If you’re a collector of merch for all of your favorite book series, there are a number of place online or via apps to either destash some things you won’t be needing anymore or keep an eye out for things you’re hoping to get! Here are a few of the places I use to both buy and sell bookish items, collector’s editions, and things that can’t be sold in online stores!
OWLCRATE’S BUY/SELL/TRADE FACEBOOK GROUP
This is probably the largest community you’ll find to buy, sell, or trade bookish merch, and it doesn’t have to come directly from an Owlcrate box! I’m guessing Owlcrate created this community to swap or search for items from their own boxes but by now it’s this huge group where people post all kinds of things to sell or trade, including exclusive items from boxes, special editions of books, ARCs for trade, or really anything you can think of related to bookish merch! It doesn’t have to be exclusive items either. Want to unhaul some books? You can put those up for sale and see if anyone is interested!
Membership Required? Yes. It is through Facebook so you do have to have a Facebook account and you also need to request to join the group and be approved.
Special Rules? Yes, check out the rules once you’re approved to join the group! They’re pretty common sense, kind person type of rules but there are some other things to note when you’re selling items!
How to pay for things or get paid: PayPal only. For everyone’s protection, every transaction between buyers is to be made as PayPal Goods & Services.
Link to Join: OwlCrate Official B/S/T
BOOKISH ISO GROUP
If you’re trying to get more bookish items for your collections and you want to ask for something specifically, head on over to the Bookish ISO Group! While you may find what you’re looking for based on what someone is selling, this group allows you to post about what you want specifically so you can create your own post about what you’re in search of (ISO = in search of). This group is an off-shoot of the OwlCrate BST group when it got to be way too much having all of the ISO posts alongside the selling posts, so this is now its own dedicated group. They also try to limit the amount of spoilers in this group so if you do subscribe to a box, things are kept a little hush-hush for a few days until people start to get their boxes so you won’t get constantly spoiled by being a part of the group.
Membership Required? Yes. It is through Facebook so you do have to have a Facebook account and you also need to request to join the group and be approved.
Special Rules? Yes, check out the rules once you’re approved to join the group! They’re pretty common sense, kind person type of rules but there are some other things to note when you’re selling items!
How to pay for things or get paid: PayPal only. For everyone’s protection, every transaction between buyers is to be made as PayPal Goods & Services.
Link to Join: Bookish ISO Group
MERCARI
Mercari is a selling app where people can go on to sell whatever goods they’re looking to get rid of! This app isn’t book-specific so you can find tons of other things on here too but there’s a good little niche of people who post a lot of special editions and book box merch. It’s a little bit easier sometimes than having to create a PayPal invoice for someone or make a huge list of items for the Facebook groups, or it’s a nice way to sell and look for things if you don’t have a Facebook account or don’t want one.
Since it is an app and service, Mercari does take a 10% fee out of anything you sell, but they take it right off the top before you get paid and they let you know how much money you stand to make out of what you’re selling. You do need to take at least one photo for the listing and go through their standard categories and questions when listing.
Unlike Facebook Marketplace, Mercari is a shipping-only website/app so anything you sell or buy will be shipped — no face-to-face encounters. You can choose to set your own shipping rates (including free shipping) or use Mercari’s labels to select a price automatically.
Membership Required? Yes, you have to sign up for Mercari’s service and you do have to do most of the transactions through the mobile app.
Special Rules? All items must be shipped (I’m sure you could get around this if you REALLY wanted to meet someone in person), Mercari takes a 10% cut, special rules that usually apply for selling groups (no harmful items, no illegal items etc) but you’re also not allowed to sell food/drink so no bookish teas or coffees on here! You’re also allowed to make special offers on items, the seller can offer discounts or “promote” items at a lower price, or you can message to see if someone’s willing to budge on a price.
How to pay for things or get paid: PayPal or credit/debit card. In order to receive your funds from when you sell something, the buyer must first receive the item and then rate you. Once the funds hit your account, you can transfer to a bank account or use that cash to buy something else on the app!
ABEBOOKS
AbeBooks is an online bookstore, similar to Amazon’s used copies. AbeBooks allows booksellers and stores to cross-post their books onto the website as a middle-man to get their books out to buyers so you’ll see companies from all over the world sell here. You can purchase books from other countries and other versions, so there are a lot of foreign editions to choose from too if you’re a collector! Some prices can be steep but sometimes you’ll find a good deal or an edition you’ve been waiting for and want to shell out the money in order to grab it. I wouldn’t really say this is the best place to sell your books, more so seek out some editions from stores across the world.
Membership Required? You can sign up for an account. I don’t know if they make you when you check out but it doesn’t cost you anything to do so.
Special Rules? Not really! Just standard buying and selling practices when purchasing from a website. Make sure you check their policies on how things get handled if the company doesn’t ship a book or it gets lost in transit! Overseas purchases can be tricky.
How to pay for things or get paid: PayPal or credit/debit card
LITTLE FREE LIBRARY
The Little Free Library program is all over the WORLD! This is a better option if you’re just looking to unhaul books and get rid of them, not looking to profit or anything but you may get a trade out of it! Little Free Library, if you haven’t seen or heard of it before, is pretty much what it sounds like! Someone creates a little structure outside of a home/business/park/wherever that officially associates with Little Free Library. It looks like a little house or building and has doors to open and close to keep the books inside safe. Anyone, anytime, anywhere is free to drop off books to donate or take some in return! You just have to find one on their map to see what’s closest to you. This is really only for books, but books of any kind! Merch buyers or sellers would need to seek other options.
Membership Required? Nope! Just find a Little Free Library near you and drop off or peruse some of their items. If you’re looking to set up a Little Free Library of your own, you may want to check out their website. The libraries themselves may have some guidelines!
Special Rules? Not that I know of! Just pick up or drop off. I would say some common courtesy applies, like don’t take ALL of the books in the LFL when you’re taking one…
How to pay for things or get paid: No payment necessary!
OTHER IDEAS
There are still tons of other ideas on where to get rid of some books/merch or how to get more. Here are just a few more places and ideas!
- Used Bookstore
- eBay (for items that have monetary value only. please don’t sell ARCs here)
- Facebook Marketplace outside of the above Facebook groups
- Other Facebook groups that have B/S/T options like Illumicrate BST, The Fairyloot Club, ARC Trades Only, Biblophile’s B/S/T, Buy/Sell/Trade YA Books
- Donate to a local library or local teacher/school (check in with them first! Libraries and schools are not always accepting donations)
- Thrift store (this can include merch too!)
- Garage sale
