on the CoC website. It states that loose paper and newsprint is identified by an optical scanner and separated from the line by a blast of air, but it doesn't say what happens to bound hardcovers. I honestly don't know if they just end up in the landfill or if they take the time to manually sort them into the paper bins afterwards.

You may be right on the garbage rates though. They also say that sod can't be composted but that's not entirely true either.