We do more than sell books!
We salvage them!

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Volunteers travel to schools buying used textbooks and hauling away unwanted library books. They accept everything, even sample kits of curriculum materials that publishers send to schools. At the warehouse the items are sorted. Textbooks that can be re-sold to publishers are warehoused, and other textbooks, library books and educational resources are shelved and sold on-site.          Every Booksaver book makes a profit in some way. Those that don't sell are cut up and the paper baled for recycling. Only the covers go to waste, although staff are exploring ways to recycle those too.         Booksavers was started in 1996 when Leo Martin, resource coordinator for MCC's East Coast programs, encouraged a local MCC thrift shop to begin the operation. We first opened shop in the basement of a Hagerstown Ten Thousand Villages store. Martin recalls, " I still remember bringing in those first loads of books and saying,'Now what do we do?".

Along the way we figured it out, sometimes by trial and error. Those first car-loads of books have grown to trailer loads. We also found ways to maximize sales. At first we set out unsorted boxes of books and let people dig through them. After seeing book collectors leave with arm loads of books, we started to sort and categorize them. We learned from customers and internet research which books are valuable. We now post those books for sale on the internet. Booksavers now advertises more than 16,000 titles on the American Book Exchange Web site at <www.abebooks.com>.             In addition to full time staff, as many as 25 enthusiastic volunteers help keep Booksavers running.